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[smick]

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.

[Carlos del Vaca]

I live in Miami.

How long until the Marlins leave town?  This off-season?  The next?

[Doc]

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.

[misterqueue]

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

[pmcd9]

Taking the piss means to put someone in their place.  Especially if they are a jumped up little pratt.

~Paul

[jough]

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).

[side_show]

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...)

[CortJstr]

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.

[pmcd9]

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

[misterqueue]

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.

[Drygioni]

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!

[misterqueue]

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.

[jough]

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.

[theinevitable]

WE ONLY ACCEPT PRESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTS HERE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!

*beats Judy about the face and neck*

[pmcd9]

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.

My knowledge of the word comes from having an English girlfriend for many years who used the expression in the way I described.

~Paul