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Game On, Moles! The Reality TV Smackdown Aussies Love

Listen up, moles, we're tracing the origin of this much-loved saying.
Ja'mie knows how to get her game-on-moles face on.
BEN TIMONY / ABC TV
Ja'mie knows how to get her game-on-moles face on.

Australians love a good competition, and we love a better sledge, so when the saying "game on, moles" was uttered on a 2000s reality TV show, it pretty much went straight into the vernacular.

Which show was it? Funnily enough, not the surprisingly long-lived Channel 7 series The Mole.

Let's work backwards on the times 'game on, mole/s' has been uttered, starting with Australian Survivor dark horse Sue, who dropped it last week.

The viewers loved it.

Then there's The Bachelor Australia 'villain' Keira, who knows how to call out a mole when she sees one.

Or 2013 Masterchef contestant Emma, who proved herself to be queen of the moles when she won the competition.

Or Jake "the snake" from My Kitchen Rules.

Or Australia's Next Top Model

The woman credited with inventing the saying, or at least saying it first on reality TV, was Anna on Big Brother in 2006.

Watch its stunning genesis here:

As a director of cultural forecasting at consumer insights agency GalKal, Michelle Newton pays attention to these sayings as they pop up.

"It reminds me of Laurina's 'dirty street pie" on The Bachelor'," Newton said.

Is it moll or mole?

Well it can be both, this is an insult after all.

Technically, moll is an old term for a prostitute while mole refers to a literal skin blemish or a furry little rodent-like animal.

We prefer mole.

"These sayings come and go and if you think about it, moll is a very old Australian slang word for a prostitute.

"I think Australians often recycle those old words into the contemporary vernacular in a mocking, jocular sort of way.

"Language is such an important indicator of culture. Really when we're using sayings from reality TV, we're affiliating ourselves with contemporary pop culture in a way that's new and current."

So there you have it, moles, now rack off.

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