# Do you come from a land down under? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 25, 2010, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343 "2010-01-25T09:11:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/1 "2010-01-25T09:11:48Z")
Hey, I know we’ve got a few Aussies on the board here! So I’m asking you to explain the slang in this song for me: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT7uZf7lew) Specifically, “and the men chunder”. What the hell is “chunder”? Cuz I feel like chundering sometimes, except I don’t know what’s involved. Can I chunder by myself? Will people frown upon me if I do so? Hep me, I be hyp-mo-tized! ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/2 "2010-01-25T09:13:19Z")
Chunder = vomit. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/3 "2010-01-25T10:17:29Z")
I don’t, but I have been known to plunder on occasions. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/4 "2010-01-25T10:20:48Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > Cuz I feel like chundering sometimes, except I don’t know what’s involved. Can I chunder by myself? Will people frown upon me if I do so? Hell no. You drive that porcelain bus. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/5 "2010-01-25T11:01:16Z")
> [@](#): > > What the hell is “chunder”? A technicolour yawn. The big spit. The liquid laugh. A spew. A yak. To quote Barry McKenzie: > [@](#): > > I was down by Manly Pier, drinkin’ tubes of ice cold beer > With a bucket full of prawns upon me knee > When I swallowed the last prawn, > I had a technicolor yawn > and I chundered in the old Pacific Sea > > Drink it up, drink it up, > Crack another dozen tubes and prawns with me > If you want to throw your voice, > mate you won’t have any choice > But to chunder in the old Pacific Sea ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/6 "2010-01-25T17:18:10Z")
So in Australia puking is considered a fun recreational activity, specifically for manly men? ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/7 "2010-01-25T17:24:31Z")
THanks! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/8 "2010-01-25T17:34:26Z")
> [@Winston\_Bongo](#): > > So in Australia puking is considered a fun recreational activity, specifically for manly men? You got it. ---
**Author:** ![Hallucinex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba9def/32.png) [@Hallucinex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hallucinex)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/9 "2010-01-25T17:54:23Z")
A bit more on the [origins of the word](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-chu1.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/10 "2010-01-25T17:58:26Z")
I was in Australia in 1983-84, and my Aussie friends assured me that the term comes from “Watch Under!”. Apparently, getting shitfaced while stuffing yourself with clams at a barbecue on the beach, then engaging in recreational distance barfing off a bridge/boardwalk/pier/balcony/whatever was available was considered great fun. It was only polite to give a warning to those under you. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/11 "2010-01-25T21:26:09Z")
Today is Australia Day\* so there will be a bit of chunder about. \*The main Australia day tradition involves a BBQ and the consumption of copious amounts of alcohol - leading to stuff like this: [http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/police-call-for-australia-day-grog-ban/story-e6freuy9-1225818994464](http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/police-call-for-australia-day-grog-ban/story-e6freuy9-1225818994464) ---
**Author:** ![TheBoltEater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@TheBoltEater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBoltEater)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/12 "2010-01-26T00:10:52Z")
> [@Winston\_Bongo](#): > > So in Australia puking is considered a fun recreational activity, specifically for manly men? If I may take the admittedly uncertain step of being an American answering a question about a foreign country, allow me to suggest that you may have misinterpreted a part of that delightful little prose by Barry McKenzie. To wit - the “Manly Pier” he’s referencing is surely meant to refer to the actual pier in the town of Manly, Australia which, according to their website, is > [@](#): > > Situated seven miles north-east of Sydney on the lower Northern Beaches, Manly was named by Captain Arthur Phillip after his encounter with the confident and manly Aboriginal people of the Kay-ye-my clan who lived here. 1000 pardons if you were simply being irreverent there, or, indeed, if I’m wrong about what McKenzie actually meant; but having been to Manly before, it just seems like the kind of place that deserves whatever publicity it can get. ---
**Author:** ![Krav\_Manga](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krav_manga/32/3153_2.png) [@Krav\_Manga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krav_Manga)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2010, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/13 "2010-01-26T00:50:03Z")
Bazza didn’t limit himself to singing about vomitus. He wrote a ditty about his favourite pet, too. > [@](#): > > Oh, I got a little creature, I suppose you’d call him a pet, > If he ever has taken crook, I never have to see the vet. > He goes everywhere that I go, if I’m sleeping or awake, > God help me if I ever lost, me one-eyed trouser snake. > > … > > I met this arty sheila who I’d never met before, > And something kind of told me she banged like a dunny door, > I said, “Come up and see my etching,” she said, “I hope it’s not a fake,” > She wasn’t disappointed with me one-eyed trouser snake. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/14 "2010-01-28T20:08:17Z")
I also seem to remember reading another term for barfing was “calling Earl.” It was either in the Tony Horwitz book One for the Road, or if not, Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country. I sure miss Toohey’s Old. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/15 "2010-01-28T21:01:50Z")
Talking to God on the porcelain phone is one of my favourite euphemisms. (I suspect that Aussies have words/descriptions for spew much in the same was as the inuit have words for snow) ---
**Author:** ![maplekiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@maplekiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maplekiwi)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/16 "2010-01-28T21:08:49Z")
> [@Hallucinex](#): > > A bit more on the [origins of the word](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-chu1.htm) I love this site & am bookmarking it! I’m a kiwi, but we also use this expression. “Watch under” seems as good an explanation as any. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/17 "2010-01-28T21:12:19Z")
I’ve always been partial to “talking to Ralph on the big white phone.” ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/18 "2010-01-28T22:54:51Z")
And Ralph’s friend Hughie, who has a nicely onomatopœic sound to his name. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/19 "2010-01-28T23:02:28Z")
Tangential question: it seems to me that the singer doesn’t _sound_ very Australian. Is this an Aussie accent, and just a different one from what many of us foreigners are used to, or what? Even early in the song, the way he sings "breakfast ", for example, is cute and interesting but I don’t know what accent I would associate with, if forced to have a guess. And now I have to go and listen to “Men Without Hats” because I always tend to confuse those two groups such that one always ends up making me think of the other one and then I go off to listen. Yes, I _am_ an expert in happy time-wasting. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2010, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343/20 "2010-01-28T23:17:06Z")
Men Without Hats were Canadians weren’t they? Ah well, they’re all colonials. Something I learned on this board is that the flute solo in that song is an adaptation of the Kookabarra song, and that Men at Work were unsuccessfully sued over it. Geek trivia: written on the front of their “fried out kombi” is “TANELORN RULES”, which greatly excited me when I first saw the video, having read lots of Michael Moorcock (and thinking it cool at the time). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-come-from-a-land-down-under/526343.md?page=2)