Transcript
00:00:00Given that we're talking about the UK, let's play a game of guess the Victorian slang word.
00:00:05So I'm going to say different words from Victorian era Britain and you're going to try and guess
00:00:09what they mean. Okay? Okay. Yeah. Lovely. All right. First one. Tickety-boo.
00:00:14Hmm. It just means good. Something that is in perfect order or a satisfactory condition.
00:00:20That's kind of tickety-boo. Tickety-boo. Everything's tickety-boo.
00:00:22Yeah, that's tickety-boo. Muffin walloper.
00:00:25Hmm. It's your Saturday night, right? A muffin...
00:00:28Walloper. Uh, fat. I think it's a, I think it's a, it's a sort of, um, rather stout gentleman who
00:00:35enjoys muffins. Yeah. An idle person who sits at home. We can't just kick on. You've got to tell
00:00:40us what a muffin wallopper is. That's what I'm saying. I'm literally describing it to you.
00:00:45Oh, I thought you'd move on to the next day. No. It's an idle person who sits at home eating
00:00:49cakes and gossiping instead of cooking. A muffin walloper. So you should be cooking,
00:00:54but instead you're sitting at home eating cakes and gossiping.
00:00:57Next one. Church bell.
00:01:03A church bell would be my, would be my guess there.
00:01:07Oh, slang, George.
00:01:08Oh, slang. Church bell. Is it, would it be an ugly person? Like you've been hit by the
00:01:12church bell, like a Quasimodo reference?
00:01:13Oh, that's clever, but no.
00:01:16I think it's a, this sounds, I think it's a young virgin.
00:01:22Church bell.
00:01:25Harry's just going to answer young virgin for all of them. When did the young virgins come
00:01:30on?
00:01:30Carl Pilkington has that great bit, which was when he's watching University Challenge, because
00:01:34he can never guess the answer. He just says egg each time, because statistically at some
00:01:39point he's going to be right. He has a better chance of just saying egg.
00:01:41Gentlemen, gentlemen, I think we've, there's method to the madness. Church bell, I'm thinking
00:01:46a young sort of, to the left of the organ master, there's the man who rings the church bell,
00:01:53a young 14 year old.
00:01:53Oh, okay. That's actually probably way too clever. A woman who talks so much, her voice
00:01:57is reminiscent of the ringing of a church bell.
00:02:00Hmm. Okay.
00:02:01Next one. Butter upon bacon.
00:02:05Uh, it's, uh, is it like a hat on a hat? It's too, too much of a good thing?
00:02:09Yes. She's doing too much.
00:02:12Yeah.
00:02:12Butter on bacon.
00:02:13It's butter on bacon. Yeah.
00:02:14Uh, mathicking. Mathicking. You know what mathicking is?
00:02:18It sounds Northern. It sounds Northern. I'm going to, I'm going to go with.
00:02:22You're really good at this.
00:02:23Some, some level of incest.
00:02:25Uh, it could result in, it could result in incest, a term for getting wildly rowdy out
00:02:32in the streets.
00:02:33Oh, I mean, that's just, you're mafficking in Newcastle, mafficking on the big market.
00:02:36Yeah. I love the jump from it sounds Northern to some level of incest.
00:02:41Yeah.
00:02:41Could be incest. Uh, afternoonified.
00:02:45Afternoonified.
00:02:46You're slacking off. You're no longer taking things seriously.
00:02:49Yeah. Exhausted.
00:02:51Someone or something that is highly fashionable.
00:02:53Oh, afternoonified. I have to assume that that's because you're, you only dress up in the
00:02:58afternoon, right? You're afternoonified.
00:03:00Yeah.
00:03:00Right.
00:03:01You wouldn't dress that way in the morning.
00:03:02Okay.
00:03:03You wouldn't have just woken up.
00:03:03Uh, chukaboo. Chukaboo. Chukaboo. A dear friend. Dear friend, chukaboo. Uh, giggle mug. Someone who's always smiling. Uh, half rats. Bit drunk.
00:03:17Half rats. That makes sense. Half rats. Okay. So not rat-ars. Just half, half rats. Uh, evening wheezes. This should be brought back. Evening wheezes should be brought back. It means fake news.
