Latest / The Front / How the Deni Dictionary is redefining Australian culture

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How the Deni Dictionary is redefining Australian culture · The Front

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I had to call the an ram the other day
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: because I burst at tire and he said the number
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: one call out is Ford Rangers.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah for just breakdowns. Sure he isn't there? Absolutely crap.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: The rage driver.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, I like that. Yeah.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. This is the weekend edition of The Front.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I'm Claire Harvey. Australia is known for its slang, but
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the exported brand Crocodile dumdee or Steve Irwin doesn't really
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: do it justice.
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  Speaker 3: Throw a shrimp on the barb thank you.
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  Speaker 1: It's a bit like Foster's the Australian beer, enjoyed overseas
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  Speaker 1: that no one actually drinks in Australia. Real Australian slang,
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  Speaker 1: handed down by generations of migrants and forged in the
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  Speaker 1: fire of early settlement, is subtle. It's clever without being pretentious,
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  Speaker 1: ironic but inclusive. My guest today is the man behind
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  Speaker 1: the Denny Dictionary, a wildly popular Instagram account responsible for
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: instant classics like the bachelor's handbag for a Woolyi's roast chook,
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  Speaker 1: the Milton Mango four x gold and AirPod with legs
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  Speaker 1: for a real estate agent. He's also maybe our best
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  Speaker 1: line of defense against a growing number of americanisms making
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  Speaker 1: their way into our daily vocabulary. Fridge cigarette is a
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  Speaker 1: phrase I actually heard in the office recently, and I've
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  Speaker 1: brought in the creator of that phrase, Lindon, who's the
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  Speaker 1: creator of the Denny Dictionary and Instagram Sensation all words
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: on this very visual platform. Lindon, what is a fridge cigarette?
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  Speaker 3: The fridge cigarette? It's say it's a candadkee coke or
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  Speaker 3: a coke zero. Really, I think these days, stepping outside
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  Speaker 3: for SIGGI might be a bit found upon, So you know,
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  Speaker 3: pulling something from the fridge seems a little a little
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  Speaker 3: more palatable.
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  Speaker 1: It's in your short list of words of the Year
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  Speaker 1: for this year on the Denny Dictionary, which is something
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  Speaker 1: you crew tell me about what it is and where
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: it came from and what it means.
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  Speaker 3: We've got a great history of like Ozzie slang and
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  Speaker 3: phrases in Australia. I think it's just a page that's
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  Speaker 3: just trying to celebrate that. You know, I don't mind
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  Speaker 3: totally personally he's looking a little bit like but as
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  Speaker 3: I said Jo in the campaign, he's as mad as
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  Speaker 3: a cut snake.
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  Speaker 1: We've had generations of old people complaining about political correctness
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  Speaker 1: and how the English language is more and more under
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  Speaker 1: control and more and more sort of bland.
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  Speaker 3: It's a crying shame. It's cruel to be able to
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  Speaker 3: kind of tell people what you can and can't laugh at.
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  Speaker 3: That's that's crazy, that's insidious.
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  Speaker 1: And they're usually blaming the young people for doing this
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  Speaker 1: to us. But in this case, it's you, a young
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  Speaker 1: person who's trying to revive old things about the Australian language.
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  Speaker 1: How does that match with I suppose change that's always
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  Speaker 1: happening in language where we realize it's probably not that
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  Speaker 1: nice to say.
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  Speaker 2: Incredibly rude things about people anymore.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: I've definitely taken some old phrases that we can't really
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  Speaker 3: be saying anymore and tried to give them a bit
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  Speaker 3: of a twenty twenty six update, you know, trying to
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  Speaker 3: make a phrase a little bit more accessible to everyone.
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  Speaker 3: But at the same time, like we all these days
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  Speaker 3: get so kind of bored by corporate jargon and just
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  Speaker 3: like the sanitization of like daily conversations. So that's just
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  Speaker 3: really what the page is trying to do, Just trying
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  Speaker 3: to make everyday conversations more interesting.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, my granddad used to describe people as being as
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  Speaker 1: ugly as it a hat full of bums, or you know,
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  Speaker 1: a face like a drop pie, all those old sayings
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  Speaker 1: that we know who in your life was the person
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  Speaker 1: who spoke like.
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  Speaker 2: This when you were young, who you feel nostalgic for a.
