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Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Don't You Just Love Australians?
A friend took this on a recent trip to Australia. It's a sign for a chain of burger restaurants. Imagine the outcry if they opened here.
I had the great pleasure of living in Melbourne for a few years. One of the earliest eye-popping moments for me was a government backed national campaign against drink driving with the tag line:
"If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot!"
There was an establishment of the same name in Royston Vasey in the League of Gentlemen Series 2.
Sacked dole office fiend Pauline Campbell-Jones (a Labour harridan if there ever was one!) and professional layabout Mickey ended up working there, squeezing a spot on Mickey's backside as extra "mustard" onto a burger as a revenge trick.
At the risk of spoiling everyones fun, may I suggest that this insidious debasement of our language and culture is deplorable. It extends the dumbing down and lout culture which has been served so well by the long running FCUK brigade. Not funny, not clever. Now I stand ready for all the sense-of-humour-failure, get-into-proportion, get-a-life abuse.
Calm down Seebag. The anglo saxon use of profanity is not a new thing, The UK mastered the art of swearing centuries ago. I agree there's a time and a place for it but there's nothing quite like letting rip and turning the air blue when the moment takes you. Is bloody really that offensive? Not exactly dropping the C-bomb on someone, is it? Mind you, my best friend calls me that all the time, but with affection.
Uncle Bob - I agree about time and place, and utter profanities myself. What I don't want is it pushed at me on every other High Street. Nor do I want an increasingly ageing population constantly offended wherever they go, even if their norms and standards are now considered a bit outdated.
When it comes to words, offense is in the eye of the beholder. It would be a most tedious world if we had to take into account the delicate sensibilities of everyone who feels the world exists to satisfy their mores alone.
> Obsidian of course level of offence is subjective, and it would be unreasonably selfish, not to say impractical, to expect one persons standards to be met in all cases. All of that is not a case for anything and everything goes. At the end of the day it's about self-respect and respecting others. There's a difficult line to tread re respect in a general sense ie for the public - all I'm suggesting is that line is sometimes crossed.
Just to take the vulgarity a bit further, in Frankfurt there's an 'Ann Summers' type shop which from a distance appears to be called Insider.
If you look closely there is a small h before the e.
It's just off the main shopping street too. I don't think they'd allow that here, even in Soho. But our German cousins have a very different attitude to such matters, as Iain will know.
The paradox is that whikle Australians are relatively relaxed about this kind of stuff, dayu to day life there is increasingly beset by the kind of trivial ordinances and bylaws that would make the most petty NuLab type annoyed.
For example, at the cricket, Mexican waves and throwing huge inflatable beach balls are banned under 'health and safety'
@TheAgeOfDObama, yes true. You do seem to need a licence to park your breakfast in the morning and elfin safety bans lots of trivial activities like Mexican waves. Before an AFL game last year in which Buddy Franklin was expected to kick his 100th goal of the season the H&S nazis threatened to fine anyone involved in the traditional congratulatory pitch invasion $5000. Happily regular Aussies don't care - the last time I was at the MCG (footy rather than cricket) the outlawed Mexican waves were energetic enough for it to rain beer and loud enough to drown out the voice on the PA telling the crowd to stop it, and hundreds ran on to the field when Buddy Franklin kicked his 100th.
State and federal governments may well be a bigger pain in the neck and even more bureaucracy obsessed than the UK, but ordinary Australians are far more inclined than Brits to stick two fingers up and ignore it all when it doesn't suit them.
If they open in Britain, what they will get will be sufficient free publicity to drive MacDonalds and Burger King (let alone Wimpys) out of the country.
There was a woman on a cruise ship, standing outside the door of the Ladies, hopping up nad down. The Purser went up to her and asked what woas wrong. She replied that she desperately needed to use the toilet, but didn't have a coin to put in the slot. "Could you lend me a coin and I'll give it back to you later?" she asked. "Madam", replied the Purser, "This is Cunard, not P&O".
Always admire Aussi humour; never a dull moment...
BTW Iain, there's a shop you probably know on the way to Southborough, where I once famously remarked to Younger Daughter 'Why is that sign saying 'Snow Ear'?
A Labour politician gets up in Parliament and says:"Well, I speak as a Ccounrty member"
Conservative wag shouts outacross the floor: "Yes, we remember."
Here in Oz the words 'bugger' and 'buggery' are used quite often as general exclamatory terms or put downs, but never to refer to pooves or anal sex. So one might say :"It's as hot as buggery today" or "he's a silly bugger" without a thought of what buggery and bugger actually mean.
34 comments:
Burger-all?
I had the great pleasure of living in Melbourne for a few years. One of the earliest eye-popping moments for me was a government backed national campaign against drink driving with the tag line:
"If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot!"
Very honest!
and the recent tourist ad 'where the bloody hell are you'?
pulled i am sad to say by another of the hand wringing tissue tearing wimps who infest this country !
I was once given some hot chilli sauce as a present from a very clean-minded person.
Its' name being Arson Fire would have been completely lost on them.
There was an establishment of the same name in Royston Vasey in the League of Gentlemen Series 2.
Sacked dole office fiend Pauline Campbell-Jones (a Labour harridan if there ever was one!) and professional layabout Mickey ended up working there, squeezing a spot on Mickey's backside as extra "mustard" onto a burger as a revenge trick.
http://www.leagueofgentlemen.co.uk/newseriestour.shtml
At the risk of spoiling everyones fun, may I suggest that this insidious debasement of our language and culture is deplorable. It extends the dumbing down and lout culture which has been served so well by the long running FCUK brigade. Not funny, not clever. Now I stand ready for all the sense-of-humour-failure, get-into-proportion, get-a-life abuse.
seebag said... “I stand ready for all the sense-of-humour-failure, get-into-proportion, get-a-life abuse.”
