Transcript of AE 1028 - Expression - When The Shit Hits the Fan

G'day, you mob, and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken down under. So, whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flipping hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So, sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

G'day, you mob. How's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. Strayan or Strein, I think if I wanted to really broaden up my accent. So, anyway, guys, I hope you're doing well. I managed to finish the coffee that I'd made earlier without it going cold whilst recording some other stuff. So, happy with that.

But yeah, kick back, relax and enjoy today's episode. I hope you checked out the previous episode that I did "a fish out of water" where I showed you the new format of these episodes that I'm trying out. I would love your feedback. So, you know, feel free to send me an email, comment on these episodes on the website, chat to me on Instagram.

I reply to pretty much every single email, comment and Instagram message that I get, so always feel free to message me and I will do my best to get back to you as soon as humanly possible. But yeah, so how's my week been? Busy, busy, busy... I've been recording a lot of different content, I did, I think we did nine episodes of The Goss' the other day with my dad, and I'm still having to do those virtually, unfortunately.

Because restrictions still don't allow any of us to have people over, and Melbourne has just gone through, I think it's just become the city, or it could be the country that's had the longest lockdown. I think Australia may have pipped. Was it Argentina or Chile, I think recently? So, we've had in Victoria here, in Melbourne, 244 days in the last year in lockdown, it's been pretty nuts.

So, people are definitely suffering from cabin fever. They're definitely getting angsty, they're getting anxious to get out and about and do things. I definitely want to go on a little holiday or something, you know, a little road trip with the family and just escape the house, right. See something different.

Anyway. Don't forget, guys, if you would like the full transcripts for today's episodes, you want the bonus episodes, you want the videos for all of these episodes that come with videos and you want access to the premium podcast player, be sure to sign up to the Premium podcast membership. You can get that at www.AussieEnglish.com.au.

And remember, I have a bunch of courses on the website too, that you can check out for things like Phrasal verbs, pronunciation, spoken English and listening comprehension with the real English discussions course. So, without any further ado, guys, let's get into today's episode. So, as I said in the previous episode, we're going to start with a little Q and A, right, a little question and answer.

And as a side note here, guys, if you're in Australia, you don't even have to be in Australia. If you've got the internet, you should check out a TV show called "Q and A". I think it's spelt "Q" and then the word "and" and then "A" after that, right. So, we nickname it "QandA", Q-A-N-D-A. Check that out on YouTube. You might be able to see this on the ABC's website or on iView.

But this is a really good TV show for you guys who are interested in current affairs. So, it's effectively run by a journalist who works for the ABC Channel, and they normally run a panel. So, there'll be a main topic they'll be talking about, and they take questions from Australians or anyone who's sent in a video question. And they ask this panel of people, right.

They'll have someone from the left, someone from the right in terms of politics and then usually a few other experts so that they can talk about the topic at hand.

So, this is really good if you want to get access to many different accents, men, women, native speakers, non-native speakers, you know, broad accents, foreign accents. It's a really good show to learn about what's going on Down Under, but also to work on your listening comprehension skills.

So, go check it out. Anyway, let's get into today's Q and A. So, this one comes from Brayan, so thank you for the question, Brayan. And he says, hey Pete, what's the difference between "they study" and "they do study"? Cheers. Cheers, Brayan. Thank you so much for the question. So, I did a little looking, I sort of know this intuitively, obviously, because this is my native language.

But I wanted to give you guys a better explanation, so I looked this up and from Wikipedia here we have that "do" has many uses. But in this case, when we put it in front of an infinitive verb, like in the case of "they do study, he does study, I do study", we're using it for emphasis. So, the auxiliary generally appears for the purposes of emphasis, for instance, to establish a contrast or to express a correction.

So, "did Bill eat his breakfast? Yes, he did eat his breakfast". So, "did" here emphasises the positive answer as opposed to the negative answer because it's potentially unexpected. So, we use it to emphasise information that's potentially unexpected and we're doing it with the verb.

So, another way of thinking about it might be instead of saying "he did eat his breakfast", you could also say, "he actually ate breakfast". We could even double this up and say, "he did actually eat his breakfast".

