Transcript of AE 987 - Australian Guy Teaches You African American English

He got scared, started stuttering and say, h-h-hold up, w-w-wait a minute. Something ain't right. I said, yeah, we 'bout to m-m-mummify your arse now, boy.

Guys, what's going on? I'm Pete and this is Aussie English. Today I have got a different kind of episode for you, guys. Today I want to react to a video that someone sent me recently of a flight attendant in the US apprehending another gentleman on the plane using duct tape. Now, this video is absolutely hilarious.

I've watched it twice already, but I'm going to react to it again and then we can go through and break down some of the interesting vocab that is used in this video. Okay, so are you ready? Let's go. Okay. Here we go.

A belligerent passenger causing sheer chaos in the air, and it got so bad that flight attendants had to duct tape the man to his seat. Ever since masks were required on aeroplanes, flight attendants say that their work has become downright dangerous.

Now, understand something, I'm a flight attendant. That means I attend the flights. Sometimes our job has us attending to crazy people. If you push us too far, you're going to have to attend this arse whooping...

So, he's using the word "attend" really well here. This guy is obviously a very, very good storyteller and you're about to see why. It's- Just try not to laugh.

You see, because on this particular flight, I'm sitting in the jump seat and I'm just looking at the damn fool. He's spitting and cussing and going crazy. I say, that's enough. I got up and I walked over there. And by the way, this man smelled like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, four shots of Everclear alcohol and regret.

I just can't imagine being on a plane where you've got this guy who looks like he is absolutely giant. I mean, I don't know if the camera angle here has been specifically kind of set low looking up at this guy. But if he was a flight attendant on my plane that I was getting a flight on and I was someone who is going to be, you know, taking the mickey, taking the piss, acting a damn fool, I think I would think twice about doing that. Right.

This guy looks like he would take me out pretty quickly. He would snap me in two.

So, I know something's about to go down. At this point he touching all over my co-workers breast and where he fucked up at is when he touched my titties because I don't play that. So, what I did is I took out the duct tape. I said, [duct tape sound effect] he got scared, started stuttering and say, h-h-hold up, w-w-wait a minute. Something ain't right. I said, yeah, we 'bout to m-m-mummify your arse now, boy. So, we wrapped him up [duct tape sound effect] better than any Christmas present you ever see. He won't be coming on no more frontier flights at all.

Oh, man, this is the kind of guy that you would just love to be friends with. I think he's going to have so many friends after he has been on TV. You could just sit around listening to this guy tell stories for hours, hours and hours and hours. So, all right. Let's go back and we'll watch the start of his interview because he uses a lot of interesting vocab.

I think there's a whole bunch of expressions and phrasal verbs, and even some Americanisms that are things that as an Australian, I understand because I watch a lot of American TV, but I would never use when speaking Australian English, although I might use them if I'm sort of being silly or joking around, you might use it to add a bit of flavour to conversation if it makes contextual sense. Anyway, let's have another listen and I'll try and stop it after each time he uses an interesting piece of vocabulary expression.

Now, understand something, I'm a flight attendant. That means I attend the flights. Sometimes our job has us attending to crazy people. If you push us too far...

"Push someone too far", that is like a annoy someone to breaking point. Take something to the limit. Right. If you push someone too far, it's usually that you've done something that has annoyed them, irritated them, made them angry to the point that they're now going to react and react badly. Nah, it's not going on like that, mate. If I push my dad too far with asking for money, he might kick me out of the house if I'm a kid or if I push my dad too far with breaking the rules, he might ground me. Okay. "Push someone too far".

You're going to have to attend this arse whooping. "Arse whooping". That's a really good American expression. So, if you receive an "arse whooping" or give someone an "arse whooping". So, if someone deserves an arse whooping, they go'n get it. The idea there is that you are obviously whooping, I guess that's to hit, to kick, to beat their arse. Right. Which is the American way of saying, "arse", your bottom. The Australian English version would be an "arse whooping", it just doesn't have the same ring to it. You kind of have to say, "arse whooping". I gave that guy an arse whooping.

But it means to beat someone, beat someone up. Right. You kicked his arse or kicked his arse in Australian English, gave someone an arse whooping. You're going to have to attend this arse whooping. "You're going to have to attend this arse whooping". He's playing as well with the word "attend". Right. He's a flight attendant, he attends to people on the flight. Right. Taking care of them, attending to their needs. And sometimes, as he said before, he has to attend to idiots, you know, to stupid people.

