Dodgy Brothers

English

Etymology

From characters the Dodgey Brothers (a pair of unscrupulous businessmen played by Stephen Blackburn and Geoff Brooks) in the 1980s and '90s Australian sketch comedy series Australia You're Standing In It and Fast Forward. The brothers' name is a homophone of the Australian term "dodgy" (meaning dishonest or unreliable), and the spelling of the name in figurative uses typically matches the slang term rather than the original spelling.

Noun

Dodgy Brothers pl (plural only)

(Australia, informal) A dishonest or unreliable company or group of people.
- 2023 April 18, Bruce Banfield, “Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade – 18/04/2023 – Inquiry into Tourism and Australia's International Education”, in Official Committee Hansard (Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade), page 45:
  William Angliss students under higher education visas will apply for a transfer and go to a school where they can do cookery packaged with a Bachelor of Business. They have no intention, from what we've heard, of going on to Bachelor of Business; it's just to get that cookery qualification. Now, the reason why William Angliss doesn't package cookery with bachelor degrees is that you don't require a bachelor degree to be a cook or a chef […] However, if onshore they want to transfer and not change their visa status, they are just packaged, as I said, through to 'Dodgy Brothers' and up to higher education.

Adjective

Dodgy Brothers (comparative more Dodgy Brothers, superlative most Dodgy Brothers)

(Australia, informal) Dodgy; dishonest.
- 2010, Ben Elton, Meltdown, Random House, →ISBN, page 25:
  "Look, he continued, I know it's a leeetle bit Dodgy Brothers, babes. I'll admit that, not saying it isn't. But that's the way things work.