The phrase that the Grape really hates at the moment is the American saying “Back in the day” ….what the hell are they talking about? What day? Man!
This got me thinking about a phrase that I’ve come to hate: “I could care less”…
I mean, what it communicates is, “I really don’t care at all”, but what it’s actually saying is, “I care, at least a little bit.”
Damn, that’s annoying!
Schmoo unk unk.
I can’t stand the rediculous “My bad”.
My bad what? My bad attempt at trying to string a sentence together? My bad attempt at grammar? Is it a completely botched attempt at reciting a Michael Jackson lyric?
Why can’t people simply use words like misunderstood or sorry or I apologise? What’s with this inane bastardisation of the English language with American kitsch-speak?
I blame Rap, with the silent ‘C’.
Yes, Racp has much to answer for - not the least of which is Vanilla Ice, who really was crap (with the silent ‘Oh my God, how crap is he?’).
Much warmth,
Murray @ Midnight
Midnight and The Creature are just two cranky cranky old men! I loved Vanilla Ice - with his wheels of steel and his word to your mother. Uhuh. Oh yeah! And that crazy line dance he and his blood perform in his video clip - arms angled up, palms out with the MC Hammer inspired parachute pants and the white hair tips. Busta’ cap with his 9 dude.
Look some Rap is a bit tiresome but some of it is fabulous - street poets to a sexualised beat. And with it’s broad scope of sub genres - there’s somethign for everyone although I must confess to enjoying the first of the gangsta’s like Ice Cube and Ice-T but more recent efforts not so. Try the Australian rappers Hilltop Hoods - very good!
But anyway - I agree with the Creature, I’ve never heard ‘My Bad’ downunder in Australia but it sounds annoying and no doubt as it starts to feature heavily in the mass media we’ll no doubt follow our northern hemisphere cousins… perhaps the Aussies should all collectively reject it and say ‘Talk to the Hand!’. No. That sucks.
Let’s reintroduce some great Australian slang sayings right back at the Americans such as ‘Fair Slash of the Pineapple’ or perhaps ‘Fair Suck of the Sav’ [1] or my personal favourite ‘ ‘Fair Crack of the Whip’. All good Aussie sayings that a reflective of our more kinder national makeup - note the request for fairness. Would go voer a treat by the Marines when kicking in Iraqi doors looking for those subversives who don’t much like MTV or Coca Cola. Ok sure sure, this would never enter the minds of some Yanks - not egocentric enough. It’s probably easier to declare ‘My bad’ and empty a full mag and watch the ‘ragheads’ dance about before they become too wet and bloody to stand.
Dude. This wasn’t necessary. You could have just said, “Actually, you know, I rather enjoy it when a cheesy white rap artist rips off a pop rock classic, changes its lyrics and genre and then visually butchers it with pants large enough you could hide a small herd of bison in there,” and no-one would have held it against you. Much.
And, funny, I keep hearing about how Australia is allegedly ‘The Land Of The Fair Go’, but hell only if you’re white and at least lower-middle-class, otherwise “Sod off back to where you came from, Mustafah,” seems to pretty much cover it.
Of course, MC Hammer. Any discussion of modern Rap music lasting longer than, ohhhh, five seconds has to bring up MC Hammer, the rap equivalent of The Knack, One Hit Wonder thank you very much. So Mr. Saturday answer me this, what does the MC in all these names actually mean? Master of Ceremonies, or Mucho Crapola? And does 50 Cent get his name from the current Dow Jones value of his back catalog? I do wonder.
I am glad though that you agree with my dislike of “My Bad”. Living as I do in the cultural void of Arizona, which many refer interestingly to as the “American Outback” it’s rather a common turn of phrase. I will however follow your advice and respond accordingly with many of the fine phrases you mention, it’s the least I can do to spread some good old Australiana.
“Back in the day” means in the past where there was glory or in someones youth. I.E. I was quite the tennis player back in the day.
Americans have a lot of slang. Heck, our language is all slang if you think about it. American English is a bastardized version of the Queens English which is a bastardized form of Latin.
Austrailians are certainly ones to talk about slang. Talk about a pot calling the kettle black. Your language is also rife with slang.
Oh, and while I am here, what is this bit from a previous post supposed to mean.
