WEBVTT - Cockney Rhyming Slang: Beautiful Gibberish 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:04.800 Attention Seattle in the Greater Pacific Northwest area. If you 0:00:04.840 --> 0:00:08.520 are in town on January sixteen, you're hereby commanded to 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.200 go to the More Theater to see us Stuff you 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:15.320 should know. That's right. We are kicking off with Seattle, 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.520 all new material. We're super excited. You always turn out 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.280 for us. Tickets go on sale tomorrow for the January 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:24.840 six show. You can find out ticket info at s 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.640 y s K live dot com. Welcome to Stuff You 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:31.480 Should Know, a production of I Heart Radios, How Stuff 0:00:31.480 --> 0:00:40.440 Works and Welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.559 there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant right there. There's Jerry Rowland 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:45.800 right there. So that makes this Stuff you should Know 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:54.680 right comes. We can't top that. I was trying to 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:56.680 think a way to say welcome to the podcast in 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:01.840 Cockney rhyming slang. Can you make anyto my My brain 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:06.120 is so broken right now, I can't even try. Okay, good, good, well, welcome. 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.959 It's a good, good time to record a show. Exactly 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.880 are you gonna do some Cockney in here? Right? We 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:14.440 want to offend as many Londoners as we can. I 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.520 don't know, Just just channel a little Dick van Dyke. 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:25.160 Oh you know, yeah, the American doing a bad Cockney accent. Well, 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:30.320 I did recently rewatch The Limey, Yes, for Casey's Benefits. Yeah, 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.760 the great, great movie from Steven Soderbergh. I never seen it. 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.720 It's awesome, is it really? I mean, I know it's 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:38.760 like a classic and everybody loves it, but I mean 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:41.360 it's really that good. Huh yeah, because a lot of 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.120 people liked, Um, I don't know The Hangover? Well, how 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:47.800 would you? How would you like The Lie Me and 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.520 The Hangover? Same level? Yeah, they're the same movie almost 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.640 all right, it's weird. Well, then I've seen The Hangover, 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:55.760 so I don't need to see The lime The Limey 0:01:55.840 --> 0:02:00.600 is great and Tarance Stamp is awesome in it and 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:04.000 uses some Cockney rhyming slang and one great scene. My 0:02:04.080 --> 0:02:07.040 big exposure to Cockney rhyming slang is block Stock in 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.440 Two Smoking Barrels Snatch, which I think are both directed 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.000 by Guy Ritchie Right was in lock Stock like his 0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:17.239 first attempt, and Snatch was the one that like got 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:21.040 him married to Madonna. You're a fan of Hits, Yeah, 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.200 I mean as much as I like his movies, I 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.560 don't like him personally necessarily because he like hunts, bore 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.959 like a jackass, and yeah, like drunk with his friends 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:34.959 in the most disrespectful way of murdering a pig. I 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:37.000 mean his movies. But yeah, I do like his movie. 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:39.640 It sounds like he's a creep too. I'm not going 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:43.920 to go on record saying that, but yeah, uh yeah, 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:46.880 those movies are okay. And then I guess what's his name, 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.240 don Cheatle a little bit in Oceans eleven. Sure, he 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:53.880 did a little bit of that, right, And I mean 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:57.720 like it's it's code to Americans, it's oh, there's like 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:02.239 a criminal, a British criminal. That's all that means these days. Yeah, 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:05.600 I think so. In movies, it's definitely like all of 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:08.520 those are criminal criminal people in the moment, they're like, 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:11.079 you know, kind of slick, cool criminals that like wear 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:14.280 leather coats and stuff like that, not not dumb criminals 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.120 that were like football jerseys or anything like that. They're like, 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:19.560 you know, smooth criminals. That's I think what I was 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:24.000 looking for. But um, this this idea of associating it 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.760 with Cockney is not necessarily associating it with criminals. It's 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.800 more associated with like um, lower class, working class, less educated, 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:37.240 definitely not the aristocracy over in Britain or the upper class. 