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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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An American comedian, following a long set here in Australia, told the audience to stand up and stretch. He then tried to direct us to "bend over and pat your neighbour on the fanny". Stone cold silence did not indicate to him his mistake, and he tried several times before eventually realising he had lost his audience goodwill entirely with this starting skit.
Turned out later that he had no clue what "fanny" means here, and had to have it explained to him.
Still a weird thing to say.
Not as weird or rude as telling them to pat their neighbour on the vulva.
I think "grope your neighbor" just falls under unacceptable dumbassery from a stand-up regardless.
Like, if the bit is making people refuse to do it, why keep trying when no one laughs?
Genuinely curious what does fanny mean in Australia
It's slang for 'pussy'. It's the same in the UK.
So question for any language experts: why is it different?
I'm not an expert, but "cunt" is related to similar Germanic words meaning "arse". Etymonline just says the American "fanny" came from the British: https://www.etymonline.com/word/fanny#etymonline_v_1119
Because Australia is upside down.
And England, where we got it from?
Who knows why those limey bastards do anything.
Americans are obsessed with being different from England. See: Football / Soccer
There's a Christmas song that became a classic in the US largely because it was hated in England.
The English were the ones that created the term soccer. It grew in popularity in America as soccer, then eventually fell out of popularity in Britain. In fact, a lot of the differences between words in the US and Britain are that Brits started using a different version of the word and Americans kept using the old one. Not all, but a lot.
Source: https://time.com/5335799/soccer-word-origin-england/
So one American circa 1776 decided "know what, mate? I think 'fanny' should refer to ass, not pussy"
Why?
"Coz fuck da bri'ish!!"
๐ป ๐ป ๐๐ฅ
Sounds like the most American thing I've ever heard.
Same guy also had a hatred for useless letter "u"s.
Nah, that's just Americans being illiterate and obstinate about being corrected.
Naw we're just efficient ๐
Do Americans spell 'island' with an 's'? Then it has nothing to do with efficiency.
Shit. Got me.
...which one?
Well at least saying shove it up your fanny is indicating a similar location in both amarica and Australia
Wait, what does fanny mean in America?
It's a word for butt. It sort of has a childish connotation, like a pre-school teacher might direct their class to "keep your fannys on the ground."
Only in the US. In Commonwealth countries it's a slang for vulva
Fanny was a nickname for Frances or Francesca.
Both the "buttocks" and "vulva" meanings may have originated from the scandalous 1748 novel Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.
Why did you get downvoted?
Yanks get tetchy.
Not just the US. Canada too.
I worked for a UK based fashion retail business and they always found it blushingly charming when I referred to what they called a 'bum bag ' a 'Fanny pack'.
Also, 'Pardon me!' Doesn't mean excuse me in UK English. It's more an excuse for if you do something disgusting that you are ashamed of, like if you fart or burp.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was my take away the couple years I worked with British people.
Vulva
Okay wait, even if he meant "butt", I feel like no one is going to follow a random comedian's request to grope your neighbor on the butt...
No, not grope, as I said, pat.
He felt we had all been sitting down for too long, and should gently pat the stranger on the butt, presumably to help them with the pins and needles. It was weird, but we thought it was weirder still! I believe people did indeed ask a lot of questions of him, but at the time it was a massive moment of lost in translation and divided by a common language, etc.