“Would go voer a treat by the Marines when kicking in Iraqi doors looking for those subversives who don’t much like MTV or Coca Cola. Ok sure sure, this would never enter the minds of some Yanks - not egocentric enough. It’s probably easier to declare ‘My bad’ and empty a full mag and watch the ‘ragheads’ dance about before they become too wet and bloody to stand.”
What exactly is supposed to enter our minds? I think it is funny that you call us “Yanks”, which as far as I know is a derogatory term, and then rave about Iraq and ragheads. Typical! If a person can’t make an intelligent arguement or point, attack the opponent on their character with exagerated generalizations. All Americans are fat,lazy, stupid, and violent Blah Blah Blah
I’m also inclined to scratch my head, or those parts of me that need scratching when I see a Dodge drive past, particularly a Dodge Ram. Now answer this someone, how the hell can you call a car a Dodge Ram? It’s got to be either one or the other surely?
Hi Sunnybrook,
I think you’re missing the point that American culture is being pounded into Australians via all of our media channels, and the reverse isn’t happening back. Aside from, ‘G’day mate’, or possible ‘Fwoar Crikey’, I doubt most Americans could tell you an Australian slang expression at all, while I’ve heard kids here in Brisbane referring to each other as ‘Nigga’ and ‘Dawg’ and so on.
Just as some Americans wouldn’t take it well if the reverse were happening, some Australians don’t take it well that whatever used to make Australians ‘Australian’ is becoming watered down and changed by an external cultural influence.
Maybe we’re just particularly sensitive about it at the moment, as we’re quickly approaching Australia Day. I wonder if you knew that January 26 is Australia Day? Most Americans wouldn’t, and yet I’d bet that most Australians know that July 4 is Independence Day. After all, we all saw the movie.
But, feel free to eat a meat pie, or drink a can of Fosters (actually, no true Australian would do that, it’s an awful beer) or go to The Outback Steakhouse and have a Bloomin’ Onion (never had one of these in Australia, actually - I think they’re an American concept of an Australian dish) on the 26th to show your support for our culture. It needs all the help it can get.
All the best,
Murray @ Midnight
You hit the nail on the head there Murray. What we see here in America as representative of Australian culture is one of two things, either what Americans think Australia and its culture is like, or the exaggerated stereotypical images ala Steve Irwin and Paul Hogan that Australia wants the rest of the world to believe its like. Neither are anywhere close to the truth so Americans going to Australia for a holiday generally (not always) have some warped series of expectations.
Australians on the other hand are bombarded with American culture 24/7 thanks to cable television, and rather than it being extreme in either direction, it’s fairly ‘mainstream’ and easily assimilated. Plus Americans know which buttons to push to sell to Australia whereas Australia is still learning that one.
I love the Midnight and the Creature. ….ok that was awkward.
I uh… I have no idea what to say to this…
I do know some Austrailian slang, such as, Fair Dinkum, Shelia, mate, Bunyip, and walk-about and I can work a bullroarer.
I’m sorry you are learning about us from American Cable. We get it shoved down our throats too. I guess The Daily Show would represent a decent view of quite a few of us, the ones that you don’t see represented in mainstream media and programming. What are some shows you consider Austrailian that you watch? Do you have local channels? What American shows do you commonly see in Austrailia. We get quite a bit of British and Japanese TV. You are quite a bit freer in Austrailia also. I guess maybe or respective founders colored our societies. Both sets of settlers were looked down on by the British and they were glad to be rid of us. The only big difference, Australia was settled by prisoners, and USA was settled by uptight ultrareligious Christians. I guess that is why you guys have a reputation fo being free wild and laid back.
Hi there Sunnybrook, nice turn of phrase although I must confess that ‘bullroarer’ is a new one to me. Perhaps it was coined out West or in the Sandgroper state as I haven’t heard of it along the eastcoast.
I love the Daily Show. We get the international version once a week on one of our public channels (very very late and a week late), and the regular programming features on one of our PayTV channels. Ironically the ‘Comedy Channel’. It would have been nice to have seen it on one of the Fox News Channels, just for a itsy bitsy bit of balance but that would be asking for too much from the very serious Murdoch minions.
Some responses to some of your questions posed:
1) What are some shows you consider Australian that you watch?
