The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => People & Places => Topic started by: looksikin on June 10, 2006, 03:06:17 pm
-
My name's Nick.
I live in Miami.
-
So, Nick...
Tell us about yourself.
-
Hi Nick, welcome to the group. How long have you been a fan of Achewood?
~Paul
-
And have you read the whole messageboard archive?
-
And have you read the whole messageboard archive?
Yes Nick. Have you? HAVE YOU GODAMMIT?!
-
Hey, everybody, go easy on Nick. After all, he is a fan of Achewood. The exclamation mark clinched it.
Seriously, Nick, welcome, and don't be afraid to read through the archives. They'll give you a feel for the board and will prevent you from being a cock to strangers.
-
I like declaratory statements!
I kissed a girl and I am proud!
Hello, Nick. Welcome to the board. You will find that we "take the piss" a lot, but it is all meant in a friendly way.
-
You will find that we "take the piss" a lot...
I don't think that's quite right. I'm sure you've gotten this expression wrong somehow. Judy, can you back me up on this.
~Paul
-
I don't think that's quite right. I'm sure you've gotten this expression wrong somehow. Judy, can you back me up on this.
~Paul
I am not English but as a closet anglophile I can say "taking the piss" is indeed the phrase. Mostly because I used to give a Brit-friend of mine crap about "collecting jars of urine" whenever he said it.
So I guess I was taking the piss out of his taking piss.
-
So when you give someone crap, you take the piss? That's a fair trade I guess.
~Paul
-
So when you give someone crap, you take the piss? That's a fair trade I guess.
~Paul
Man, I am completely not getting into a thing where I start speculating on the exchange rate of crap:piss. I will say that would make travelling a lot less sexy.
-
I don't think that's quite right. I'm sure you've gotten this expression wrong somehow. Judy, can you back me up on this.
~Paul
As Q has confirmed, he is unfortunately right. Here are some alternatives, however:
Taking the Mick
Taking the jiffy
Taking the swish
Taking the nuts
Taking the mop
Taking the pencil
Taking the cake
All of these are a lot less offensive, yet also more hilarious. Yet they are still real Brit slang. Pretty swish, wot?
As for looksikin, I apologise for any offensive conduct earlier. Seriously mate, make yourself at home.
-
Is is wrong if I only just now realized that that moniker is supposed to be "Nick is cool" but backwords and with cool spelled like the cigarette brand and with Nick missing a C?
That's not a good commando name (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail93.html), but I'll let it slide because it took me two damn days to catch it. I must be getting old.
-
Ah, Home Star Runner - the cream of the internet crop. Really, it is.
Also, You have scared Kool Nic away.
Also, I briefly worked for the Kool Cigarretes and Skol chewing tobbacco call centre during the marketing of the new, berry flavoured chewing tobbacco. And I died just a little bit at that job.
Also, welcome Nic.
-
In America "swish" is slang for a homosexual.
So taking the swish would be the answer to the question "Who are you taking to the wedding on Saturday?"
-
I am not English but as a closet anglophile I can say "taking the piss" is indeed the phrase. Mostly because I used to give a Brit-friend of mine crap about "collecting jars of urine" whenever he said it.
So I guess I was taking the piss out of his taking piss.
I'm pretty sure that Emily Post would frown upon piss re-gifting.
-
I live in Miami.
How long until the Marlins leave town? This off-season? The next?
-
Is taking the cake really the same as taking the piss? Over here something that takes the cake means it is usually unusually bad or good, but taking the piss is (as in mother england) just a way of indicating low down shenanigans.
-
Is taking the cake really the same as taking the piss? Over here something that takes the cake means it is usually unusually bad or good, but taking the piss is (as in mother england) just a way of indicating low down shenanigans.
Taking the piss refers to ribbing someone. It's usually a friendly put-down.
It is all referenced back to when Howard Hughes visited the Queen mum and jibed her into giving him jars of her urine to add to his collection. The British were so incensed by the gall of this "Pretty Boy American Rogue" that they refused to ever ride in his Spruce Goose. Hughes had to, in the end, make the Maiden voyage of his colossal vessel in France where it was a huge success. When French Humorist Pierre Desproges saw it first fly, he remarked, "Oh how it leaps like a frog from pad to pad; a dreadful thing!" (Only, you know, in French.) So outraged were Americans by this statement that we soon saw the emergence of the racial slur "frog".
Also, I may or may not be "taking the piss" with that last paragraph. Thus, well planned irony. HTH
-
Taking the piss means to put someone in their place. Especially if they are a jumped up little pratt.
~Paul
-
If an Englishman asks you "are you taking the piss?" it is the equivalent of an American asking "are you fuck*ng with me?"
