British slang

[innovan]

No: HPFGUIDX 63341

Take the Mick/Mickey/Michael. British 

To mock, deride, poke fun at. There expressions are milder versions
of 
"take the p*ss". Unbeknownst to most users, they employ rhyming
slang: 
Mickey is short for a mythical 'Mickey Bliss', providing the rhyme
for 
p*ss.  'Michael' is a humorous variant. The phrases, like their more 
vulgar counterpart, have been in use since the 1940s. The original 
idea evoked by the expression was that of deflating someone,
recalling 
the description of a self-important blusterer of no substance as "all 
p*ss and wind".

--Dictionary of Contemporary Slang by Tony Thorne.