# What the hell does "Bob's your autie" mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 29, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499 "2004-01-29T01:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/1 "2004-01-29T01:48:34Z")
I guess the title says it all: What the hell does “Bob’s your autie” mean? As in “'ere, mate, you just slip tab A into slot B and Bob’s you auntie!” ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/2 "2004-01-29T01:51:15Z")
Ah, fer fack’s sake, I misspelled “auntie” in th’ bleedin’ title. ---
**Author:** ![sunfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sunfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunfish)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/3 "2004-01-29T01:53:23Z")
I heard it as “… and Bob’s your uncle,” which makes a little more sense to me. Don’t know where it came from but it seems to me to mean something like, “and there you are!” i.e., you’re done, finished with a task or trip. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/4 "2004-01-29T01:56:31Z")
Cross-gendered form of “Bob’s your uncle”, I’d say. You _do_ know what that means, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/5 "2004-01-29T02:01:04Z")
I’ve always heard it as ‘Bob’s your uncle.’ Now I have a series of questions about Uncle Bob. Or Aunt Bob. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/6 "2004-01-29T02:01:52Z")
The older and more usual phrase is “Bob’s your uncle”. In fact, until I opened this thread, I never heard or read the “Bob’s your auntie” version. I understand it dates from the 19th century and refers to the notorious nepotism of a British politician, the Earl of Salisbury - Robert Cecil, or “Bob” to his intimates. He gave lucrative public appointments to a number of his relatives. Hence, if you were related to Bob, things would work out for you. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/7 "2004-01-29T05:43:31Z")
Thanks all, esp. UDS for the interesting etymological tidbit. Y’all must appreciate my faith in this place when I say I posed the question here first before googling it. Appears “Bob’s Your Auntie” is not only, it would seem, a variant of “uncle”, it’s also a “Farc[ical]” play by Thomas Amo. Cor blimey! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/8 "2004-01-29T12:45:25Z")
The OED says that the first appearance of the phrase “Bob’s your uncle” in print was in 1937, but it’s apparently Cockney slang that may have been used purely in speech before that. There are several supposed explanations of the origin of the phrase. Besides the one about Robert Cecil that UDS gives, there’s also one about Robert Peel. Just from a general feeling about false etymologies, I suspect that any etymology that derives the phrase from a given person is probably wrong. The OED doesn’t give any origin for the term. ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/9 "2004-01-29T14:24:17Z")
I think the “Bob’s your Auntie” version was from a joke about a sex change surgeon. I can’t really remember the form of the joke, but it ends up with him saying “Its just a snip here and a tuck there and bob’s your auntie”. Or something like that ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-does-bobs-your-autie-mean/226499/10 "2004-01-29T14:26:11Z")
A better variant - “Bob’s your auntie’s live-in lover” was used in _The Young Ones_