This should not be that hard to understand.
Taking the cake, on the other hand, is referring to something that is utterly the limit. It is something akin to the straw that breaks the camel's back (another English saying).
-
Well jough, all I know is that you are the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, and so totally, totally scene.
("That was so scene" is what the emo kids are saying these days...)
-
Well jough, all I know is that you are the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, and so totally, totally scene.
("That was so scene" is what the emo kids are saying these days...)
I cannot hear/see the phrase "bee's knees" without recited this quote in my head: This man is the bee's knees, Arthur, he is the wasp's nipples. He is, I would go so far as to say, the entire set of erogenous zones of every major flying insect of the Western world.
-
If an Englishman asks you "are you taking the piss?" it is the equivalent of an American asking "are you fuck*ng with me?"
That may be true, but taking the piss specifically refers to cutting someone down to size. Someone with an inflated ego. It's not just a catchall phrase for any type of harrasment.
~Paul
-
That may be true, but taking the piss specifically refers to cutting someone down to size. Someone with an inflated ego. It's not just a catchall phrase for any type of harrasment.
~Paul
Actually, I have always heard it quite the opposite. Someone you are pleasantly fuck*ng with, a gentle jibe.
I guess we'll have to wait for our Main Man in the UK, the Boy with the Shiny Toys, the Smiles from British Isles: Judy, to settle all this.
-
I guess we'll have to wait for our Main Man in the UK, the Boy with the Shiny Toys, the Smiles from British Isles: Judy, to settle all this.
Oh you.
I didn't want to get involved, but over here 'Taking The Piss' refers to either:
A) Messing around. Ie. 'Are you messing me around?' = 'Are you taking the piss?'
B) Joking. Ie. 'What a joke' = 'What a piss take' 'I was only joking' = 'I was only taking the piss'
These examples are interchangeable. It all depends on the tone; obviously, the typical Vinny Jones 'Are you taking the piss sunshine?' must be made with a threatening Essex accent. The reverse if you're just jokingly messing around (or taking the piss).
Any other reasons are probably also correct, as slang differs due to regions. It's all relative. Besides, I'm hardly a learned scholar of the English language. That's what's so great about language: everybody's right!
-
Any other reasons are probably also correct, as slang differs due to regions. It's all relative. Besides, I'm hardly a learned scholar of the English language. That's what's so great about language: everybody's right!
Well damn you for being so bloody Swiss; all neutral.
No, but seriously, thank you for the clarification.
Oh Vinny, what a delightful scalawag he is indeed.
-
Yeah, it is almost never used when referring to cutting someone down to size. Sorry, Paul. Find a reference on the internet that backs up your claim.
-
WE ONLY ACCEPT PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTS HERE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!
*beats Judy about the face and neck*
-
Yeah, it is almost never used when referring to cutting someone down to size. Sorry, Paul. Find a reference on the internet that backs up your claim.
Didn't have to look very far (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tak2.htm).
My knowledge of the word comes from having an English girlfriend for many years who used the expression in the way I described.
~Paul
-
WE ONLY ACCEPT PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTS HERE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!
*beats Judy about the face and neck*
-SMACK- I.. -DAZ- I don't... -POW- know what... -SWISH- that means...
-
-SMACK- I.. -DAZ- I don't... -POW- know what... -SWISH- that means...
*WHAM* PARSLEY! *WHAM* SAGE! *WHAM* ROSEMARY! *WHAM* AND THYME! (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail130.html)
-
Didn't have to look very far (http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tak2.htm).
My knowledge of the word comes from having an English girlfriend for many years who used the expression in the way I described.
~Paul
Huh! Good detectoring there, Paul. I must confess, I have never seen it in that context, but I'm not the expert on such matters. Education. Thanks!
*WHAM* PARSLEY! *WHAM* SAGE! *WHAM* ROSEMARY! *WHAM* AND THYME! (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail130.html)
I've got to record that for the next mixdisc, me playing the guitar and singing and my brother hitting a snare and various other percussive objects with a saucepan.
-
Yeah, it is almost never used when referring to cutting someone down to size. Sorry, Paul. Find a reference on the internet that backs up your claim.
I actually used it last week in that way.
-
I'm just waiting for Jough to tell me I was correct.
