Uncle Bob

Nick Name for Robert Cecil Martin, a.k.a. "that guy from Object Mentor."


When I saw this page, I thought aha! Finally someone is going to explain the origin for that British saying "... and _blank_ is your Uncle Bob"


"Bob's your uncle!"

It was both British and Strine for "you have an inside track" or "you have a lock on it". It derives from an incident in the 19th century when a British prime minister named Lord Robert Stanley appointed his own nephew to be chancellor of the exchequer.

The phrase is used today to mean "and your problem is solved".

If you can't type tabs, just click on Convert Spaces To Tabs, and Bob's your uncle. -- Roger Browne

Terry Pratchett explains Bob's your Uncle at www.lspace.org . --

Yes, that's it. Strine has many phrases somewhat overlapping in meaning: "No worries", "She's apples", "She's jake", "Wacko the chook", and so on. Until I received a resounding stunned silence using "Bob's your uncle" at the end of a high level design review at HP San Diego 3 years ago, I had actually thought the phrase American. Growing up in oz tends to provide one a somewhat ... eccentric view of etymology. -- Peter Merel

Anyone who watched Bob & Doug Mac Kenzie (Great White North) knows "Bob's your uncle", eh?

And I thought "It's jake" was American Slang from the gangland years.

Might be. I was very surprised to find that the Australian "bloke" is used liberally in the Damon Runyon gangster stories. I guess you toss a whole bunch of slang into books and movies, and different cultures keep different parts of it. -- PM

...then there are the comedy variations, such as "Bob's your auntie's live-in lover"...

Sex-change operations are simple these days. One quick snip and tuck, and Bob's your auntie. -- Hale And Pace

See original on c2.com