Let's go through one more example. "Bill doesn't sing then", right. So, "Bill doesn't sing", right. So, that's me showing my assertion, my belief is that he doesn't sing. And if you hear this and you're like, "no, no, no... it's the opposite. Bill does sing". You're emphasising the correction of the previous statement. "No, no, no. It's not that he doesn't sing.

He does sing, Bill does sing." So, we use "do" in front of an infinitive verb like this, a bare infinitive to emphasise its meaning, among many other things, in English. But yeah, this is definitely something that native speakers do intuitively when they're trying to really show that information is correct when someone thought it wasn't.

And it's something you guys need to get used to if you want to get good and sound much more natural when speaking English, too. Okay, so there you go. A funny thing to mention here is that you'll often hear people make jokes when people use "do" to emphasise the verb "do". Because we'll say, "oh no, they do do that", right.

So, an example might be "do your kids do karate?" Oh no, you would do this in a negative. You'd say, "oh, his kids don't do karate". And the person would respond, "no, they do do karate".

By the sound of it, that's what you do do.

When we hear, "doo-doo", it's kind of like a kid's way of saying poo. Oh no, I stepped in dog doo-doo. So, we often make a joke there where if you say, "doo-doo", we sort of laugh because it's like, "huh! He said, poo. The kids' word for poo. Doo-doo."

Anyway, let's get into today's news story. A museum famous for its intriguing world of animal droppings has been victorious after a lengthy battle with the local council to keep its unique signage. The Pooseum, maybe doo-dooseum, in the historical village of Richmond in Tasmania had its signage removed after its owners failed to obtain the necessary planning permit.

The sign depicted a penguin bending over doing a poo, doing a doo-doo, and the council officers recommended a retrospective application for it be declined for multiple reasons, including it not being compatible with the road's historic streetscape. I guess they were losing their shit. I couldn't help but insert that.

Despite this recommendation, the sign was actually approved at the council meeting with eight to four votes. So, they came out victorious, they came out on top. Karin Koch, who works at the pooseum, said she was over the moon and couldn't wait to get back to work. So, next time you're in Richmond, in Tasmania, go check out the pooseum as I'm sure it's going to be full of interesting shit. Today's expression is "the shit hits the fan", guys.

So, obviously I am going to be using a lot of poo jokes and puns, you know. So, yeah. All right. Anyway, slap the bird. Let's get into today's joke. So, today I was going to tell you a poo joke, but then I realised that was a bad idea because they stink. All right, sorry. That was the first joke. I got a few for you. Here's another one. Why did the toilet paper fail to cross the road? Because it got stuck in a crack. Do you get it?

So, okay, I'll explain the pun here. The pun is on the word "crack", which typically means a narrow space between two surfaces which have broken or be moved apart, right. So, we recently had an earthquake in Australia, and if the ground had cracked, there would be this sudden, I don't know, would you call it a fissure in the ground that you could fall into. It's cracked. The two parts of the Earth have separated.

But we can use this informally to refer to someone's butt crack. Right. So, the space between their bum cheeks, their bottom cheeks. And obviously, that could be the answer here for toilet paper didn't cross the road because it got stuck in a crack. The toilet paper got stuck in a person's crack, or it got stuck in a crack on the road. That's the joke, right. It's a lowbrow episode. It's a lowbrow episode. So, let's get into today's expression.

Today's expression is "the shit hits the fan, the shit hits the fan". This is obviously a very informal expression, though you're going to hear it all the time, wherever it's fine to use informal language like the word "shit", remembering that it is a swear word. So, obviously don't use this in formal situations. "Shit hits the fan". You can also use this as "when shit hits the fan".

So, let's go through and define the words first, and then we'll go through the meaning, the origin, some examples, pronunciation exercise, and then the final little sample clip section of this episode. Okay, so "shit", "shit" is a swear word, and it means poo, doo-doo, faeces, excrement. It is number twos when you go to the toilet, right. So, 'the dog has done a "shit" on the floor. What are we going to do?

We're gonna- Better clean that "shit" up.' However, we can also use "shit" informally to mean things or anything, right. So, you could say, 'he's got so much "shit" lying around his bedroom', and that would be- I mean, it could be literally "shit", right, if the dog's gone in there and "shit" all over the floor.