~Paul
-
Yeah, that page does not reflect the common use of the expression, dude.
http://english2american.com/dictionary/t.html
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_the_mickey
http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/t.htm
http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/take_the_piss
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/piss-taking
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~wrader/slang/t.html
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/344000.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/taking-the-mickey
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006052712406
http://www.coolslang.com/in/british/index.php?pageNum_rsSlang=1&totalRows_rsSlang=40
The fuck*ng BBC:
http://www.bbcamerica.com/britain/dictionary.jsp?newSearch=true&newSearchType=phrase&searchPhrase=take+the+piss®ion=+&x=0&y=0
And finally what I would consider the authority on urban slang, where people can vote for definitions:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=taking+the+piss
Actually, in the first three pages of Google results, every single one of them uses the common definition. I have yet to be able to find a definition from a reputable source that uses it like you've used it.
Maybe it's only used that way in one very small town in the North or something.
I did see a few references for "take the piss out of" which does mean to deflate someone's ego, but that's not "take the piss" that's "take the piss out of _____".
Like in America, "taking some air" generally means getting height in snowboarding, skateboarding, or surfing. But "taking some air out of Roger" means deflating. See?
So yeah, I'd admit you were correct if you actually were, but we're all about Education here, and you've just been educated, my friend.
Seriously, when you start arguing with the English folk about what their slang is supposed to mean, you cannot help but look silly.
-
Wow Jough it looks like you spent all night writing that post. You could have just said that 'taking the piss' and 'taking the piss out of' are two different expressions and not been a jerk about it, but I guess you wouldn't be Gods Own Dick then.
~Paul
-
Wow Jough it looks like you spent all night writing that post. You could have just said that 'taking the piss' and 'taking the piss out of' are two different expressions and not been a jerk about it, but I guess you wouldn't be Gods Own Dick then.
~Paul
I think jough was just taking the pi- eer... nevermind. :P
-
Woah, bitch slapped by G.O.D. - that is awesome
But... what we're all missing here, and the important thing, is that Paul dated a British chick. Did she take the piss, or were you more of the piss taker? ...wait - that sounds like a horribly disgusting thing that R. Kelly would do. I'm sorry. That is not an image I needed right before lunch.
At any rate, jough, you know it could be possible, having seen photos of the avant garde crowd Paul hangs with, that his ex-girlfriend is ahead of the linguistics curve. In 10 years when we're all saying "take the piss" in the way that Paul describes it, his British ex might come by and make you eat your words... and possibly a Stake and Kidney pie (error intended, don't cha know).
-
maybe paul is In on the Piss Taker
fixed that for you
-
Wow Jough it looks like you spent all night writing that post. You could have just said that 'taking the piss' and 'taking the piss out of' are two different expressions and not been a jerk about it, but I guess you wouldn't be Gods Own Dick then.
~Paul
He's not being a jerk that I can see, he's just listing sources and being his generally curmudgeonly self, particularly about Language, which is pretty much is stock-in-trade. So, yeah, he took the piss out of your post but there isn't a call to get pissed about his post. In fact, maybe he's just taking the piss and not taking the piss out of you. Or maybe the two of you are engaged in a pissing contest. I'm gonna piss off now.
-
Well we're all starting to get a little pissy in here.
Welcome to the group Little Nicky.
~Paul
-
Wow Jough it looks like you spent all night writing that post.
Nah. Five minutes Ctrl+clicking links in the first 50 results of Google. I don't know how many words were in my post above (other than the links) but you can probably do the calculation by way of 100wpm typing and then see that I couldn't have been typing for more than a minute or two.
You could have just said that 'taking the piss' and 'taking the piss out of' are two different expressions and not been a jerk about it, but I guess you wouldn't be Gods Own Dick then.
You were just so smarmy and sanctimonious about being wrong that it seemed like you could use a little Education. Don't worry, homeboy, when you're right I'll agree with you.
-
And both of you will have a pot to piss in.
-
you're right when I agree with you.
Fixed that one for you
-
In the film Awakenings Robin William's character said to someone "If you were right I'd agree with you." and that phrase has always stuck.
-
that film is pretty great.
-
I am trying to bring the expression "He does not suffer fools gladly" back into common parlance, just to describe elitist curmudgeons like Jough, myself, and probably the whole rest of the boards.
-
probably the whole rest of the boards.
Someone I used to work for actually said that about me, so count me in.
-
I am trying to bring the expression "He does not suffer fools gladly" back into common parlance, just to describe elitist curmudgeons like Jough, myself, and probably the whole rest of the boards.
Clearly you've been secretly watching me while I'm at work.
It's 2006. How can a person not know that the lid of the copier can be lifted and documents placed directly on the glass? Seriously people.
-
Clearly you've been secretly watching me while I'm at work.
It's 2006. How can a person not know that the lid of the copier can be lifted and documents placed directly on the glass? Seriously people.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now hold on, there. What the fuck?
-
Clearly you've been secretly watching me while I'm at work.
