First, some definitions:
- jackass:
- fathead: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool
- jack: male donkey
- ass:
- the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; “he deserves a good kick in the butt”; “are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?”
- a pompous fool
- hardy and sure-footed animal smaller and with longer ears than the horse
- arse:
- buttocks: the fleshy part of the human body that you sit on; “he deserves a good kick in the butt”; “are you going to sit on your fanny and do nothing?”
- anus: excretory opening at the end of the alimentary canal
Heaps of Australians since the release of Jackass: The Movie and Jackass Number Two somehow can’t determine how to correctly pronounce the word “jackass”.
Cobbers, I’m gonna to tell you right here — it rhymes with “bass” as in “sea bass”! OK? It’s ass like donkey, not arse like buttocks.
There’s no flamin’ thing as a “Jackarse“! A jackass is a male donkey. If the movie were made by Australians, English, South Africans or some other nation that doesn’t do dumb stuff like drop “and” from numbers (one hundred thirty two? wtf) or very important letters (aluminum pronounced “aloomernerm” is pointless), it would still be called “Jackass”, unless it was called “Dickhead”, which is actually more likely. It wouldn’t be called “Jackarse” because there’s no such thing.
So you bloody drongos, I say don’t bring yourselves down to the level of the Amurr’kins with their innernit and aloomernum. Just because they’ve lost the distinction between “ass” (a donkey) and “arse” (buttocks/anus) doesn’t mean we have to.
Australia has a rich tapestry of insults and vulgar slang, let’s keep it that way. Ass and arse are different, jackass doesn’t sound like “jackarse” so next time you’re tempted, do it right. Have some balls, digger! You can do it!