And he was making a joke then, too, that those people are going to have to attend to an arse whooping if they misbehave. You see, because on this particular flight, I'm sitting in the jump seat and I'm just looking at the damn fool. That's another really good American expression "to act a fool or to act a damn fool". So, if you "act a fool", the idea here is that you're being an idiot. You're acting like a fool, you're acting like an idiot, you're doing stupid things.

You'll hear this quite often, Americans will say this, I don't think Australians will really say this, but yeah, "he was acting a damn fool. He was acting like a fool, like a damn fool". Love is fickle and it can make you act like a damn fool. Forgive my American accent, guys. And I think he was saying he was in the jump seat. I'm not sure which one that is, but I believe that's one of the chairs that the flight attendants will sit in, maybe near the exit of a plane. Right. With the, I guess the seat belt on. He's just waiting.

He's doing his thing when they're all strapped in, and this guy just starts "acting like a damn fool". He starts acting like an idiot. You see, because on this particular flight, I'm sitting in the jump seat and I'm just looking at the damn fool. He's spitting and cussing and going crazy. There's an interesting verb he uses there, "cussing", right. "Cussing, cussing, to cuss". This is a verb that we would understand as Australian English speakers, but that we won't use, we would use "to swear". Right. "To swear". So, if you use swear words, you are swearing.

Americans quite often use the verb "to cuss". One of the things you'd notice that separates me from everybody else, I don't do, what, in any of my videos. I don't curse- You've never seen me cuss before. "To cuss". So, again, it's something that I'm aware of and that I understand when I hear it. But it's interesting that it's not something I would ever use, you know, "I was just cussing". I think they may even turn this into phrasal verbs, in the US saying, "to cuss someone out", you know, to swear at them. Again, Americans, you tell me. That's just me trying to remember how you guys use this verb.

But it's an interesting one. Have another listen, where he talks about him cussing. He spitting and cussing and going crazy, I say, that's enough. I got up and I walked over there. And by the way, this man smelled like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, four shots of Everclear alcohol and regret. So, again, there's a lot of humour in this, I love how the guy's not even laughing. He smelt like, I think he said, a full pack of Marlboro's. So, that's like a cigarette brand. So, he's obviously, the guys obviously smoked a lot of cigarettes. I think he said something like four shots of Everclear alcohol.

But the thing you'll hear that's interesting, and I don't know, this may be the incorrect term nowadays, but it sounds like it's Ebonics to me. So, this is the African American accent that they'll use when speaking, think he says four I think there was- It was an interesting pronunciation of one of the vowels there early on, we'll go back and listen in a sec. And then when he says alcohol, he says it in a different way as well that's interesting. It's not the usual American English, standard American English pronunciation.

But yeah, the joke here, I guess, is he's saying he smells like cigarettes, a lot of alcohol and then regret, like the guy regrets what he's done. So, let's have another lesson and I'll try and point out the interesting pronunciation here. This man smell like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, four shots of Everclear alcohol and regret. Yeah, Okay. "Four". So, he said like, "four, four shots. Four shots", instead of "four". Right. "Four". That's really interesting. "Four". So, I think that is something that is associated with that dialect of English that African Americans use. Okay, "four".

Really interesting because they'll say things like, "for sure, or for sure, or yo like as in, get your arse out of here". It's a really cool dialect of English. This man smell like a pack of Marlboro cigarettes, four shots of Everclear alcohol. "Alcohol", he said like "alcohol, alcohol". Really interesting. Not "alcohol, alcohol". Everclear alcohol and regret. So, I know something's about to go down.

Another really good expression for you there, "to go down. Something's about to go down". "Something's about to go down", means like something exciting, something dangerous, something scary is about to happen. And so, now I'm scared because I'm like, something is about to go down. He doesn't want any witnesses. Right. So, you'll usually use this when people are about to fight. So, imagine you go to a bar and there are two men that you see having an argument or a disagreement about something. And you see one of them just like stand up in a rage.

If you look over there, you'd be like, oh, my God, "something's about to go down". Like something's about to happen. Something big is about to go down. So, I know something's about to go down. "Something's about to go down". At this point, he touching all over my co-workers breasts. "Touching all over something". This is another thing that I think is associated with African American English. I think, I don't think that the average non-African American would say, "touching all over something". Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's an interesting- "Touching all over something".

It's kind of like an expression where he's talking about you obviously touching things and all over those things. It's not something I would ever say. I would probably say, you know, the guy was groping something, especially if, as you'll see, he's talking about breasts in a second. He touching all over my co-workers breast and where he fucked up at. That's another- There's another really good expression for you, guys. I'll have to beep it out, so I don't get demonetised. He says, "where he fucked up at".

