- If you tried that on my birthday...
...you'd be staring at the business end of a hissy fit.
What is this expression "staring at the end of a hissy fit" mean?
Did you notice that about 7% of F.R.I.E.N.D.S jokes are hard to get? Especially if you are from a different country, like me. I've started this joke-research when I was learning English at home. I loved getting nerdy with all the cultural references here. The aim of this blog is to help you laugh with confidence at every joke our English speaking friends make. Subscribe to my YouTube channel. Explore the blog posts archive. And share your perspective on the jokes! Kate
I found that the Urban dictuionary defines a "Hissy Fit" as an unreasonable emotional out burst. But the "staring at the end" part of the
ReplyDeletephrase then doesn't really make sense, does it?
Мммм... Чендлер говорит "staring at the business end of a hissy fit". Если я не ошибаюсь, то "business end" означает дуло оружия или рабочую часть чего-либо, ну, а "hissy fit", как верно написано, всплеск эмоций. ИМХО, дуло тут больше подходит. Так что можно вольно перевести как "смотреть в дуло перед выстрелом [эмоций]".
ReplyDeleteIt is great! Thank you for pointing the mistake out. Chandler indeed says "staring at the BUSINESS end of a hissy fit". Now it is easier. As the dictionary.com says:
Delete"business end of something" is the dangerous end of something; the part of something that does something as opposed to the part one holds on to.
Then staring at the end of a hissy fit. Would make the phrase thranslate into:
"If you tried that on my birthday... you'd be about to face an emotionally unpleasant scene"
Thanks!
It means that Joey would be subjected to Chandler's bad temper. Chandler using the phrase "hissy fit" also makes him sound like a woman. Men do not throw "hissy fits"; they get angry. Chandler often says things or behaves in a slightly effeminate (female)way.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rick's Chick! I had no way of knowing that there are this extra layer the joke. I think I even read somewhere that they wanted to have Chandler actually turn out to be gay at some point. So I guess those feminine details about him were sort of serving that purpose too.
DeleteThe 'business end of' something is the barrel of a gun. Being the end of the gun that the bullet comes out of, it is thus the end of the gun that you 'do business' with. To stare down the business end of a gun is not just to have one pointed at you, but to be able to see DOWN the INSIDE the barrel--basically it is pointed directly at your head, so close that you can see inside it.
ReplyDeleteAbout what Rick's Chick said: 'Hissy fit', I think, is more childish than feminine, but either way it implies Chandler is not very manly.
Thank you for bringing all those little dimensions to seemingly resolved joke-question. I so enjoy knowing it.
Delete