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  Speaker 3: Close family friend of ours. Could feel he was kind
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  Speaker 3: of like that uncle that's not really your uncle, and
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  Speaker 3: for some reason he'd always be at your family Christmas
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: or whatever, but you don't really know why he's there.
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  Speaker 3: He grew up, yeah, a few hours west of Timber,
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  Speaker 3: and he had an entire brain full of these things.
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  Speaker 2: Can you remember some of them?
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  Speaker 3: It turned up to dinner, he so, I'm hungry. I
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  Speaker 3: could eat the crutch out of like flying duck, you know,
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  Speaker 3: some of these old like real Queensland sayings. And I
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  Speaker 3: think he was kind of the one that yeah and
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  Speaker 3: chase the rider.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: I think the other lines are probably some of the
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  Speaker 3: great sporting commentators we've seen that.
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  Speaker 2: I think the moons are very shaky under attack. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: they look a little bit better when they haven't got
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: the ball. Well looks shafe for the ball. It's one
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  Speaker 2: of those dancing schools there from HK the cough droppy
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  Speaker 2: a knocked over there.
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  Speaker 1: Look, could I just suggest.
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  Speaker 3: With Royin HG or Dennis Committee's you know, I'm really.
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  Speaker 2: Puts it out in front of hill. They say it's
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  Speaker 2: easy to run down hill till huns a bac Intosh
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  Speaker 2: and he goes and he kicks a gol.
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  Speaker 1: Dennis Committee, you know, much loved AFL commentator. And there
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  Speaker 1: was a funeral the other day where I did have
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  Speaker 1: to have a small laugh even though it was a
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: sad moment when someone described him as the Shakespeare of
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Ossie Rules commentary.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he was. Unreally I was watching some clips
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  Speaker 3: the other day and on the line, you know, he's
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  Speaker 3: knuck off on him like a librarian.
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  Speaker 2: They came up, but I didn't like a librarian.
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  Speaker 1: We've never heard him.
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  Speaker 2: They don't surprise one of ols in he's got the football.
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  Speaker 2: Tell me about your other contenders for word for you.
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  Speaker 3: So I think fuel prices and cost of living is
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  Speaker 3: top of mind. So the Shanghai lux, which is the
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  Speaker 3: ev ute or the one time rodeo is some other
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  Speaker 3: terms we've come up for it. But yeah, I think
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  Speaker 3: all the ev car lots are pretty busy at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone's kind of looking at and how can they get
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  Speaker 3: into a EV and on the other end of the
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  Speaker 3: EV to all the gas guzzlers. So I think we're
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  Speaker 3: seeing a lot of ram trucks and Ford Raptors getting
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  Speaker 3: around at the moment. So the Ford Raptor we call
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: the CFM e ute or the rage Rover. It's that
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  Speaker 3: car that's, you know, riding right up your backside when
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: you're going through the MACS drive through. You know, there's
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  Speaker 3: something about those cars just they're always driven by someone
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  Speaker 3: who's got a bit of a temper problem.
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  Speaker 1: I find, yeah, absolutely in the country, often a woman.
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  Speaker 1: I think women driving those cars when they're right up
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  Speaker 1: behind you is even more terrifying than the men.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, right outside of shopping center as well. You know,
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  Speaker 3: with you you got three loads of groceries, the boot
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  Speaker 3: and three kids. You need to go to a footy training.
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  Speaker 3: You definitely don't want to get in the way.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: What are lentil stompers?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the lentil stomper is the birkenstock clog, which
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  Speaker 3: you definitely see on the foot of someone who's probably
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: signing you into your local yoga class or even just
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: your local surphy who's got a little disposable income.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I've got girlfriends who wear them a on the way
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  Speaker 1: to Pilarate's because the Pilates socks, which have a grip
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  Speaker 1: on the bottom, can fit in.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. The other one is look sitting in the quonscious
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  Speaker 3: lounge at the moment. You're probably going to see someone
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  Speaker 3: in a pair of mcg gum boots or Mossman gun boots,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: which is the Iron Williams boot, so I think that'll
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  Speaker 3: also be up there as well.
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  Speaker 1: I've also detected to move into kind of life advice
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  Speaker 1: though in and out lists, which feel like sort of
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  Speaker 1: young Jordan Peterson for me before he had a complete meltdown.
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  Speaker 1: What is in and out this year?
