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Guest
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| Posted: Sat Aug 20, 2005 6:54 pm
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Mike Lyle wrote:
| Quote: | Areff wrote:
Troy Steadman wrote:
In "300 reasons why we love The Simpsons" we have [...]
birds, they're having a row with the wankers.'
Could one of you Americans tell me what - if anything - that last
sentence means?
It's just making fun of British people using characteristic British
language not typically used by Americans. The following terms are
thought of as chiefly British:
[...]
"wanker" (all usages)
[...]
But what struck me most forcibly was that the supposedly prudish US
let "wankers" through the TV net. I can't imagine Brit broadcasters
airing that episode unexpurgated -- and, indeed, as it's a prime-time
children's favourite, I'd have found it objectionable.
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It was shown unexpurgated. As was the episode with U2 where Mr Burns
calls the band "wankers". |
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Donna Richoux
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:34 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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<Donalbain@gmail.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Mike Lyle wrote:
Areff wrote:
But what struck me most forcibly was that the supposedly prudish US
let "wankers" through the TV net. I can't imagine Brit broadcasters
airing that episode unexpurgated -- and, indeed, as it's a prime-time
children's favourite, I'd have found it objectionable.
It was shown unexpurgated. As was the episode with U2 where Mr Burns
calls the band "wankers".
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Same class as "The Spy that Shagged Me," then. Dirty words in one
culture don't carry the same freight in another.
--
Best -- Donna Richoux |
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sage
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:08 am
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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Donna Richoux wrote:
| Quote: | Donalbain@gmail.com> wrote:
Mike Lyle wrote:
Areff wrote:
But what struck me most forcibly was that the supposedly prudish US
let "wankers" through the TV net. I can't imagine Brit broadcasters
airing that episode unexpurgated -- and, indeed, as it's a prime-time
children's favourite, I'd have found it objectionable.
It was shown unexpurgated. As was the episode with U2 where Mr Burns
calls the band "wankers".
Same class as "The Spy that Shagged Me," then. Dirty words in one
culture don't carry the same freight in another.
Exactly. French-Canadians use fuck and shit with no sense of their |
"naughtiness" in English. But then, we use "calice" (caw'liss) and
"tabernacle" (tabernack)in the same way.
This also backs up the "what's rude in one language, isn't necessarly
so, in another" theory. The other theory it supports is that
Anglo-Saxons get much of their bad language from allusions to bodily
functions or sexual activity, whereas French-Canada turns to the church.
Cheers, Sage |
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Ross Howard
Guest
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| Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:05 pm
Post subject: Re: "...they're having a row with the wankers" |
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On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 12:09:08 +0100, Mike Barnes
<august2005@mikebarnes.fsnet.co.uk> wrought:
| Quote: | In alt.usage.english, Django Cat wrote:
the Omrud wrote:
mark spake thusly:
Legend tells of a time when the mysterious hermit the Omrud of
usenet.omrud@gmail.com returned briefly from exile to say ...
Tony Cooper spake thusly:
Drifting a bit....I usually associate the use of "me" as used
above with Irish-speak. Last night I was watching "Shirley
Valentine" on HBO and noticed that the Liverpuddlian Shirley
used "me" thusly.
It's used throughout the UK in informal speech. I use it meself.
I don't think it's even marked for class.
I don't recall any previous discussion here of the "singular us"
in UK speech (but not usually in writing). It is perfectly
common to refer to yourself as "us" under certain circumstances:
"Give us a cuddle", "Throw us that towel", "Pass us the salt,
please".
Chuck us me spanner, mate ... oh, strewth! I didn't say "peg" it
at me, ya burk!
Or, as it says in Viz, "Hoy us me tabs".
Or in Oldham:
"Chuck us us tabs". Really.
And in Oldham that's "us" pronounced "uzz" more often than not. Rhymes
with "bus", pronounced "buzz".
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And that's "buzz" as in the first syllable of "bosom", of course.
(I went to skewel in Owdham, me.)
--
Ross Howard |
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