It's 2006. How can a person not know that the lid of the copier can be lifted and documents placed directly on the glass? Seriously people.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now hold on, there. What the fuck?
I'm totally serious. This girl two desks over was standing at the copier complaining because the paper she had was too too curled/frayed at the edges for the document-feeder on the copier. So she thought there was no way to copy it. Somebody had to walk over and lift up the top of the copier and place the paper on the glass for her. She seriously thought it only lifted up to clear jams.
-
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Now hold on, there. What the fuck?
I'm totally serious. This girl two desks over was standing at the copier complaining because the paper she had was too too curled/frayed at the edges for the document-feeder on the copier. So she thought there was no way to copy it. Somebody had to walk over and lift up the top of the copier and place the paper on the glass for her. She seriously thought it only lifted up to clear jams.
I think Hobot was pretending that she didn't know you could do this either. I only say this because that is my secret hope as that is how I originally read it and it and it made me laugh so much I was kind of jealous I didn't say it instead. I've got to get a handle on this, diary.
-
I think Hobot was pretending that she didn't know you could do this either.
That's the way I understood it.
-
it's funny, because until recently I thought that was the only way you could copy things.
of course, I do not often have the occasion to use a copier.
-
See, I had the opposite experience. I was in the copy room, and a co-worker came in and asked what the hell the papers were doing on top of the copier (aka in the feeder). I explained that those are the originals, but she didn't get it, because the machine was scanning them then spitting them out, so I just walked away.
I also took Hobot to be playing ignorant, and found it amusing.
-
I think Hobot was pretending that she didn't know you could do this either. I only say this because that is my secret hope as that is how I originally read it and it and it made me laugh so much I was kind of jealous I didn't say it instead. I've got to get a handle on this, diary.
That does make sense. When I told this story to my SO her reaction was the one I interpretted here. That she must've misunderstood my story because nobody could possibly be this stupid at survive to adulthood.
-
that film is pretty great.
You should check out Dr. Oliver Sacks' books, especially The Man Who Thought His Wife Was a Hat. Neurological!
-
nobody could possibly be this stupid at survive to adulthood.
I suppose it would be nice to go all those years never having had to make your own photocopies. Reminds me, I knew a couple of girls who volunteered at the zoo for a while who swept a floor like they had never handled a broom before - it was clearly a totally unfamilar experience for them. We could only assume that their families had always had housecleaners. It's rough to grow up without all the disadvantages, you know?
-
aug-- did he try to... did he try to wear his wife as a hat?
I'm trying to wrap my head around it.
-
aug-- did he try to... did he try to wear his wife as a hat?
he was trying to wrap his head inside it.
Fixed!
-
Awakenings was also based on one of his books, titled, surprisingly enough "Awakenings".
http://www.oliversacks.com/writing.htm
-
I can't tell if Jough was being informative or extracting the urine.
-
I can't tell if Jough was being informative or extracting the urine.
Or worse yet, extracting the urine from someone.
-
Yeah... yeah, we've officially scared looksicin away. I'm sorry nic, or who ever you are.
-
Check out how popular my thread is.
-
I did. It's pretty intense. Are you proud?
You should be proud.
-
I'm terribly disappointed. I was told there would be linguists here. I found some vague references to linguistics, and a handful of people debating the usage of the expression "taking a piss" (which is totally something linguists would do), but so far I haven't seen enough to confirm those rumors. Are there any linguists here? Because I'm really, really lonely.
-
There used to be, but not anymore.
What kind of linguist are you, and why?
And who told you that?
-
*cries*
Where did they all go?
I'm a cunning one, of course, because I was able to convince a proponent of G&B to give me his cheese by flattering him.
And Bjorn told me. Serves me right for believing the likes of him.
*sigh*
Okay, okay. I'm a diachronic morphologist, most of the time. Sometimes I'm a sociolinguist. The third Thursday of every month, I'm a syntactician, but I don't enjoy it.
-
And Bjorn told me. Serves me right for believing the likes of him.
*sigh*
Faith? DESTROYED.
-
Well, Muse, if you stick around, you sound excellently qualified to take over the duty of executing the smackdown when one of the recurring prescriptive grammar wars breaks out. I'm kind of tired of it.
Also, can for not enjoying being a syntactician.
-
Are Bjorn, Muse and possibly Looksikin friends from somewhere else or... am I just my naturally confused self?
-
You are two-thirds correct, sir.
-
Good, good, just checkin'.
I sometimes confuse "banter that simulates familiarity online" with "actual familiarity" and...
Wanted to see where my sensors are at.
-
Here... they were in my purse. I was wondering what that smell was.