Taking the mickey

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Taking the mickey and taking the piss are British slang expressions meaning to tease or ridicule. Also shortened to take the mick. An abbreviated form of the Cockney rhyming slang take the mickey bliss, meaning 'take the piss'. E.g."Stop taking the mickey out of Billy, he's very sensitive and you're upsetting him." Cf. 'take the Michael' and 'extract the Michael'. [1930s]

The term sometimes refers to a form of mockery in which the mocker exaggerates the other person's characteristics; pretending to take on their attitudes, etc., in order to make them look silly. The Internet phenomenon known as a 'troll' is generally someone taking the mickey out of a particular point of view.

An alternate theory of its etymology is that mickey is a contraction of micturition or micturate, meaning urination/urine i.e. piss, "mickey" being a suitable alternative when, for instance, in the company of those easily offended by "taking the piss". It has also been suggested that "mickey" in this context is an ethnic slur for an Irish person, and to "take the mickey" originally meant to taunt the Irish and parody their accents. "Taking the piss is more common in Hiberno-English, that is the dialect of English spoken in Ireland. Furthermore, the use of the alternative may upset those called Michael.

Another possibility is from Mickle, which means 'great'. Taking the Mick out of someone = bringing them down to their 'proper' level. Norris.