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  Speaker 3: Big in for cheese and baking cob loafs. All these
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  Speaker 3: fancy securdary boards can kind of we can forget them.
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  Speaker 3: Let's go back to the basics. The succulent Chinese meal
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  Speaker 3: is also really important, so it never goes away, never
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  Speaker 3: goes away. So yeah, Pronto's honey chicken and Mongolian lamb
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  Speaker 3: is a bigin for this year. I think also like
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: who can afford a birthday present these days? So why
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  Speaker 3: don't you let the money gods decide, you know, what
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  Speaker 3: a present's worth. I love putting scratches in birthday cards
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  Speaker 3: or even a scratch in a wishing well for a wedding. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: you know, a lot cheaper than giving them two hundred
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  Speaker 3: bucks is just give them a couple of five dollars
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  Speaker 3: scratches and let someone else decide how much the present
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  Speaker 3: should be worth.
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  Speaker 2: I think wishing well at weddings should be on your
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  Speaker 2: out list.
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  Speaker 3: Is it If the flights to get to the wedding
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  Speaker 3: cost more than my cuff links, I'm not coming, is
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  Speaker 3: my general view. I also think everyone should just be
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: having weddings back at their local bowlow or the golf club.
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  Speaker 3: Just make it cheaper for everyone.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to read to you one of your entries
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  Speaker 1: from the out list. Developers ripping mcguarts out of great
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: old pubs and turning the joint into a bay daycare
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  Speaker 1: center with fifty eight dollars shar quterie boards and a
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  Speaker 1: doggie tree menu.
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  Speaker 2: That is a crime.
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  Speaker 3: Every pub, particularly in the city, now feels like you're
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: walking into the same thing. They all feel like a
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  Speaker 3: Swedish nursing home. So I firmly. And I spend a
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  Speaker 3: lot of time outside of the city and there's nothing
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  Speaker 3: that tickles me and fills me with joy than walking
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  Speaker 3: into an old fashioned pub that acts like a pub,
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  Speaker 3: looks like a pub, smells like a pub, and has
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  Speaker 3: a menu that reads like a pub as well.
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  Speaker 1: What about Pokey's, So you don't have the charcuterie board,
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  Speaker 1: You've got to have some pokey.
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  Speaker 3: I know, if you don't have a shock it. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: this is a trade off, you know. I think you
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: can have them without. But look, there's a lot of
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: people who like playing the bricks laptop, But I think
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: we have to think about those pensioners playing those pianos,
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: and yeah, what's it really funding another one?
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  Speaker 1: I like is feels like to me like an attack
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  Speaker 1: on your own generation here, and I feel like this
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: could get you into some trouble blokes with wimpy little
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: mustaches who can start a podcast but can't drive. Manual
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: manual drivers are on the way out those you can
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  Speaker 1: barely get a manual car.
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  Speaker 3: I'm firmly in the belief that every single person should
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: be able to drive a manual car. If able, it's
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: able or not, no excuse, there's no excuse. My hot
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: take is that if you can't drive a manual car,
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: you're actually being quite selfish. Because if you get stuck
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: on a road trip somewhere and for whatever reason, you
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: need to take over and you say, I actually sorry,
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I can't drive manual, I think, well, what you say
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: you on the road trip?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Or you might you dream, you know, my dream might
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: come true of getting to drive a big rig or
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: a fork lift or something, and they're pretty sure they're
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: not automatic. No.
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: I think driving manuals it should be really on a
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: national test list.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: Really, what about high rocks? What is high rocks?
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: High roxyes is new fitness trend. It's a boot camp
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: obstacle course. I call it the midlife crisis Olympics. For
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: some reason, all the blokes need to do it without
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: a shirt on as well.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: At least they've stopped going to yoga, those blokes.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. I think the yoga classes and the
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: plot is classes must be really breathing a sigh of
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: a leaf now that all the high rocks brows are
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: over on the next door pushing our Christmas sleds, so
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: on the battle ropes, on the battle ropes.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean shirts are designed to soak up
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: the sweat. Isn't that what they're for? Mainly?
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: You would think so high Rox it's just cardio for content,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: really y big on my outlist for twenty two reband
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: all together, I think so. But then I also think
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: we need to put some kind of ticketing system on
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: the yoga studio so that the yoga lovers can have
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: their down with dogs in peace.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I like your take on garments as well. There's a
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: certain type of puffy jacket that I think you've called
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: a wanker's waistcoat.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Who wears that? And what is it?
