• Taleya@aussie.zone
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    4 months ago

    Random question: have you heard the phrase “(he / she /it) went mad and we shot them” in response to a query, or even just answering the phone? It’s something quite commonly used in my family, but when i answered a work call with it “not here, she went mad so we shot her” the zoomer on the other end lost their shit.

    Edit: might be worth dating yourself, genX here

    • Baku@aussie.zone
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      4 months ago

      I’ve never heard it, but it’s the sort of thing I could imagine an old person saying/having been popular many decades ago. Probably not suitable in a work enrolment, but I see the humour in it either way

      (I wrote this before your edit, forgot to hit post. Pretty firmly gen z here)

      • TheWitchofThornbury@aussie.zone
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        4 months ago

        Spot on. Would def be a survival from days when nearly everyone had a rural background or on a farm. Probably originally referred to dogs … even though rabies has been eradicated from Australia for a very long time.

        • Baku@aussie.zone
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          4 months ago

          I don’t think we’ve ever had rabies, have we? There’s only ever been 2 deaths as far as I can tell, one in '87 and the other in 1990, and both were contacted overseas. We do have the Australian bat lysavirus which is similar to rabies, but there’s only been 3 deaths from that, with the earliest being in 1996. Also, I think that’s only been found in 2 horses, and nothing else

          • TheWitchofThornbury@aussie.zone
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            4 months ago

            Interesting point. Rabies is a virus, and needs a living host. Given the long incubation period I would be very surprised if the virus had not come into Aus with the early european settlers, but died out when not transmitted. The early settlers mostly came from environments where rabies was present and much feared. So much so that even a suspicion of infection was sufficient for an animal to be shot - as per comments above. You might like to read up on the history of Louis Pasteur, yes the pasteurisation bloke. He invented the first rabies vaccine for humans and this is what he was known for at the time. Its quite a story.

            Lyssavirus has an endemic host species here - bats - so there’s an ongoing source of infection present even though the transmission route is complex. Basically, the bat has to piss on grass, then a horse has to eat that grass to catch the virus. Then horse dies and so does any human that’s been in contact with the horse. Vic Rail was the guy who died first from lyssavirus - he was a racehorse trainer and one of the better ones. I knew him way back when, and he is still sorely missed. No vaccine for lyssavirus available or likely as it’s easier and cheaper to just euthanase any affected horses before any people die.

        • Taleya@aussie.zone
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          4 months ago

          Uh, no. It’s just black humour. "Hey dad - " dad: “he’s not here, he went mad and we shot him”

    • SituationCake@aussie.zone
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      4 months ago

      Yes I’ve heard it many times, but now that I think of it, not recently. Did zoomer loose their shit because they thought it funny, or thought it offensive?

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        4 months ago

        Just couldn’t handle it. They weren’t offended per se, but there was a lot of “oh my god what???”

    • Catfish@aussie.zone
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      4 months ago

      I’ve heard it, but not recently, and certainly not at work! It’s a pick your audience carefully sort of dark humour. Xer

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        4 months ago

        Second nsfw comment. Not sure if me being terribly ASD or working in cinema too long.

    • melbaboutown@aussie.zone
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      4 months ago

      Yeah it was a common one growing up.

      Along with ‘you might be a pain/pane but we can’t see through ya’ and ‘I’ll give you something to cry about’.

      • Taleya@aussie.zone
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        4 months ago

        That last one needs to die.

        Thebother two may be black humour, but something to cry about is flat out abuse