Watch for Sheila’s “chitty” — Cockney rhyming slang. It’s called the “chitty” because the last part of “chitty chitty bang bang” rhymes with “slang”. Sheila got it from her parents, who emigrated to Australia before she was born. “Listerine” is an antiseptic, which links back to “septic tank” — rhyme for “Yank”. As for “pony and trap”… I’ll let you guess what “trap” rhymes with.
Natural Habitat
Just like real life… but furrier
Daf** Sheila. Talk straight will ya.
*chuckles* That’s our girl’s famous Cockney rhyming slang. “Translations” will appear in the comments.
So basically Sheila is saying bull shit?
It’s like saying “Oh, crap!” more or less. Cockneys may also just say “Pony!” to mean the same. Often, saying the non-rhyming word by itself is considered a means of saying the word that they’re trying not to say. It could be considered politeness, cleverness, or both. 🙂
And Sheila immediately becomes my most hated character in the whole comic.
Egad, whyever so?
Aarrgh — a touch, I do confess it! I had meant to use “feline,” but in the excitement of creating the original strip, I failed to mark the proper difference. Ya got me! 😀
I knew about ‘Listerine’ from an episode of QI. ‘Pony and trap’ I would never have figured out.
Loving this comic! (Thanks to TessHex for mentioning it.)