Ask the Australian Teenage Guy...

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have seen pleanty of these posts so i may as well join in the fun.

Ask away.

2

Hiya. Which state/territory do you live in?

3

(Looks at OP’s username)

:o

Hey! Something just bit me in the ass!

4

Is everybody in Australia beautiful? I thought the girls all:
-have beautiful white teeth
-surf
-have tans
-wear bikinis
So much of what we know about Oz is gleaned from “OUTBACK” restaurant commercials…are there REALLY ugly people in Australia?

5

G’day Aussie Teenage Guy, I was wondering this the other day: Do ya’ll call Australian rules football “football” and the game where European pansies kick a round ball around for 90 minutes “soccer”, or do you call soccer “football” and Australian rules football something else? Also, without writing a book on the subject, can you tell me the basic rules and scoring of Australian football? If that is too much trouble, is there a link that can explain them?

6
      • Re: “Roo Bars” -those protective bar arrangements mounted on the front bumper of off-road trucks (or, wanna-be off-roadsy trucks from the dealership, Rovers excepted).
        -I was once told that Aussies called these “roo bars”, because it was kind of a hillbilly past-time to get drunk and drive around at high speed in the countryside trying to run over kangaroos. True or false? - MC
7

Why do you listen to that shit music?
(Just kidding, cobber).

8

Damn, TLD I was just going to post that you and I would now have to kill RiS for starting another in the never ending series of gratuitous “ask the ___” threads.

9

Aah ok, I’ll steal some of RAW’s thunder and provide some answers, because I don’t think he’s here, and most of the Aussies won’t be on for a few more hours.

buddy1 Are we gorgeous? Yes! Does a wallaby shit in the mulga? Well actually, if you want to see what Aussies look like, go to the suburbs of any major US city. We look a lot like you guys. Plenty of ugly people to choose from as well. And, especially in the cities, don’t expect everyone to be blond and blue-eyed. We have a big Asian and Mediterranean population. Obesity isn’t the problem it is in the USA, but it isn’t rare here either. The company that made the seating for the Atlanta Olympic Stadium is an Aussie firm. They had to specially redesign their seats for the er… more generous American bottom.
Beeb, football’s just zis game, y’know? Generally the code which is popular in the state you happen to call home is “football”, and the others are known by their official names. So in Sydney, we say football (Rugby League), Aussie Rules, and soccer, in Melbourne they’d say football (Aussie Rules), Rugby League, and soccer. Anyway, it’s usually just called “footy”.
MC: Kangaroos can be very big and solid. Hit a “Big Red” at sixty miles per hour, and your car will be totalled. Even with a 'roo bar, I don’t think you’ll find people doing it for fun.

10

Now that’s out of the way, reprise and I will hunt RiS down and apply the BOOT. :wink:

11

Thanks TLD, even thought i started this thread so I would get attention. But then again, maybe i should have said ask RAWisSYDNEY, because u may very well be an Australian guy.

OH well.

12

There are two types of overaugmented bumpers: Roo bars and Bull bars. Roo bars are nylon or fibreglass, highly flexible and were designed for pedestrian saftety. Hit a roo with a Roo bar at any speed and you’ll do some damage to the vehicle, hit it at anything over 40 and you can start walking. With changes in legisalation regarding bullbars and people basically not giving a shit about pedestrians you virtually never see Roo bars these days. Bull bars on the other hand are tubular steel, RHS, angle-iron and uni-beam abominations, designed to kill pesdestrians. You can safely hit a fairly large roo with a bull bar at 60 with only minimal damage. Trust me, I’ve done it more than once. You can even hit cattle at low speeds and get away with it, I’ve done that too. I have heard of people deliberately running down wallabies and roos, but it’s a long way from a national pastime. There are dickheads everywhere.

13

You’ll have to forgive my ignorance about Australia, but here goes nonetheless. My knowledge of Australia’s penal code is nearly non-existant. The only knowledge I have has come from the Simpsons. Is there really a punishment called the “boot”? Second are things generally more or less expensive than in America? I really want to move there when I get older, why? I don’t know? Finally, is vegemite really popular? Thanks

14
  1. No boot.
  2. im not sure. A can of coke costs 1 Australian Dollar.
  3. Yes, it is very popular.
15

reprise, TLD Presumably once you’re finished with RiS we’ll need another AUssie Teenage Guy to answer the questions. Mind if I take over?

I, like many people from Queensland and New South Wales, firmly believe that AFL doesn’t deserve to be called football in any context. :smiley:

[sub]Please ignore the fact that we [Brisbane] actually won the AFL this year… how could we let something like this happen? :confused::(:o[/sub]

16

Be my guest ryoushi; I’ll just settle in here with a six-pack while you explain scrums, tries, and conversions to the audience. Bwahahahaha.

[sub] hell, I left Victoria 25 years ago and I still don’t understand the rules of NRL[/sub]

17

Geeez. Costs $1.80 from the vending machine where I am. :frowning:

18

Actually, the price of a 375ml (13oz) can of coke varies considerably, depending on where you purchase it from. In general, I pay between AUD$1.20 and AUD$2.00 in the Sydney metropolitan area. That’s roughly US$0.60 to US$1.00.

Yesterday, petrol in my suburb was AUD$0.824 per litre. A few months ago it was hitting AUD$1.00 per litre - significantly more than the price of petrol in the US even taking into account the exchange rate.

It’s very difficult to compare prices between the two nations, as there are considerable differences in our economic structures. Large portions of our infrastructure are only partially privatised, and as a consequence things can seem cheaper here (the cost of prescriptions would be a good example) when in fact the government is heavily subsidising the cost through taxation.

19

Disparaging The Boot is a bootable offence!

20

even though i’m from nsw, i’ll try and explain afl.

it’s like basketball, but if you kicked the ball instead of passing it.

and instead of shooting at a goal, you kick it between four posts. if you get it between the two middle posts it’s six points, if you get it between a middle post and an outside post it’s 1 point. i think this is called a 'behind.

they mostly get the ball between the players by kicking it. sometimes they pass it but they just seem to ‘punch’ the ball instead of chucking it. they have to bounce then ball every so often as they run along. which seems unnecessarily hard, since the ball is football shaped - the same shape as a gridiron ball.

there’s some rule about giving the ball up if you’re tackled, but they can’t tackle anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

victorians seem to love the game. this says as much about victorians as it does about afl. :slight_smile:

oh, and coke for $1? where? the cheapest i can find is $1.40!