Where "Don't Come the Raw Prawn" Comes From
“Don't come the raw prawn with me” is old-school Aussie for “don't try to deceive me” — the “prawn” alone has meant a fool or simpleton since the 1890s.
The fuller phrase took off as Australian military slang during World War II, turning up in servicemen's slang lists as early as 1940 and 1942. Exactly why “raw” got attached is still a bit of a mystery, though the best guess is that a raw prawn — like an implausible story — is hard to swallow.
"Don't come the raw prawn with me, I know you took the last beer."
How Aussies Actually Use It
Still understood by most Australians, though heard less often outside older generations.
Used whenever someone suspects they're being fed a line: “Don't come the raw prawn — I know exactly what happened.”
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