Quote: "Where the bloody hell are you?" Slogan for Australian tourism campaign, in USA Today.
Figure of Speech: hysterologia (hys-ter-o-LO-gia), the preposition interrupter.
British censors have banned a TV ad welcoming them Down Under. The offense isn’t the campaign’s bikini-clad women, or the "hell" (carefully lower-cased in the print ads), but the use of "bloody." Once upon a time, the word referred to Jesus’ wounds on the cross.
Now here’s where we get really word-wonky. The hysterologia ("later speech") emphasizes a word by shoving it between a preposition and its object. So where the bloody hell is the preposition in that sentence? "The hell" actually means "in hell," turning "the" into a preposition.
The moral is, if you want to add some zing to your profanity — and make bluenoses respond hysterically — cuss hysterologically.
Snappy Answer: "I’m with you, mate."