Club Buggery - Title

Title

In most English speaking countries, the word "buggery" has two quite specific and extremely negative meanings – one refers to the act of anal intercourse, and the other to the charge in law that proscribes that act. But in Australian English, the word "buggery" and its derivations have taken on a remarkably broad range of uses, many of which are generally understood as being slightly (and usually deliberately) exaggerated and comical in tone, and while probably considered somewhat "common", most of these usages are now quite broadly accepted and are in general not considered overly offensive. It was this peculiar Australian usage pattern which obviously made it attractive to Doyle and Pickhaver as a title.

For example – one can tell someone to "go to buggery", which is a slightly stronger equivalent to the American expression "take a hike". The adverb "buggered" is also widely used and often refers to a broken or defective object ("my car's buggered") or is used as a means of expressing tiredness or exhaustion ("I'm buggered after that bushwalk"). The word can also be used as an expression of lack, such as in the phrase "There's bugger-all (money) left in the bank". But this novel range of usages is evidently only inoffensive in Australia, and the use of the word "buggery" in the series title was a source of some amazement to overseas guests such as Canadian comedian Mike Myers.