I’d judge a show as ‘Australian’ if it is made in Australia, from Australian scripts, and features Australian talent.
Sadly due to the withdrawal of commercial support by our federal government for arts support and the dropping of cultural tariffs between the USA and Australia – this is now restricted to news and current affairs, some lifestyle programs and in terms of drama, well pretty much soap operas in the form of ‘Home and Away’ and the grand old dame of television - ‘Neighbours’.
Other shows that present themselves as ‘Australian’ and admittedly do feature Australian talent, are not really ‘Australian’ as they are based on international ‘franchised’ show formats. These shows include ‘Australian Idol’, ‘Dancing With the Stars’, ‘The Biggest Loser’ and so on.
2) Do you have local channels?
We have five free-to-air public channels nationally.
Three are commercially run, Network Ten, Seven and Nine, and two publicly funded channels (kinda like your PBS but without the on-screen charity fund raisers) with the ABC (channel 2) and our multicultural channel SBS (I think it’s channel is 28).
In addition to these national-local channels, each major city may also host a community channel. In Brisbane it is Briz31 and outback it is the Aboriginal station - Imparja
In terms of PayTV – initially we had two competing networks, Optus and Fox, but following a bloody market share battle and the Australian publics general indifference, it is just Fox. They host about 30-40 odd channels – with almost all content sourced direct from the States.
3) What American shows do you commonly see in Australia.
Having traveled extensively throughout the United Kingdom and the United States for business and pleasure, and in doing so viewing their respective television offerings – I can honestly say that by and large the programming we in turn receive from them is amongst their best. Top shelf… or really really bottom shelf (like Jerry Springer and Cops).
No doubt, I have seen a lot of ‘crud’ on-screen in the UK and USA but we seem to get only the proven winners… and Cops …. and Springer.
From the UK - we get some really good quality programming led by ‘The Bill’, Parkinson, and an awful lot of ‘whodunnit’ and comedy shows. In fact I would suggest our sense of humour is probably much closer to the wordy wit of the English than the less than subtle USA versions. Perhaps that’s just me. Although I do love ‘Boston Legal’… a lot.
From the USA we tend to get mostly dramas, and comedies, in the form of the CSI franchises, the Law and Order franchises, Desperate Housewives, Seinfeld etc and of course the international breakout cult hit series like 24, Prisonbreak, Lost, and Heroes.
4) We get quite a bit of British and Japanese TV.
Lots of British but not so much Japanese other than movies on SBS and the ‘Iron Chef’. Perhaps this might change with the signing of a comprehensive new alliance between Australia and Japan.
In fact I read this morning that with Australia, Japan, the UK and the USA all now ‘formally’ aligned, there is now talk of inviting the regional powerhouse India into the fold.
This all sounds marvelous although I do fear that collectively we might just be creating a new cold war setup between this alliance and the 5000pound Gorilla with machine guns in the form of China. Interestingly they are Australia’s biggest trading partner followed by the USA so this should prove challenging for our diplomats to say the least. Perhaps we could arm them with ‘peace’ offerings on their next visits to Beijing and Shanghai - perhaps episodes of ‘Neighbours’ or the eyecandy reality show ‘Bondi Beach Lifesavers’.
5) Both sets of settlers were looked down on by the British and they were glad to be rid of us. The only big difference, Australia was settled by prisoners, and USA was settled by uptight ultrareligious Christians. I guess that is why you guys have a reputation for being free wild and laid back.
Couldn’t have put it better myself Sunnybrook. And I suspect that this sense of ‘wild colonial boy’ mentality is also one of the reasons that most Americans embrace Australians so warmly when we travel through the States.
We are cousins in the true sense with a shared parentage from the UK and our history of immigration mix with a distinct indigenous base.
Culturally and politically we are becoming even more closer during these troubling times, or perhaps it is the way of the things, so I guess the real pressing challenge for Australia – is to actively foster and celebrate what it is to be Australian or lose it for ever. If we fail then we’ll find ourselves as the proverbial old digger down on his luck, asking a favour from a cobber -
“Any chance you could stitch a new star on to the stars and stripes bloke? It’d be real nice if it was the five pointer from the Souther Cross. Cheers Mate”.