'Taking the piss' means ironic teasing. It is something done the world over,
understood the world over. If Stan is incapable of understanding the
difference between ironic teasing and being deliberately rude, that is a
reflection on him and his humour bypass. But no, Stan, I did not mean to
offend you. And if you misunderstood what I was saying as being offensive
then I apologise, but that was not what I was doing. I was being sarcastic
and ironic, using a standard form of humour in Europe that people do not
usually take offence at, they 'getting' the joke.
I was making a standard joke which is made all the time about how movie is
used to imply Hollywood blockbuster, film is often used to refer to arthouse
film or film with intellectual content or a film is in itself a quality
piece of work. So 'Dumb and Dumber' is often described as a movie in Europe,
Casablanca, The Dead, Schindler's List, American Beauty, The Big Chill, etc
are described as films. It is subjective opinion by definition. In any case
'movie' is generally seen as an American term (though it is used
occasionally outide the US), film as a worldwide one. There is no one
'right' term unlike formal names or definitions. I think it unacceptable
that wiki wants to use an American term that most non-americans don't use,
or if they do, they use it as a code for bland, Hollywoodized, heavily
merchantised produce.
JT
Taking the piss means you were being rude to him, and
now think you're
allowed to be
rude because he didn't think it was funny. No. Taking the piss, like many
forms of humor,
only works if all involved agree. The phrase you're looking for is "I'm
sorry, Stan, I didn't
mean to offend you."
--
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr(a)redbird.org
http://www.redbird.org
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