I remember reading somewhere that a Brit living in Aussie complained that he was being called a pommie bastard.

My own view as a Brit is, it doesn't offend me at all. In actual fact I find it highly amusing to be called a pommie bastard.

I love the way Aussies use an insult as a term of endearment or friendship.

Originally Posted by BritinAfrica

I remember reading somewhere that a Brit living in Aussie complained that he was being called a pommie bastard.

My own view as a Brit is, it doesn't offend me at all, in actual fact I find it highly amusing to be called a pommie bastard.

I love the way Aussies use an insult as a term of endearment or friendship.

It all depends on intonation and volume whether its meant to be friendly or insulting....

I think part of it is that our humour has been developed from adversity - many people were transported and worked as indentured labour, the land itself was difficult to work and sometimes hostile and the locals weren't too keen on us taking up all the land they used to roam around.

So our humour has kind of gone to the next level were we throw an insult at someone to test them, to see if they can cope with the hardship so to speak. In fact, we're expecting that the person who has been insulted not only realizes it is without malice, but is also capable of throwing a better insult back at us.

Australia, simple living but with complicated rules of humour!

Originally Posted by KevinTheCynic

I think part of it is that our humour has been developed from adversity - many people were transported and worked as indentured labour, the land itself was difficult to work and sometimes hostile and the locals weren't too keen on us taking up all the land they used to roam around.

So our humour has kind of gone to the next level were we throw an insult at someone to test them, to see if they can cope with the hardship so to speak. In fact, we're expecting that the person who has been insulted not only realizes it is without malice, but is also capable of throwing a better insult back at us.

Australia, simple living but with complicated rules of humour!

I find British military humour and Aussie humour to be very similar.