Bob's your uncle

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Bob's your uncle is a commonly used expression known mainly in Britain, Ireland and Commonwealth nations. It is often used immediately following a set of simple instructions and carries roughly the same meaning as the phrase "and there you have it" or "quickly"; for example, "To make a ham sandwich, simply put a piece of ham between two slices of buttered bread, and Bob's your uncle."

Contents 1 Etymology 2 Usage 3 See also 4 References 5 External Links

[edit] Etymology

It is a catchphrase sometimes claimed to date to 1887, when British Prime Minister Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury decided to appoint Arthur Balfour to the prestigious and sensitive post of Chief Secretary for Ireland. Lord Salisbury was Arthur Balfour's uncle. The difficulty with that proposed explanation is that there is no contemporary documentation for it, and, despite extensive searching, the earliest known published uses of the phrase are from 1932 and two from 1937 and two from 1938 (these and other quotations at American Dialect Society list archived posts by Stephen Goranson)^[1].

A more probable theory is that it derives from the slang phrase "All is bob," meaning that everything is safe, pleasant or satisfactory. This dates back to the seventeenth century or so (it’s in Captain Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785). There have been several other slang expressions containing bob, some associated with thievery or gambling, and from the eighteenth century on it was also a common generic name for somebody you didn’t know. Any or all of these might have contributed to its genesis. ^[2]

[edit] Usage

In some places in Britain, "Bob's your uncle" is also a way of saying "you're all set", "you've got it made!" or "that's great!" and is used as an expression of jubilation at good fortune. It is used thus in the Alastair Sim film Scrooge, a version of the classic Dickens story A Christmas Carol, where a reformed Ebenezer Scrooge confronts his housekeeper, Mrs Dilber, on Christmas morning. He gives her a guinea (£1.05 in that era, and equivalent to about $100 today) as a Christmas present, and announces he will significantly raise her salary. In a burst of excitement the housekeeper responds, “Bob’s yer uncle! Merry Christmas, Mr Scrooge, in keeping with the situation!”^[3]. However, this may be an anachronism, as A Christmas Carol was first published by Dickens in 1843 and as outlined above the expression (in the later film) was not in use at that time.

Usage has evolved to the expressions "Robert's your father's brother", "Robert's your auntie's husband" and "Robert's your mother's brother" as synonymous phrases. "Fanny's your aunt" appears later.

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (November 2009)

The phrase was used in the September 22, 2009 episode of NCIS as well as on back to back episodes of Monk and Psych on September 25, 2009. The phrase was then used by Tony Reali in an episode of Pardon the Interruption on September 29, 2009.

The phrase was used in the famous infomercial for the Magic Bullet (appliance) where the host Mick says after making a Quesadilla, "There ya go, and Bob's your uncle, Betty's your aunt!"

The phrase can be found in the 1961 animated film adaptation of 101 Dalmatians. In a scene where Jasper and Horace notice the puppies have run away, Jasper says "Hey Horace! Look! They’re gone. They flew the coop. Right out through this hole. Here, grab a torch. We’ll run ‘em down before you can say “Bob’s your uncle”."

The killer, named Bob, in Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy" says "Bob's your uncle" a few times, and near the end, says to the man who has been blamed for the killings and is on the run, "You did the right thing coming to your Uncle Bob."

In the 2009 PS3 game, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, character Harry Flynn uses the term after explaining their initial plan that sets off the events of the game.

[edit] See also

• Jack Robinson (mythical person)

[edit] References

[edit] External Links

• Origins of Bob's your Uncle