Shit on the floor. Time to get swifty in here.

Then obviously it could be literally "shit". But when we use this- I see this all the time in films and TV shows, right, where people use the phrase to mean things. 'Oh man, there's "shit" everywhere. Oh, you got some "shit" on your face.' You know, it doesn't mean literally "shit", it means stuff, things. We can also use it to mean anything.

So, you may hear it in expressions like, 'I don't know "shit"' and it doesn't have anything to do with poo. It means, I don't know anything. I know nothing. 'I don't know "shit". I don't know "shit" about, you know, cleaning up "shit". I don't know "shit" about English. I don't know "shit" about surfing. I don't know "shit" about scuba diving', right. So, these are some really good informal expressions that you can use with friends.

To "hit" something. Obviously, if you "hit" something, this is where a missile, right, a missile being something that you can throw and that is flying through the air. It's where a missile strikes a target, so for these two things to "hit". So, if you throw a rock at a bird and the rock smacks into the bird and, you know, maybe kills the bird, maybe it smacks into two birds, two birds, one stone, right.

It "hits" the bird. It has come into contact. It has struck the bird. A "fan". Lastly, a "fan", I have one above me spinning at the moment, is an apparatus with rotating blades that creates a current of air for cooling or ventilation. So, at the moment, I'm in a little room here, it gets rather hot.

The "fan" spins above me and cool air comes down and keeps me cool. "When shit hits the fan or the shit hits the fan", this is an expression that is used to describe what happens when people find out about something that makes them very angry.

"Shit hits the fan". So, it's for things to go horribly wrong. It is messy and exciting consequences brought about by a previously secret situation becoming public. That's a fancy way of of saying, yeah, when things obviously go horribly wrong.

So, I guess the origins pretty self-explanatory, that back in the 1930s, this expression was created to allude to the idea of what would happen if you were to throw faeces, doo-doo, poo, shit at a fan that's spinning. It's obviously going to go everywhere, right. Everyone's going to get covered in shit.

There's going to be shit all over the room. The walls are going to be covered in shit. So, needless to say, if that happens, everyone's going to be having a rather shit time, right. They're going to be having a bad time. Things are going to go wrong. "Shit hit the fan".

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Let's go through some examples of how I would use this expression. So, I went to a very expensive high school. Despite my family not being very wealthy at all, they thought that this was the best high school in the region. They sent me there because they probably thought I was going to get a good dose of discipline, that the teachers would keep me in line.

Needless to say, though, that many of the other kids at the school came from rich families. A lot of them were definitely spoilt brats, right. So, they were given whatever they wanted, and they tended to be somewhat horrible kids at times. As a result of coming from rich families, they often had large expectations put on them for succeeding at school.

I remember one of my friends, one kid who went to the school, he went through from year seven, which is when we're about 12 to 13 all the way through to year 12, almost to the point of finishing the final exams, and then he decided he wanted to drop out and become a hairdresser. And so, obviously, when his parents found out they lost their shit. "The shit hit the fan". They would have been furious. They would have been fuming.

They would have been angry, livid, incredibly frustrated because of the amount of money they would have spent on this kid's education, and right before he was about to graduate and finish school and have something to show for his education. He bailed on it, he quits, and he goes and becomes a hairdresser. So, "shit would have definitely hit the fan" when they found out about his decision.

Example number two, so imagine that you were a soldier in the First World War at Gallipoli, right. One of the original Anzac soldiers fighting trench warfare in Gallipoli. Obviously, this is something that is very difficult for most of us to imagine, as we have never come anywhere near to fighting in those kinds of conditions, let alone fighting at all. But imagine, nonetheless.

Okay, so you're in the trench, you've had a sleepless night, you've been sleeping in the wet, muddy soil full of rats with a wet, soggy rug. And you're just miserable, right. Day breaks, the sun rises, and you hear (whistling) a whistle being blown, and it's time for you to grab your rifle and prepare to run into no man's land, the space between you, your trench and the enemy's.

