Okay, now I’m wondering about “take the piss out of” and how that evolved as an expression meaning “make fun of.”
Let’s see, literally, “take the piss out of” means “to remove the contents of the other person’s bladder.”
I suppose it could figuratively mean “to cause the other person to expel the contents of his or her bladder.”
This figurative meaning suggests another expression, “to shit oneself,” which is based in the real reflex of expelling the contents of one’s bowels when under stress. Is there some connection between the two expressions, perhaps?
From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , of all things:
“When men sleep, the build-up of urine in the bladder puts pressure on the man’s prostate gland, resulting in an erection. In the 17th and 18th Centuries, a man who was thought to be unnecessarily arrogant would be described as ‘piss-proud’.
…
If you were to ridicule someone for being too ‘full of themself’, you would ‘take the piss’ out of them.”