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:41.080 And that by by speaking with a Cockney accent, or 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:44.880 more to the point, using Cockney rhyming slang, you could 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.560 really differentiate yourself too as a point of pride, like 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:52.360 you were speaking like your group. You're in group, which 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.320 was at the time Cockney. But the big surprise to 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:58.960 all this is it's really possible and even probable that 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:02.800 it wasn't then that came up with this rhyming slang, 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:06.960 that it was somebody else altogether. Maybe who knows? Should 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:10.200 we say what it is? No, not for the rest 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:16.160 of the podcast, Cockney rhyming slang. It wasn't even very 0:04:16.200 --> 0:04:20.640 clearly defined in this piece. Okay, did you think it was. 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.520 It's in there, Okay, you gotta just kind of separate 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:27.680 the wheat from the chaff. So it is a two 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:32.599 word phrase. It is a slang phrase consisting of two words. 0:04:33.480 --> 0:04:37.040 Were the last word of that phrase rhymes with the 0:04:37.080 --> 0:04:40.599 original word. And it can be And I think the 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.320 best way to do this is just to throw out 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:47.000 of you keep describing, well, the two word phrase. It 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:48.760 can be. It can be a lot of things. That 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.120 can be a person's name, it can be just something random, 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.240 could be a place, could be a place, it could 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.960 be a lot of things. It can be anything. Yeah, sure, 0:04:57.000 --> 0:05:00.440 I guess it can be. But shall we illustrate it through. Well, 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:03.440 there's a second part to it too, Okay, the second part, 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:07.559 and this is very important. The two word phrase that 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:10.760 you're using to that were the second word rhymes with 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.320 the word you're actually saying. Yeah, the original word, the 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.840 original word thank you, usually has nothing to do with it. 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:22.599 There's no metaphor, there's no connection, there's no nothing, there's 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:25.600 no there's no context to it. It's supposed to just 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:29.840 be random or in most cases it is just random words, right, 0:05:30.200 --> 0:05:33.080 one of which rhymes with the word you're replacing. And 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:37.760 to further complicate things, in a lot of cases, and 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:41.160 no one knows why, sometimes this happens, and sometimes it doesn't. 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:43.839 A lot of times that one of the words of 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:46.760 the two word phrases dropped and then you're just left 0:05:46.760 --> 0:05:49.440 with the one word, which doesn't even rhyme with the 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:52.479 original word anymore. Right, that's I mean, that's probably the 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:55.760 best description of cockney rhyming slaying anyone's ever given, So 0:05:56.160 --> 0:05:59.200 I think we should illustrate it with a couple of examples. 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:04.880 I've hold some from from something called the Internet. Um. 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:09.480 Here here's one, the tip and tet. That's how long 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:11.599 it took me to come up with that tip and 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:14.000 tet for Internet. But in ten years it'll just be 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:17.880 called the tip. I'm gonna log onto the tip. So 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.360 let's say your word was and this was the Ocean's 0:06:20.400 --> 0:06:24.040 eleven specifically, trouble is the word that you're trying to say. 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:30.040 Cockney rhyming slang for trouble is Barney rubble. Awesome. Um, 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.479 And so you would say you're making a bit of 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:36.720 the Bonnie rubbleed again right when somebody that was kind 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:41.080 of um, who was that making a bit of Bonnie rubble? 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:43.880 Not the CE? I already did it wrong? No, but 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:45.800 I think that's not like a real person to an 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.280 American for sure. Oh yeah, Um, I can't, I can't. 0:06:49.600 --> 0:06:52.840 I'll shout it out later. Man, I finally did a 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.200 good one. We just I just don't know who. But 0:06:55.200 --> 0:07:01.360 it wasn't a Cockney person, okay. Uh. Other example, um, 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.400 for queen, um, they would use the term baked bean 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:10.119 looks on TV it's the baked bean, and that's the queen. 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.400 Or in the case of one that's been dropped, what 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:18.000 is ed used here? Bees and honey. That one is 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:21.680 not dropped for money, okay, but which one was? Apples 0:07:21.760 --> 0:07:26.040 and pairs for stairs? Right, So you would say I'm 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:30.400 gonna go up the apple and stairs apples and pears? 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:35.880 Oh man, let me retake this. Everybody. You would say, 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:38.400 I'm going to go up the apples and pears to 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.240 go get my wallet to pay for this pizza or 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.680 something to that effect. Okay, But then over time people 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.400 dropped the pears, and so now the word for stairs 0:07:48.520 --> 0:07:51.840 in Cockney rhyming slang is just apples, which, if you're 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:54.600 just standing there on the outside like a normal American 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.880 bloke by the way, he means person. Um, you have 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.760 no idea why this person just called stairs apples. You 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.680 got what they were saying, because the context is there, 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:07.840 You're going up the apples to get your wallet to 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:11.320 pay for the pizza. But why would you just say that? 