Another really interesting phrase, again, I think it's associated with African American English. "He fucked up that, where he fucked up at". It's kind of like the point at which the guy made a huge mistake because he screwed up, he stuffed up, he fucked up. And you even heard the news had to beep it out. So, "where he fucked up at". So, this is the point where the guy made the big, big, big mistake and you're about to hear why. And where he fucked up at is when he touched my titties. See this is hilarious. I don't know why- I don't know how this guy isn't laughing, because it's just amazing.

So, he's saying, you know, the guy was obviously crossing the line, touching his co-workers' breasts, you know, touching all over his co-workers' breasts, and then he's like, but where this guy fucked up at is when he touched my titties. And "titties" is an informal slang term for breasts. And it's funny because obviously to explain this joke to you, the guy is obviously rather large and is making fun of himself whilst telling this story, saying that, you know, this guy started touching his breasts and he's about to use another interesting term.

Let's have another listen and then I'll break down the next one. And where he fucked up at is when he touched my titties because I don't play that. It's another good one. "Because I don't play that". Then you can maybe check your assumptions at the door because I don't play that respectability politics bullshit. It's an interesting use of the verb "play", meaning I don't play this game, right, I don't accept these things. So, when the guy started touching my breasts, I was like, uh uh, you know, I'm not okay with this and something's about to go down.

Because I don't play it. So, what I did is I took out the duct tape. I said [duct tape sound effect]. So, "duct tape" you will have seen in the initial part of the video is that really, really strong sticky tape you put around someone, they're screwed, right, they're not going to be able to move. He ended up taking the duct tape out and taping him to the chair. He got scared, started stuttering and say, h-h-hold up. "Hold up", interesting phrasal verb meaning, wait, right. "Hold up", wait, stop. Don't do that. Hold up. Wait, wait, wait.

He got scared, started stuttering and say, h-h-hold up, w-w-wait a minute. Something ain't right. I said, yeah, we 'bout to m-m-mummify your arse. So, we about to m-m-mummify your arse. So, there's a lot of interesting parts of American English, and if it's the wrong term, sorry, but Ebonics that's being used here. "We about to". He drops the auxiliary verb "are". Instead of, "we are about to" he says "we about to".

That's something very common with African American English. And then to mummify something is the idea of like an Egyptian mummy putting tape around, you know, and mummifying that- I don't know, pharaoh, mummy? What does he say? "Yo arse, yo arse". This is another thing that's very American, it may be related to African Americans, though I think everyone may use this. Well, not everyone, but a lot of Americans. "Yo arse" is kind of a way of saying, "just you", right, we're going to do this to you. Make sure your arse subscribe and I'll see you next week player.

"We're about to mummify your arse. We're about to mummify you". He got scared, started stuttering and say, h-h-hold up, w-w-wait a minute. Something ain't right. I said, yeah, we 'bout to m-m-mummify your arse now, boy. Oh my God. It's just so- This guy's got so much personality. I would love to meet this guy. So, we wrapped him up [duct tape sound effect] better than any Christmas present you ever see. "Better than any Christmas present you ever seen". Again, interesting dropping of the auxiliary verb "have". Right.

He's saying "you ever seen. Better than any Christmas present you ever seen", instead of "better than any Christmas present you have ever seen". "Better than any Christ-" Oh my God. "Better than any Christmas present you've ever seen". So, we wrapped him up [duct tape sound effect] better than any Christmas present you ever seen. He won't be coming on no more frontier flights, at all.

And now the last thing here, guys, he uses, "he won't be coming on no more flights", right, whatever it is, frontier flights. "He won't be coming on no more". It's interesting because he uses a double negative here. So, instead of saying "he won't be coming on any more flights", he's saying "he won't be coming on no more flights". I won't hesitate no more. No more. And again, this is something that is very common with African American English. They will use these double negatives as opposed to the normal sort of accepted English grammar.

And I hate to say that because grammar is kind of relative here, there's no right or wrong. But the usual stuff you'll be taught is that when you negate the auxiliary verb, you have to keep any in there. Right. It has to be that sort of affirmative version, whereas if it is not negated, you would use the negative version. "So, he won't be coming on any more flights. He will be coming on no more flights". This guy instead said. He won't be coming on no more frontier flights, at all.

There you go, guys. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. I won't keep you any longer. Just, yeah, go and find the original video here and give it a like. I hope this guy appears somewhere else on the Internet in the future. He is a pisser, he's hilarious. Check out these videos, guys, if you are learning Australian English and I'll see you next time. Bye.