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a phenomenal Australia where every middle manager who
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: works in corporate seems to feel like they need to
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: look like a jackaroo that's dressed up for a funeral
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: to go to work. So the puffer vests the north
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: face puffer. It's the wanker's waistcoat. Cleeveless, sleeveless, Yeah, sleeveless
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: north face puffa. It's usually worn by some guy who's
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: also got a pair of iron wounds on for his
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: desk job because he's probably got to hurd to me
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: e mails.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: And what's a double dinner jacket.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: The dubble dinner jacket is the antithesis of the wanker's waistcoat.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Double dinner Jacket's the flannel. I think a flannel is
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: big in for twenty twenty six. It's the working jacket
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: for the common man.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: Has to come from lows us to come from come.
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  Speaker 3: From fresh out of the packet. You can see a
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: lot of trendy stores are trying to kind of, you know,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: gentrify the flannel. Let's leave it to the masks, leave
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: it all loose.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: It can't be from Valencia.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: It can't be from there.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Coming up more of my conversation with lindon what's your
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: take on the young men of your generation who really
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: have interestingly embraced Instagram is kind of a huge platform
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: for them.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: I think the algorithm, or just social media in general,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: it's a pacifier for many, particularly blokes. They're so much
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: more comfortable stearing into their phone than they are sitting
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: around a group of mates. Phone free. One of my
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: beginns for twenty twenty six is phone free beers. People
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: are so much more comfortable sending a joke to each
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: other online rather than sitting there with their mates and
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: actually just copying it a bit, you know.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so true, isn't it.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: It's like sending a meme is the new kind of
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: coming up with a joke.
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. If we all just sit in my phones
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: or day and send each other memes, we've lost that
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: ability to sit around with a group of table of
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: friends and actually take potshots at each other, which is
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: one of the great national pastimes as well, I feel
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: and being comfortable with that creativity and language that we're
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: kind of sharing around the table as well. Yeah, taking
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: the pieces of the entrede to any kind of hard conversation.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: I think Aussie blokes definitely feel more comfortable when they
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: start a conversation with a joke or something to lighten
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: the mood before they get in anywhere. You know, Ozzie
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: Bloke's never good at sitting down from the start and
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: be like, hey, we have to have a tough conversation.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: But that just shouldn't be a meme.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: You've created a hugely successful I guess what we would
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: call it is side hustle. I hope it's not one
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: of your band phrases. But you don't really appear in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: personal in this Instagram page but you could. You could
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: turn yourself into an influence and maybe see business that's
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: what everybody else is doing. You might have to do
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: some squats in the gym with.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Your phone on, though why not? Why don't you want
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: to do that?
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: When I started the project, I never set out to
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: make a million dollars, So I'm kind of winning from
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: day one because you know, I'm not setting that goal
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: for me. The watermark of when the page is successful
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: is when you just hear the words or see the
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: words out and about. I've started on a plane before
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: a delayed jet stufflight, and someone behind me i'd never
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: met just I overheard him saying it was the He
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: called the plane the orange gamble. I remember, had a
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: real moment just like God, that's so good that some
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: random bloke in Townsville has just picked up that phrase
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: from me, posting it whoever, many thousands of kilometers away.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's lovely.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: That's an artistic kind of mindset that you've got, rather
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: than a proprietary mindset, which is where social media kind
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of takes us. It's like you created an idea, you
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: want it to be out there in the world. You
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: want people to be into it. Like artists do, rather
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: than wanting to sort of send him in.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: Invoice, Tyler, I get so much more joy out of
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: someone coming out to me and saying, hey, I absolutely
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: love that that phrase he came up with for that,
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: or I get the best wafts out of your page
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: every morning. That means so much more than you know,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: you know, selling some teeth white now, which I'll let
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: other influences do.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks Lindin.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Thanks Hey.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: You can find the Denny Dictionary on Instagram. This episode
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: of the Front was hosted by me Claire Harvey and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: produced by Jasper League, whose article on the Denny Dictionary
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: is online at the Australian dot com dot a U
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: thanks for joining us on the Front this week. Our
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: team also includes Kristin amiot Lea, Sam mcglue, Tiffany Dimack
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and Joshua Burton.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: H