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:13.320 Did you did you hit your head? Is there something 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:15.280 wrong with you? What's the problem? Why would you just 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.800 call that apples? That's why it's so confounding. But the 0:08:18.920 --> 0:08:21.920 great thing about cockney rhyming slang, and in particular the 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:25.000 great thing about researching cockney rhyming slang, did you learn 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.880 how you get from apples two stairs and then it 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:34.000 makes sense? Sometimes yeah, that's true. It's not always yeah, 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:38.320 sometimes there's uh, it's it's not documented, which Ed points 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:40.880 out is one of the problems. Sometimes you can draw 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:44.439 the line, the through line, but because it's not documented, 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:48.960 and sometimes these things take years and years to morph 0:08:49.080 --> 0:08:52.560 into its final version unless you're unless you're you know, 0:08:53.280 --> 0:09:00.240 on the on the door now on the streets, than 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:01.880 you wouldn't know. But I don't know what streets is. 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.040 You can't just make stuff up, Like there's real words 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:09.280 on the drums and beats on the drums, right, but 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.120 they probably have a word for streets. Like that's the 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.160 whole point. You can't just make anything up, but you 0:09:15.160 --> 0:09:17.840 could if it hasn't been taken yet. Sure. But also 0:09:18.160 --> 0:09:20.360 that's the other thing about cockney rhyming slang is it 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:24.360 evolves right so old celebrities that that no one even 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.160 knows about any more, followay to new celebrities whose name 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:30.240 also rhyme with you know, whatever word you're saying, right, 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:32.599 I thought you meant old celebrities who maybe used to 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:36.120 talk this way, like Michael Caine. No, he's never said 0:09:36.120 --> 0:09:38.360 any rhyming slang in his life. Of course, you got 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:40.720 to see the movie Alfie. Maybe that's who it was. 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:43.160 It might have been Michael Kane. I don't think that 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:45.800 Michael Kane. I think it was as a matter of fact, yea, 0:09:45.960 --> 0:09:47.800 thank you, I'm glad you did it. Noel always says 0:09:47.840 --> 0:09:50.760 a good joke is to say Michael Caine in the 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:56.839 correct accent, say the words my cocaine, and it sounds 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.040 like Michael Caine saying it. Then it sounds like the 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:06.920 correct accent for Michael Caine. Right, Uh, my cocaine. Well, 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:08.400 don't you just blew that one out of the water. 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.840 You could have set me up in the future. Now 0:10:13.960 --> 0:10:18.640 you haven't my cocaine. Well, there's I've got it two 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:25.840 ways now, man, here's the thing, my cocaine. That's my cocaine. 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:29.120 It's pretty good, Michael Caine, it is good. You're right. No, 0:10:29.559 --> 0:10:31.320 you just gotta say it the right way and not 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:35.840 like a robot. Josh. So here's the one of the 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:37.960 things that sort of confounding. If you want to look 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:43.319 up a uh, like a glossary and say, well, here's 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:46.520 I'm gonna do. I'm gonna learn Cockney rhyming slang. So 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:49.160 for my trip to England, I'm really you know, I'm 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:54.160 really in with everybody. First of all, bad idea. Second 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:57.560 of all, it's it can be very localized and the 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.840 accents are all different. Yeah, so even people in London 0:11:01.559 --> 0:11:05.160 who both who all use people in London don't really do. 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.680 But the people who use Cockney rhymings lang in London 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:11.280 might not even agree on what word is means what. 0:11:11.880 --> 0:11:14.559 I'm just picturing all the people walking around England laughing 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.080 their artists off. I can't wait to get to that 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.959 one as we stumble through this. Um Yeah. Ed had 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:27.840 a really good example of why there's no um codification 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:31.360 of the Cockney rhyming slang. He said that when people 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.000 are creating a language, especially informal ones like slang, they 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.440 don't write it all down. Quote, dear Diary referred to 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.000 my house as a cat and mouse today because it rhymed. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.760 We all had a good laugh. Might try just calling 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:46.880 it cat tomorrow and see how it goes. It is. 