back to article Oz Santas suffer no 'ho ho ho' blow

A recruitment company's decision to advise its Santas to refrain from uttering the traditional "ho ho ho" because it "was too close to the American slang for prostitute" has caused a pre-Xmas rumpus Down Under, Oz's Daily Telegraph reports. According to one former trainee Santa who signed up with Westaff, a company which …

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  1. Foxhill
    Dead Vulture

    *finally twigs*

    El Reg is really Fark in disguise, I've worked it out AICMFP

  2. TheThing
    Alert

    But....

    ...what should Santa say if, in best Xmas tradition, three prostitutues turn up?

  3. Daniel
    Joke

    Ho ho hoes

    Thats the Green Giant screwed then...

    ..although why anyone wants to eat sweetcorn is beyond me.

  4. David Harper

    @TheThing

    "But ... what should Santa say if, in best Xmas tradition, three prostitutes turn up?"

    Hello girls! Now, who'd like to sit in Santa's lap!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh, dear

    Intentionally left blank.

  6. Ash

    Ho ho ho

    I'd be offering that Sari person an early Christmas gift of a budget cut equal to their salary.

    MERRY CHRISTMAS!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Well it could be worse......

    Now if they were to say "Ho, Ho, Mo' Fo' Ho' " Then yes, offensive.

    Also if they were to laugh in a Christopher Lee, Hammer Horror - esque ... MwaHaHaHa. Then lots of extra laundry needed for the little chilblains.

    It's a sad state we live in where causing offence is considered such a crime that even possible misinterpretations.are feared and become newsworthy.

    Bah Humbug !

    (I meant that in a totally inclusive, non-threatening, equal opportunities, easy access, respectful of your beliefs way, of course)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Green Giant is Santa

    I always thought that Santas summer job was as the Green Giant. The 'Ho Ho Ho' gave it away for me! In Winter, he gives out presents. In Summer, he picks corn.

    Santa should be banned anyway. Grown up men bouncing little children up and down on their lap and giving them presents, promising more presents when they 'break in' to their house on Christmas Eve. Too dodgy for me. Ban them!

    --- Grump old sod

  9. Danny
    Coat

    That's the munchkins stuffed then

    The Wizard of Oz doesn't quite work with

    Ha Ha Ha, lady of negotiable affection,lady of negotiable affection,lady of negotiable affection and a couple of tra la la's

    Coat, door as per rule 8

  10. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    What's *really* offensive to women...

    ...is that someone hears the phrase "ho ho ho" from a man in a Santa suit and their first thought is "three whores".

  11. Martin Maloney

    I'm SO ashamed (yeah, right)

    "But ... what should Santa say if, in best Xmas tradition, three prostitutes turn up?"

    ho ho ho blow

    It's right there, in the headline, folks. How could everyone else miss it?

    Martin

    P. S. I have a perverted computer. Every once in a while, it develops a short circuit, and it blows a fuse!

  12. James Condron

    jesus, already?

    Although, to be fair, where does Santa fit into Winterval anyway? I thought Winterval was a time to celebrate Harry Potter.

  13. Andy

    Causing offense to the linguistically challenged

    Fire up the barbie and down another stubby

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It'll be 'hee hee hee' from now on

    None of the kids will take them seriously any more, and they'll never get a job in Blighty. Hardly makes it worth doing any more.

  15. Voice of reason
    Unhappy

    What?

    You mean there are FAKE santas in the shop grottoes!!!

    I always thought there was only one Santa and he had to do some kind of magic to be all over the place at the same time.

    Please tell me it's not so...

  16. Mr Larrington
    Flame

    It's...

    (remainder of headline removed to prevent plagiarism lawsuit from Daily Mail).

    Shoot them and burn the bodies, using the Lighthouse Family as kindling.

  17. Anonymous John
    Joke

    We three hos of Orient are

    Bearing gifts we traverse afar

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I could understand it if...

    Santa turned up in a tinted-window vehicle and emerged wearing a long coat and toting a pimp-stick.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well ...

    there is a serious point to be made here. By running from these issues we are slowly surrendering our language to the gutter - if these people *really* cared they would be going out and deliberately using this (or any other) phrase to reclaim it from the moronic, illiterate l337spk generation which is arising on both sides of the Atlantic.

    Instead they are just running scared ...

  20. Edward Rose
    Coat

    Poor B&Q

    Looks like B&Q will be changing the name of some of their stock soon to.

    Even out your garden with our premium ha.

    What are hoes used for anyway? I don't have a garden, so it's mere curiosity...

    Can't they just ban the yanks from using the term ho for anything other than its original meanings?

  21. Joe Best
    Coat

    What about hookers in rugby?

