BORDEAUX, France — Okay, remember that F-bomb that Vice President Joe Biden dropped at the Obamacare signing ceremony? Sure, he was merely whispering in the president’s ear. But the expletive itself quickly became a Big F-ing Deal.



Australians probably chuckled, if they noticed at all.



You see, Australian politics is a rowdy game. Like the people they represent, Australian “pollies” (as we Australians call them) are seldom shy when it comes to getting their point across.



This month, Minister for Education Christopher Pyne was accused of deploying the C-word against a rival, right in front of Madame Speaker, on the floor of the House of Representatives.



Pyne later claimed the offending word was actually “grub.” We’re not so sure. You decide:



As the video shows, the comment resulted only in a slap on the wrist from the Speaker of the House.



Here’s how a different speaker would have dealt with him:

Pyne has form when it comes to insulting opponents.



There was the time he compared then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard to Hannibal Lector (at 1 min. 53):

Pyne isn’t the only Aussie pollie who isn’t afraid to offend. Last week Prime Minister Tony Abbott ran into trouble for smirking when an elderly woman told him that the only way she could pay her health bills was through phone sex.



Earlier, when discussing maternity leave, Abbott compared a woman having a baby to a man going on holiday.

Australian politics has never been particularly politically correct. Here’s Bob Hawke — probably the most “Australian” PM ever — at a cricket match post-retirement, downing a beer in one shot:



… and telling a joke at an America’s Cup launch (Warning! There’s an F-bomb toward the end. But frankly, if that shocks you, we don’t expect you’d have clicked on this story.)

Hawke could do “serious,” too, though. Here he is completely shredding a TV reporter:

Hawke was controversially toppled as PM by Paul Keating, his long-time treasurer.



Then there was the time Kevin Rudd melted down in a sea of frustrated expletives while recording a video. (Aside from the schadenfreude value of watching a powerful man struggle, this one is astonishing for the sheer density of insults and foul language.)



Oh, and then there are the hair-munchers…

…ear wax-eaters…

… sexists …

… and the downright bizarre …

It’s enough to make you laugh, right?