4 ms·

As I said below.... double entendres, very common in Britain, appear to cause those in the West Coast US to panic for fear of being perceived sexist. In Britain

As I said below.... double entendres, very common in Britain, appear to cause those in the West Coast US to panic for fear of being perceived sexist. In Britain (home of the panto [1]), we just smile childishly...... and maybe add a 'fnarr fnarr' for good measure. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime#Performance_conventi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime#Performance_conventi...

toyg 5y ago
Double-entendres are as English as Big Ben. Even in the most prudish of eras, it's just been a staple of their artistic production, all the way from Shakespeare's times. Occasionally I listen to '60s entertainment shows from BBC Radio and they are so full of them that the average American would probably consider it "blue" material today, let alone decades ago.
- TheManInThePub 5y ago
  > Double-entendres are as English as Big Ben. Undoubtedly. Its probably also worth pointing out to our American audience that the beauty of double entendres is that any "blue" meaning is clearly in the mind of those hearing them, nowhere else! After all "Miss Shillings Orifice" is simply a carburettor part named after Miss Shilling. Any association with bodily orifices (and that one in particular) is in the mind of the listener who should hang their head in shame for having such a dirty mind :-) What *would* your mother think!
  - alimw 5y ago
    I would like to point out to the casual reader from elsewhere that the comments in this thread refer to a Britain of the past. A nation's sense of humour evolves rather quickly.
    - toyg 5y ago
      Britain is still very much like this, outside London.
    - TheManInThePub 5y ago
      Last I checked, pantomimes show no sign of becoming unpopular in Britain :-)
      - alimw 5y ago
        You got me looking for pantomime statistics in recent years :) Perhaps they're hard to find or perhaps I didn't try very hard, but the best I could come up with was this from 2013: > Terri Paddock, Managing and Editorial Director of WhatsOnStage, commented: "In general, we're seeing fewer pantomimes mounted in recent years. As of today, we're listing 125 pantomimes in our nationwide database for this Christmas as compared with a peak in 1996 of 244. https://www.whatsonstage.com/england-theatre/news/panto-stats-what-are-the-most-popular-shows-this-y_32352.html https://www.whatsonstage.com/england-theatre/news/panto-stat...
        iso1631 5y ago
        My kid's primary school takes them every year (covid excepted) to a panto, and we as a family go to our local am-dram panto. Annecdotaly that village panto has half a dozen shows and is always packed. The former is a professional show - although 125 just for professional seems low given that I know of at least 3 professional pantos within 10 miles of my house which covers a population of about 100k population Professional UK panto income increased 30% from 2012 to 2016 with about 3 million people watching a professional one each year - about 1 in 20 people. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.thestage.co.uk/long-reads/cinders-and-co-save-the-day--how-pantomime-keeps-theatre-afloat https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- pasabagi 5y ago
  Dunno how english Big Ben is. It was built in a made-up architectural style because it was supposed to be 'english' but england didn't really have much of an architectural culture. Also dunno about double-entendre. Seems a little bit depressing to me that a woman struggles through sexism to provide a life-saving invention then it ends up getting made into a vagina joke. For the record, am English.
  - TheManInThePub 5y ago
    > Dunno how english Big Ben is. It was built in a made-up architectural style Ummmm Big Ben is the bell in the Elizabeth Tower. It was made in the Whitechapel bell foundry and could not be more English! > a woman struggles through sexism to provide a life-saving invention then it ends up getting made into a vagina joke. The joke is that the joke is wholly [1] in the dirty mind of the listener. I find it very odd having to explain this to somebody from the UK. [1] Fnarr Fnarr!
    - pasabagi 5y ago
      While people in england do make a lot more jokes than people elsewhere, the average sense of humour is no better.
    - mnw21cam 5y ago
      Not only could it not be more English, but it couldn't be more distinctively English. It's the only bell in the world that sounds quite like that, due to the fact that they hit it with too big a hammer in September 1859, and had to cut a hole around the resulting crack to stop it spreading.
  - toyg 5y ago
    Unless you think of another country when you look at the clock hosted in a tower named after an English Queen that only exists in the English capital, or when you hear his distinctive gong that happens to introduce several broadcasts originating from such capital, I’d say Big Ben is pretty English, whether you appreciate it or not. But I’m sure opinions on this are divided. /s It’s also sad that you cannot appreciate an intelligent form of art that is not, in itself, sexist. There are plenty of plays, films, and tv series, where the double-entendre is “pushed” by women (x) , and there are plenty of women who thoroughly enjoy the practice (x) (I’d argue most, but maybe I just move in working-class circles). I’m sure that, if you dig in the annals of engineering, sooner or later you’ll find something nicknamed after penis jokes. Is that sad? It’s just humans being humans. (X) fnarr fnarr!

toyg 5y ago

Double-entendres are as English as Big Ben. Even in the most prudish of eras, it's just been a staple of their artistic production, all the way from Shakespeare's times. Occasionally I listen to '60s entertainment shows from BBC Radio and they are so full of them that the average American would probably consider it "blue" material today, let alone decades ago.

