Word Usage Question for the Brits on This Site

[flybye023]

I was watching a documentary on the science channel a few nights ago and the program was featuring the problems of man and woman living in England. The man at one point used the phrase "tear the mickey" and was bleeped. I am familiar with the phrase but I didn't think it was obscene. Am I missing something? :confused:

[BookstoreEscapee]

According to my quick googling, it just means to make fun of someone. Apparently it was used in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. :shrug:

[flybye023]

See, that's what I thought. That it meant to tease or give someone a hard time. So why would they bleep it...:headscratch:

[Chanlin]

Mick/Mickey is a racial slur for Irish folks

[Rapscallion]

Not sure that it started as a slur, so to speak. We have in the past referred to Germans as Krauts (their term for cabbage) and French as Frogs. It's something children grow out of (unless you read the Sun).

However, the phrase is actually 'take the mickey'.

Rapscallion

[Boggles]

It's cockney rhyming slang: Taking the Mickey Bliss = Taking the piss.

[Slytovhand]

And persons of English nationality are POMS (aka Pommy Bastards :D )

And, taking the Mickey is known down here as well, and we'd be just as confused as to why it'd get censored... (course, if it's after 9 or 10pm, they'll be swearing a lot worse than that on our telly!)