So, another whistle sounds once you're prepared, and you've got to charge over the trench and into the enemy's fire. So, there's bullets flying overhead. Shit's going wild. You're tripping over, you know, your knee- Kneeling in the mud. People are dying all around you. "Shit has definitely hit the fan", especially if your side starts to lose and maybe suffer heavy casualties, right. A lot of people dying.

So, the moment you left the trench, and everything started going wrong, "shit hit the fan". That was "when shit hit the fan". Example number three, imagine you're a man with a gambling problem. I mean, you know, it could be a woman with a gambling problem. You're probably not going to be a child with a gambling problem. I don't think many kids would bet on much, maybe marbles, maybe Pokémon cards or something.

But imagine you're a man with a gambling problem. Okay. So, your wife's always pissed off when she hears about you going gambling, you know, she knows that you never come home with more money than you left with. And one night you get particularly carried away and end up betting your life savings that you and your wife have saved up on, say, poker at the casino.

You lose the lot, so you lose all the money that you'd taken with you, and you and your wife are bankrupt, you're broke. So, when you get home and tell her what's happened, it's probably pretty difficult to hide that kind of thing. "Shit hits the fan", right. I can imagine she would lose her shit, meaning she would lose her calm. She would lose her control of herself. She would become very angry. "Shit would definitely hit the fan".

When I came home and told my wife that I had lost our savings, that was "when shit hit the fan". All right, so there you go, guys. That is the expression for "shit to hit the fan, when shit hits the fan, the shit hits the fan". It's used to describe what happens when people find out about something that makes them very angry. It's when things go really horribly wrong.

It is messy and exciting consequences brought about by a previous secret situation that then becomes public. So, as usual, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise where you can listen and repeat after me and focus on your speaking skills. Okay, here we go.

"The. The shit. The shit hits. The shit hits the. The shit hits the fan. The shit hits the fan. The shit hits the fan. The shit hits the fan. The shit hits the fan. I think the shit's hit the fan. You think the shit's hit the fan. He thinks the shit's hit the fan. She thinks the shit's hit the fan. We think the shit's hit the fan. They think the shit's hit the fan. It thinks the shit's hit the fan." Good job, guys. Good job.

Now, before we go into the next little exercise, I've got a little puzzle for you to work out. So, I use the phrase, "I think the shit's hit the fan". What do you think that that contracted apostrophe "s" on the end of the word "shit" represents? It's an auxiliary verb. Can you work out which one it is? Okay, so I'll leave that with you for today's exercise.

Okay, to finish up, I am going to play you a line, a little clip from a film called Rogue. Now this is a movie that I watched recently. It's not too bad. It's not too great, but it is a kind of action/horror film set in the Australian outback, where a crocodile goes rogue, right. It goes, I guess you would say, it hunts down a group of people. So, it's one of those kinds of horror films set in the Australian Outback.

These people get on a boat, they're going croc viewing, and then obviously "shit hits the fan", right. I'm so proud that I actually linked those two things in. I hadn't thought of that previously. "Shit hits the fan" and the movie rolls out and you get to see all the fun and adventures that happen when a huge crocodile is hunting you down. So anyway, check out Rogue. That's spelt, R-O-G-U-E.

I'm going to play the line for you two times. The objective here is to grab some paper, get a pen and see if you can write down the phrase, the clip, the entire thing that's being said in this audio clip. See if you can write all of it down, okay. So, this is a good little listening comprehension exercise. Alright, so you're ready? I'm going to play it one time, give you a little bit of space, and then I'll play it again. Okay, here we go.

Number one.

Okay, so one of the rules of my tour is that you have only one chance to complain about the heat and the flies.

All right, good work. Hopefully you caught most of what was going on there. Remember, you can pause, you can go back, you can rewind, you can slow the speed down if you're using the premium podcast player if you're a premium podcast member. You may have that option on other podcast apps. In fact, I think my app has that, so go check that out. But yeah, feel free to listen multiple times, slow it down, speed it up.

Let's listen to it a second time and then we'll finish up. You ready? Number two.

Okay, so one of the rules of my tour is that you have only one chance to complain about the heat and the flies.

Good work, guys. Good work. So, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. Remember, make sure to send me a message, an email or a comment somewhere. Let me know what you thought of this new format, and I will see you next time.