    Aussies love the old egg-bothering so is their federation or league whatever gonna ban the use of the word hooker cos it sounds like the slang for prostitute as well? If you ask me rugby is one of the most ridiculous sports going after gridlock or whatever they play in america but it has served it's purpose here

  22. An Unwashed Mass

    @It'll be 'hee hee hee' from now on

    Can't be 'hee hee hee'... That's sexist... it would have to be 'person person person'

    Hmm seem to have lost my medication

  23. AndyB
    Flame

    Oh for F**** sake

    What next? Bans on using the correct terms for female dogs, cattle and small jam-filled pastry cases because they are also insulting to women?

    And what about this place:-

    http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?G2M?X=243625&Y=129290&A=Y&Z=3

    Its about time we rounded up all of the politically correct Thought Police, stuck them all in a field and bombed the crap out of them.

  24. Ice

    Other offensive words

    Let's start listing "Politician", "Lawyer/Solicitor" and "Banker" as offensive words. If enough of us complain they are offensive we could sue each of them and become multi-millionaires.

    I didn't know a ho, hoe, or whatever referered to a derogatory categorisation of a minority (yet age old and apparently socially useful) group of humans. Who decided this? Let me know and I'll tell them about my list, as above, and start the civil redress procedure.

    Anyone else care to join?

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Ho Ho Ho

    Ho Ho Ho, Ho Ho Ho, Ho Ho Ho, FFS, Ho Ho Ho

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    <some title>

    ho ho ho ho!

    That's the most stupid thing I've heard in a long time... hilarious.

    But in any case, I think Santa Claus should be banned from the world and all memorabilia related to that son of a... female dog... should be burned and the ashes dumped in space...

    posted anonymously: I don't want Marley's ghost and the Ghost of Christmas Past know who I am

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surely...

    the americans should be going bannans about the 'ho, ho, ho' situation...

    Incendently, there is a food product by the name of Ho Hos in the US of A shouldn't this be renamed also? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Hos)

  28. Slaine
    Boffin

    @ Voice of Reason

    Calm yourself, dear festively challenged peep.

    There is a logical and totally plausible explanation. In the olden days, before digital watches and Eastenders, there were very few good little children and all the present wrapping and deliveries could be performed by a single solitary Father Christmas. (Santa is an evil Coca Cola invention - follow only the TRUE father christams). But as the global population grew so too the demand (and I do mean DEMAND) for presents increased. Fortunately, due to a slip up in the temporal genetics laboratory up in the north pole where a brand new father christmas appears every single year. Te original plan was to "refresh" FC by replacing him but the recall command for the "outgoing" FC was overlooked and so instead there is an extra FC to help make and deliver, every single year. Of course this still doesn't account for all the huge numbers of really complex "toys" that the average "child" now expects FC to generate, nor indeed the fact that the average child is only "good" enough to qualify for a satsuma and a rubber pencil... but a century or two ago, one of the FC clones came up with the brilliant idea of enlisting the help of elves.

    I hope this helps. Now please... STFU about Christmas until December.

  29. Graham Marsden
    Coat

    @AndyB

    And what about this place...?

    http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=432771&y=1153659&z=3&sv=twatt&st=3&tl=Twatt,+Shetland+[Town]&searchp=newsearch.srf&mapp=newmap.srf

  30. kathy

    HA HA HA OVER HO HO HO? OH NO NO NO

    you have to be kidding. this is a joke.. ha ha ha i think would be scary.. why? why do people have to pull this stuff come on i would love to meet the person that has a problem with ho ho ho.. now then you will have to make sure you don't buy anything with ho ho ho? why do people need to make problems why? leave santa alone with his ho ho ho.. how many years has this been going on? no you want to change it.. sounds like the church to me.. time to change the rules. kma

  31. Darryl

    Politically Correct Christmas

    http://www.kraftmstr.com/christmas/humor/pcsanta.html

  32. Eileen Bach

    stop this mass stupid debate now.

    I was going to suggest 'Woe,woe,woe' instead but then his reindeers wouldn't move I suppose.

  33. Solomon Grundy

    small jam-filled pastry??

    What term for a small jam-filled pastry could possibly be offensive to women?

  34. Sam

    Bluddy Imports

    What is the world comming to!

    I remember when we used to be able to make all our own "it's political correctness gone mad & it's ruining Christmas" stories.

    Now we have to import them from places like china & australia.

    Is there no-one left who can hand-craft a story like this out of some sticky-backed plastic & a toilet roll?

  35. ben edwards

    Test the theory

    Ha ha ha = laughing at a little kid and demoralising it

    Ho ho ho = whore whore whore

    Hee hee hee = laughing again at the kid

    Hu hu hu = santa is now an owl

    Hi hi hi = ultra confusingly hello hello hello

  36. Glenn Alexander
    Paris Hilton

    @ jam-filled pastry

    Nothing I like more than a Custard Tart, except possibly a couple of tarts wrestling in custard!

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