You have a sense of humour failure, get it into proportion, get a life etc.
I’ve always liked the US road signs on freeway ramps which declare succinctly “Wrong Way”. So simple; so elegant; so direct.
Calm down Seebag. The anglo saxon use of profanity is not a new thing, The UK mastered the art of swearing centuries ago. I agree there's a time and a place for it but there's nothing quite like letting rip and turning the air blue when the moment takes you. Is bloody really that offensive? Not exactly dropping the C-bomb on someone, is it? Mind you, my best friend calls me that all the time, but with affection.
Stop being so repressed.
Uncle Bob - I agree about time and place, and utter profanities myself. What I don't want is it pushed at me on every other High Street. Nor do I want an increasingly ageing population constantly offended wherever they go, even if their norms and standards are now considered a bit outdated.
In a similar vein, there is (or at least used to be) a takeaway called "Burger Off" in Brisbane.
Less rude but equally to the point, I also quite liked "Gobble'n'Go" on the Gold Coast.
Sorry no pic to show, but in Northampton we've had some friction over a shop named 'Sofa King'.
Yes, you're all ahead of me ... our prices are 'Sofa King' low ... our furniture is 'Sofa King' good... etc., ad infinitum.
@seebag
When it comes to words, offense is in the eye of the beholder. It would be a most tedious world if we had to take into account the delicate sensibilities of everyone who feels the world exists to satisfy their mores alone.
I remember seeing an hairdressing establishment in Nottingham bearing the sign "Public Hair".
> Obsidian
of course level of offence is subjective, and it would be unreasonably selfish, not to say impractical, to expect one persons standards to be met in all cases. All of that is not a case for anything and everything goes. At the end of the day it's about self-respect and respecting others. There's a difficult line to tread re respect in a general sense ie for the public - all I'm suggesting is that line is sometimes crossed.
Just to take the vulgarity a bit further, in Frankfurt there's an 'Ann Summers' type shop which from a distance appears to be called Insider.
If you look closely there is a small h before the e.
It's just off the main shopping street too. I don't think they'd allow that here, even in Soho. But our German cousins have a very different attitude to such matters, as Iain will know.
The paradox is that whikle Australians are relatively relaxed about this kind of stuff, dayu to day life there is increasingly beset by the kind of trivial ordinances and bylaws that would make the most petty NuLab type annoyed.
For example, at the cricket, Mexican waves and throwing huge inflatable beach balls are banned under 'health and safety'
FCUK!
Don't you just love the Aussies?!
@TheAgeOfDObama, yes true. You do seem to need a licence to park your breakfast in the morning and elfin safety bans lots of trivial activities like Mexican waves. Before an AFL game last year in which Buddy Franklin was expected to kick his 100th goal of the season the H&S nazis threatened to fine anyone involved in the traditional congratulatory pitch invasion $5000. Happily regular Aussies don't care - the last time I was at the MCG (footy rather than cricket) the outlawed Mexican waves were energetic enough for it to rain beer and loud enough to drown out the voice on the PA telling the crowd to stop it, and hundreds ran on to the field when Buddy Franklin kicked his 100th.
State and federal governments may well be a bigger pain in the neck and even more bureaucracy obsessed than the UK, but ordinary Australians are far more inclined than Brits to stick two fingers up and ignore it all when it doesn't suit them.
"If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot!"
Very honest!
I seem to recall a UK tv spot involving Denis Leary and a somewhat stronger epithet.
you like that, you might like this!
Start ya Bastard! Engine treatment
If they open in Britain, what they will get will be sufficient free publicity to drive MacDonalds and Burger King (let alone Wimpys) out of the country.
My Uncle, a merchant seaman, worked for Cunard but he said the pay and holidays made up for it.
I really can't imagine any outcry anymore. Have you seen what people have on their T shirts these days?
Imagine the outcry if they opened here.
Yeah, the pooves would be up in arms! :o>
The cunard post reminds me of an old joke:
There was a woman on a cruise ship, standing outside the door of the Ladies, hopping up nad down. The Purser went up to her and asked what woas wrong. She replied that she desperately needed to use the toilet, but didn't have a coin to put in the slot. "Could you lend me a coin and I'll give it back to you later?" she asked.
"Madam", replied the Purser, "This is Cunard, not P&O".
Aussies are great, but I couldn't eat a whole one.
Always admire Aussi humour; never a dull moment...
BTW Iain, there's a shop you probably know on the way to Southborough, where I once famously remarked to Younger Daughter 'Why is that sign saying 'Snow Ear'?
It's a shop selling ski clothes...
Spluttered dashboard from YD...
Fancy a burger, Iain?
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
THE NHS IS PAYING THE PRICE FOR POLITICISATION!
There's a chain of French sports shoe shops called "Athlete's Foot"
Is it even for real? Joy
My Uncle, a merchant seaman, worked for Cunard but he said the pay and holidays made up for it.
You would not believe how long it took me to explain this joke to my colleagues at work.
Also, there's a shop in Herefordshire called "Betty Swallox Country Store" in the village of Wellington.
Best Australian joke:
A Labour politician gets up in Parliament and says:"Well, I speak as a Ccounrty member"
Conservative wag shouts outacross the floor: "Yes, we remember."
Here in Oz the words 'bugger' and 'buggery' are used quite often as general exclamatory terms or put downs, but never to refer to pooves or anal sex. So one might say :"It's as hot as buggery today" or "he's a silly bugger" without a thought of what buggery and bugger actually mean.
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