TheManInThePub 5y ago
> Double-entendres are as English as Big Ben. Undoubtedly. Its probably also worth pointing out to our American audience that the beauty of double entendres is that any "blue" meaning is clearly in the mind of those hearing them, nowhere else! After all "Miss Shillings Orifice" is simply a carburettor part named after Miss Shilling. Any association with bodily orifices (and that one in particular) is in the mind of the listener who should hang their head in shame for having such a dirty mind :-) What *would* your mother think!
- alimw 5y ago
  I would like to point out to the casual reader from elsewhere that the comments in this thread refer to a Britain of the past. A nation's sense of humour evolves rather quickly.
  - toyg 5y ago
    Britain is still very much like this, outside London.
  - TheManInThePub 5y ago
    Last I checked, pantomimes show no sign of becoming unpopular in Britain :-)
    - alimw 5y ago
      You got me looking for pantomime statistics in recent years :) Perhaps they're hard to find or perhaps I didn't try very hard, but the best I could come up with was this from 2013: > Terri Paddock, Managing and Editorial Director of WhatsOnStage, commented: "In general, we're seeing fewer pantomimes mounted in recent years. As of today, we're listing 125 pantomimes in our nationwide database for this Christmas as compared with a peak in 1996 of 244. https://www.whatsonstage.com/england-theatre/news/panto-stats-what-are-the-most-popular-shows-this-y_32352.html https://www.whatsonstage.com/england-theatre/news/panto-stat...
      - iso1631 5y ago
        My kid's primary school takes them every year (covid excepted) to a panto, and we as a family go to our local am-dram panto. Annecdotaly that village panto has half a dozen shows and is always packed. The former is a professional show - although 125 just for professional seems low given that I know of at least 3 professional pantos within 10 miles of my house which covers a population of about 100k population Professional UK panto income increased 30% from 2012 to 2016 with about 3 million people watching a professional one each year - about 1 in 20 people. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.thestage.co.uk/long-reads/cinders-and-co-save-the-day--how-pantomime-keeps-theatre-afloat https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https:...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
pasabagi 5y ago
Dunno how english Big Ben is. It was built in a made-up architectural style because it was supposed to be 'english' but england didn't really have much of an architectural culture. Also dunno about double-entendre. Seems a little bit depressing to me that a woman struggles through sexism to provide a life-saving invention then it ends up getting made into a vagina joke. For the record, am English.
- TheManInThePub 5y ago
  > Dunno how english Big Ben is. It was built in a made-up architectural style Ummmm Big Ben is the bell in the Elizabeth Tower. It was made in the Whitechapel bell foundry and could not be more English! > a woman struggles through sexism to provide a life-saving invention then it ends up getting made into a vagina joke. The joke is that the joke is wholly [1] in the dirty mind of the listener. I find it very odd having to explain this to somebody from the UK. [1] Fnarr Fnarr!
  - pasabagi 5y ago
    While people in england do make a lot more jokes than people elsewhere, the average sense of humour is no better.
  - mnw21cam 5y ago
    Not only could it not be more English, but it couldn't be more distinctively English. It's the only bell in the world that sounds quite like that, due to the fact that they hit it with too big a hammer in September 1859, and had to cut a hole around the resulting crack to stop it spreading.
- toyg 5y ago
  Unless you think of another country when you look at the clock hosted in a tower named after an English Queen that only exists in the English capital, or when you hear his distinctive gong that happens to introduce several broadcasts originating from such capital, I’d say Big Ben is pretty English, whether you appreciate it or not. But I’m sure opinions on this are divided. /s It’s also sad that you cannot appreciate an intelligent form of art that is not, in itself, sexist. There are plenty of plays, films, and tv series, where the double-entendre is “pushed” by women (x) , and there are plenty of women who thoroughly enjoy the practice (x) (I’d argue most, but maybe I just move in working-class circles). I’m sure that, if you dig in the annals of engineering, sooner or later you’ll find something nicknamed after penis jokes. Is that sad? It’s just humans being humans. (X) fnarr fnarr!