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Old December 19th, 2009, 08:02 PM   #21
Oswald
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Originally Posted by karlafong View Post
This is, I assume, British slang, and I've never quite figured out the meaning: "Bob's your uncle."
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."

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!”. 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.
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