00:03:27Uh, it's evening wheezes. Uh, and apparently it's champagne weather means it's pouring or raining.
00:03:34Coffee sisters mean besties. There we go. Some Victorian slang for you.
00:03:38Well, it is interesting, like language, like to talk about this because that's the same language. That's the English language that we still use. And those words have gone. You never notice when something disappears because it disappears. It kind of becomes forgotten. But the idea that it's the best example of anarchy, the political system of anarchy is the English language. There's no central system for it. No one sits down and goes, that's a word. That's not a word. We're changing the meaning of that. It just organically sort of emergent from the group.
00:04:03It's kind of perfect. And I think a lot of solutions are like that. You can't, you can't do it from top down. It just has to sort of let it happen.
00:04:09What do you, I mean, you spend your entire time playing with the English language. What have you come to think about sort of how it's developed recently?
00:04:18How it's developed? I don't, I don't, I don't like new words. I mean, this is slightly tangential to the question, but if I, if I was on a date, for example, and someone was using lots of new vernacular, new words, I would say it's been a great night. You know, that's what I'd say.
00:04:33I think simple words are the best words. What's the, what's the phrase? Big things are best said in small words.
00:04:41Yeah, it might be like a mark of intelligence. Like if you can get across a complex idea to a five-year-old, great. And if you need incredibly complex language, you're some kind of huckster. You're selling some bullshit.
00:04:52You've got an issue with like leet-speak, 21st century leet-speak. And that would be if a lady wants to bag Harry Rye, she can't use too much modern slang.
00:05:03I think.
00:05:03So if she came out and started talking tickety-boo, that'd really get you going.
00:05:07Unfortunately, I've watched Peep Show. So for any fans of that show, they know that word's a bit of a, bit of a turnoff.
00:05:12But I, I think I read once that the French started a revolution with three words, which are quite big words.
00:05:18But what was it? Egalité, liberté, fraternité, you know? And I don't think you need much more than that.
00:05:24You don't need much more than that to sell soap if the French are starting a revolution with just three words.
00:05:28What's the best example of compression? It's like the most simplest.
00:05:32Oh, jeez. Um, the best, the best example of compression.
00:05:38Well, there's like a two word joke, dwarf shortage.
00:05:43And I had a three word joke, which was stationary store moves.
00:05:47You had the six word story.
00:05:49Oh yeah. For sale.
00:05:50Yeah.
00:05:51Children's shoes, never worn.
00:05:53Oh Jesus.
00:05:53Yeah. Brilliant.
00:05:55How do you think about words, Jimmy, in comedy? Do you think some words are just funny?
00:05:59Or do you obsess about word choice when you're writing a joke?
00:06:01Yeah, I really do. I really think it's, it's kind of the phrasing. It's more the rhythm of it,
00:06:05but sometimes it's the, um, the phrasing, like having the right word for the thing and,
00:06:10and conjuring up an image is very important in people's heads. So you've got the kind of concept
00:06:14that you, you kind of, I know this thing's funny. How do I get that across to someone else?
00:06:18So it's about that language, the, the purpose of language of like conveying, like getting space in
00:06:25their head, getting into their head and making them kind of making them draw the cartoon.
00:06:29Didn't you have stepdads? Motherfuckers.
00:06:34Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Stepdad. I don't like the term stepdad. I prefer to say motherfucker. Yeah.
00:06:40It's nice. Just take a moment to sort of step back from it and go, yes.
00:06:43Yeah.
00:06:43It was right there. It was right there the whole time. I had a thing the other day that I just
00:06:46thought, how's no one got to this before? I was talking about that Donald Trump came up.
00:06:50I said, yeah, they tried to assassinate him and they very nearly did kill him because no
00:06:54one could warn him because no one wanted to sound stupid. No one wanted to shout, Donald, duck.
00:06:59Very good.
00:07:00That's good.
00:07:00It was right there, but you go, how did no one-
00:07:02In the palm of everyone's hands.
00:07:03How did no one see that?
00:07:04Yeah.
00:07:05Sometimes it feels like the joke's there. You're just like getting, getting rid of everything else.
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00:08:07Thank you very much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that clip, you will love the full-length
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