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[-] Thisfox@sopuli.xyz 76 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] creditCrazy@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

Genuinely curious what does fanny mean in Australia

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 48 points 1 year ago

It's slang for 'pussy'. It's the same in the UK.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago

So question for any language experts: why is it different?

[-] MadBob@feddit.nl 9 points 1 year ago

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

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Because Australia is upside down.

[-] Thisfox@sopuli.xyz 5 points 1 year ago

And England, where we got it from?

[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Who knows why those limey bastards do anything.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

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.

[-] Virual@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

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/

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 7 points 1 year ago

So one American circa 1776 decided "know what, mate? I think 'fanny' should refer to ass, not pussy"

Why?

"Coz fuck da bri'ish!!"

๐Ÿป ๐Ÿป ๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿฅ‚

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 year ago

Sounds like the most American thing I've ever heard.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Same guy also had a hatred for useless letter "u"s.

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Nah, that's just Americans being illiterate and obstinate about being corrected.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Naw we're just efficient ๐Ÿ˜

[-] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

Do Americans spell 'island' with an 's'? Then it has nothing to do with efficiency.

[-] GreenMario@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago
[-] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago
[-] creditCrazy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Well at least saying shove it up your fanny is indicating a similar location in both amarica and Australia

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this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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