Aussies: friendly, easy going users of irony

I love many things about Australia. Chief amongst these things is the way that Aussies use the English language and their style of humour. They spell humour with a "u", so it's humour that contains irony. Compare most "humor".

For example, there are the slang names of things and places. A pair of Speedos is often referred to as “budgie smugglers”. Observe how well endowed men look when wearing them if you don’t get it. Quite commonly, an act of foolishness will earn a rebuke for being a “spaz” or even “special needs kid”. Such terms are to be heard on the radio, in parliament as well as in everyday conversation. Political correctness is seen as a silly affectation here.

The anti-drink driving campaign has for ten years been using the strapline “you bloody idiot” to good effect. For example, an advertising hoarding will have a photo of road carnage with the text “Only a bit over the limit? Only a bit dead. You bloody idiot”. It makes the point altogether better than any number of clever TV ads in the UK.

Last time I was here, I saw a rather quiet looking 20 something guy wearing a T-shirt that said in smallish lettering “I like quite heavy metal”. (“Quite” has the same meaning here as in the UK, ie a bit. In the USA it often means “very”). The understated irony made brought a smirk to my drunken visage all evening. The T-shirt’s owner was happy to share the joke and have a chat for a while. When even the cute 20 something year-old gayboys are friendly to 30 something year-old not as cute gayboys, you know that a society has something going for it.

The developers of the enormous Bondi Junction shopping centre in Sydney clearly made great efforts to make the place seem naturally integrated into the city (the food court offers the best low rent way to get a fantastic view of Sydney Harbour, backpackers may wish to note). I can only imagine their disappointment when Sydneysiders almost instantly took to calling the vast complex “The Death Star”. Trust me, it’s a funny and very apposite name.

There remains some scope for linguistic confusion however. I overheard a rather elderly woman describe how she found it hard to wear thongs and walk naturally. It becomes less disturbing an image when one knows that “thongs” in Australian English means what we Brits call flip flops.