Eighty Eight for Eight, Mate!

February 1, 2012 4:46 PM

"Round here, we say 'mate' a lot. Do yourself a favour, and learn to figure out when a bloke is about to buy you a drink, and when he's ready to put the boot in. He'll say mate either way, but how will he say it? Use our handy guide to MATE, know what your mates are on about!"
posted by vidur (35 comments total)

Viral marketing for some beer?
posted by e.e. coli at 4:50 PM on February 1

Looks like viral marketing for something.
posted by Optamystic at 4:54 PM on February 1

In the US, 'mate' means sexual/life partner.
posted by jonmc at 4:54 PM on February 1

I was wondering if this was an article about tea. I mean, if the bloke was about to buy you a cup of mate....
posted by luminarias at 4:57 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

It's viral marketing for the company that made the videos: Content is NOT for a brand and represents no one but us. Mate.
posted by zsazsa at 4:58 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Looking around their website, it seems to be viral marketing for an Australian advertising company that doesn't know how to write valid PHP.
posted by benito.strauss at 5:01 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

Reminds me of running a linguistics lecture on polysemy around the 35-odd different uses of the word "piss" in British and NZ slang: piss off, piss on, piss in, piss-up, piss down, piss about, piss around, on the piss, take the piss, piss-easy, piss-poor, piss awful, piss-take, piece-of-piss, pisshead, pissed...
posted by Paragon at 5:05 PM on February 1 [3 favorites]

After you've finished them all, here's a quiz to see what you picked up.
posted by Metro Gnome at 5:11 PM on February 1

i'm more curious about this phrase 'put the boot in'. never heard that before and i feel like i'm reading it wrong in this context. guessing it's not supposed to be sexual?
posted by fuzzypantalones at 5:14 PM on February 1

dude
posted by orme at 5:16 PM on February 1 [5 favorites]

Christ.
posted by a shrill fucking shitstripe at 5:25 PM on February 1

guessing it's not supposed to be sexual?

That's up to you and your consenting partner, I suppose.

I don't judge you.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:31 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

In the US, 'mate' means sexual/life partner.

I was wondering if this was an article about tea.

All of which led to some hilarity on my local couchsurfing forum a few months ago, when a nice young girl made a post titled "Mate, Anyone?"
posted by mannequito at 5:41 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

this phrase 'put the boot in'

Means "deliver a beating", or kicking as the case may be. Put the boot in amidst your internal organs. Kidneys are popular, as they are still accessible when you are curled in the fetal position. Often initiated with a sharp sudden blow to the bridge of your nose with the forehead, which bleeds more than you ever imagined.
posted by Fnarf at 5:43 PM on February 1

After you've finished them all

I hated the interface immediately. Now, I'm no internet sophisticate, as the mods here will testify, but investing 20 seconds to get each definition separately seems like some weak sauce to me. No way I was doing that, so I popped in to see what I might learn from the comments.

I am unsurprised to discover that it's just some marketing dipsticks.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 6:04 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

I wish they'd put them all in one long video. I watched 4 of them after learning to skip to 7 seconds or so, but it was still too annoying to continue. :/ Good idea, bad execution.
posted by WowLookStars at 6:20 PM on February 1 [2 favorites]

I worked for some Aussies once. I'll never forget the time I did something really foolishly dumb -- a blindingly obvious mistake -- and my boss laughed and said, "Maaaaaaaaaaaaaate...."
posted by armoir from antproof case at 6:43 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

guessing it's not supposed to be sexual?

Sure, we do that too. "Oh mate! Oh mate! Oh mate! Oh! Oh! Oh! OH! MATE! MATE! MATE! MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!"
posted by tumid dahlia at 7:08 PM on February 1

dude

Duuuude.
posted by madajb at 7:27 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Yes, I think they are shilling for beer. Maybe gay beer?
posted by clvrmnky at 7:29 PM on February 1

The can is identifiably VB (Victoria Bitter).
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:06 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

So to answer your question, yes.
posted by tumid dahlia at 8:06 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Is the jacket-and-boardshorts combo meant to signify something?

Also: the promised "ready to put the boot in" rendition doesn't seem to be here.
posted by jrochest at 9:42 PM on February 1

If you're doing product placement, you don't hide the product inside a generic vinyl beer holder. I think the design of this web site is a great way to test for paranoia about subliminal advertising ... mate.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:39 PM on February 1

Rendle-Short, J 2010, ''Mate' as a term of address in ordinary interaction', Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 42, pp. 1201-1218.

Rendle-Short, J 2009, 'The Address Term Mate in Australian English: Is it Still a Masculine Term?', Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 245-268.

For anyone more interested in mate than in beer, here a a couple of references from the linguistics literature. (The author is a colleague of mine).

Sorry, but the links won't work unless you have institutional access to these journals.
posted by lollusc at 11:57 PM on February 1 [1 favorite]

Rendle-Short, J 2009, 'The Address Term Mate in Australian English: Is it Still a Masculine Term?', Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 245-268.

One of the highlights of my first trip to Australia to visit my then fiancée, was to hear Aunt Gwen call her father, her husband and her son "mate" in the span of about five minutes, and her husband calling her back "mate" repeatedly.

It was a cliché made flesh; I felt like Mrs Kandinski had hired some actors and given them scripts.
posted by kandinski at 12:42 AM on February 2

somewhat amusing cliche - but after about the 4th I really couldn't stand the music anymore (even with skipping 10 secs or so into to get the "mate'')
posted by mary8nne at 2:04 AM on February 2

Reeks of a "Most interesting man in the world" ripoff.

I would expect that from your average no brain primary school student, but for professionals think of a new combo.
posted by AndrewKemendo at 4:12 AM on February 2

'I'm not your mate, mate'
posted by numberstation at 6:23 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]

People who overuse 'mate' in British English are commonly referred to as 'wankers'.

My SO used to work in a call centre and tells me that when a call started with 'Yeah, what it is, mate..' his heart sank.
posted by mippy at 7:02 AM on February 2 [1 favorite]

I thought the actor did a good job. I imagine it would be very difficult to nail these properly, on cue (and trivial in real life). The presentation was complete crap.
posted by Goofyy at 7:03 AM on February 2

Billabong! Yeah, I went there.
posted by Splunge at 9:59 AM on February 2

I hear 'mate' used as a placeholder for nasty or threatening terms more often than not. If we like you we'll call you 'cunt'.
posted by Trivia Newton John at 7:28 PM on February 2

"Mate" seems to be a rough analog for California's "dude", no? I'm also curious how common such terms are to other languages. Does German, Italian, or French have an analog or either "dude" or "mate"?

Also, can "mate" also be used as as an interjection (directed at no one) to express shock or surprise?
posted by Davenhill at 11:35 PM on February 2

Also, can "mate" also be used as as an interjection (directed at no one) to express shock or surprise?

Sadly, or happily, no.
posted by tumid dahlia at 2:53 PM on February 6