Why is it in the U.K do people say they were pissed as rats!?

The orogin is unclear, but I do remember it being mooted as an old nautical phrase, when whe rats would knaw into stored brandy barrells. Don't quote me on that, although I do hope it's true. :)Why is it in the U.K do people say they were pissed as rats!?
P!ssed as a newt or rat-ar5ed.Why is it in the U.K do people say they were pissed as rats!?
i personally get 'paraletic!'
i didn't know that one, always heard pissed as a newt ! and sober as a judge ?
They dont. They say 'pissed as a fart', or rat-ar$ed!
Well done in the little ratty pubs, those little rodents are always getting pissed out there heads, they are the worst of all rodents. hence the expression.
Around these here parts we say drunk as Cuter Brown.
Seems like a bagged idiom commoners would use darling.
We do??? I only know pissed as a fart.
Hee! Somebody really needs to publish an English to British dictionary.
do you mean





Rat arsed?





Im 32, a londoner and said it all my life, hear it all the time!!!
um i live in uk and have never heard that you get people saying RAT AR.SED though
Never heard 'pissed as a rat'.


Like everyone else is saying, we use 'pissed as a fart' and 'rat arsed'.


Other phrases include 'sh!t faced', 'slaughtered', 'trolleyed' and 'mullah-ed'.
Umm I am British and I have NEVER heard that expression. Are you sure??





I've heard ';Pissed as a Fart'; (as in ';He's pissed as a fart again!';)





';Pissed as a Newt'; is another variant. Dunno why though - do Newts act like they're pissed?!?!?





Or ';Rat Arsed'; (as in '; I was rat arsed last night!';)





Both basically meaning you are seriously inebriated. Drunk. Have had too much alcohol. Are no longer in control of your faculties (and bodily functions in some cases). You get the picture.





But never ';Pissed as Rats';. Think you got it wrong there love.
yeah, newts, farts, everyone else has already said what I wanted to say, but I couldn't help noticing you look like me! I just had to answer to say hello!
We might say 'p*ssed as a neut' or 'rat ar*ed', but never P*ssed as rats! Where on earth did you get that from? LOL.
Because years ago when rats rules our land, they were renowned lightweights. Half a babycham and they were anyones,thus the major over population of them now. and if they even sniffed at a stella they would riot for days. So they you go yet another peice of wisdom spread across the world.
The term is pissed as a fart FYI.


And I have NO idea where the expression came from.
I think its pissed as farts isnt it?
yes, pissed as a fart, no idea why we say it.
We don't! I've lived all overe the UKand never heard that expression.
we don`t, where have you heard that?
It means they were drunk and crawling around. My family there says pissed up instead of drunk. Only a few people there would use that phrase, it is kind of slang.