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.880 It sounds funny, but that's that's how it works. Can 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:54.400 you imagine stumbling across the diary that? Um. And here's 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:57.880 the other thing too, is there are cases where there 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.120 is a little bit of a reflection and of the 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:06.520 original word. And the example that it gives here is twist. Yeah, 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.480 like to call a woman a twist, which I don't 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.280 know if that's a derogatory or not, or just some 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:13.800 weird slang that no one uses anymore. I don't think so, 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:16.840 although I don't know. So. Yeah, these are also the 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.040 people who use the C word like it's nothing. We 0:12:20.600 --> 0:12:26.480 can't fanny, Oh man, I can't wait to go back there, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:29.080 which we're gonna do soon, is right, I'd love to 0:12:29.120 --> 0:12:33.319 do maybe? Yeah? All right. Uh so twist came from 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:38.360 twist and twirl, which meant girl, which is uh they 0:12:38.360 --> 0:12:40.400 were talking about like dancing with a girl twisting and 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.199 twirling in a nightclub. Let's say, so there's some connection 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.760 in that way. Yeah, so girl ended up becoming twist, 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.080 So that sort of makes sense. There's another one called 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.560 on your Todd after a guy named Todd Sloan, and 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.680 it means on your own right, And the thing is, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:00.319 it's like on your Todd, it makes sense. Sloan rhymes thone. 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:02.880 It doesn't have to have any connection, but that one 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.760 actually does because Todd Sloan was a famous jockey in 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:11.720 the nineteenth century. Yes, what other kind is there? Oh? Yes, sure? 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:15.200 Um so his book, his memoir, was called Todd Sloan 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.240 by himself, which is weird to refer to yourself in 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:22.360 third person for your memoir, But there was a line 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:25.880 in it that apparently east End east Enders in London 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.120 like really picked up. I was left alone by those 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.480 I never ceased to grieve for. It's so like the 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.839 idea of being alone or on your own became synonymous 0:13:35.880 --> 0:13:38.440 with Todd Sloan. His names has happened to rhyme with that. 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:40.240 So it's one of those rare ones where there is 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:43.760 a connection to it, and also rare chuck, and that 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.120 this is a nineteenth century horse jockey and still today 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.000 on your Todd is recognized as on your own, whereas 0:13:51.000 --> 0:13:53.480 a lot of people probably have no idea exact from 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:57.440 who he is. And when that happens that frequently that 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.439 person gets moved out for potentially another celebrity another word, 0:14:01.520 --> 0:14:04.440 that's a little more understandable to recognize another new jockey 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:09.440 to people today, Right, Yeah, exactly, which can you name one? Nope, nope. Um, 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:11.880 all right, maybe we should take a break and we'll 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.920 talk about some of the other uh some other examples 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:37.240 after this message. Okay, we're back. Jerry just opened the 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:40.320 loudest sandwich in the history of the world. She's like, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:41.880 hold on a minute. And it sounded like it was 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.600 in a space blanket. It was like Ernest opens a 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:48.040 sandwich over here. That was a good one, not as 0:14:48.040 --> 0:14:52.240 good as part two. I saw that first one in 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:57.400 the theater. Yeah. So here's some other examples that have 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:01.560 Some of them have sort of aid over in England 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.240 and some of them have found their way. Like apparently 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.720 the term put up your dukes, I didn't Cockney rhyming slang, 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:10.000 so and I didn't write down where dukes came from, 0:15:10.000 --> 0:15:14.320 but that's where it was originally a Cockney rhyming slang term. Yeah, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:17.040 because so, um, you would think it had to do 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:20.720 with fists or something, dukes for fists. What didn't not 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.400 write that down? Okay, But but so that's another really 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:27.160 important point to say about cockney rhyming slang. It's frequently 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.040 rhyming slang based on slang. So the word it's replacing 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:33.480 is a slang word to begin with, So who knows 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.440 what the Duke's actually rhymed with at any point? Yeah, 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.920 that's a good point. So, uh, first of all, I've 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.200 never heard this blowing a raspberry. What have you heard 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:47.480 of that? Yeah? That's tooting out of your that What 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.320 I just did is as much blowing a raspberry is 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:55.160 actually farting. Oh really? Yeah? Okay, well I've heard of 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:59.400 giving someone a raspberry like that. Okay, that's the same thing. Yeah, okay, 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:05.320 Well apparently that's derived from raspberry tart slang for fart. 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.800 Isn't that amazing? It's pretty great? Yeah. Um, so that 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.960 one is one of the rare ones I love talking 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.320 about exceptions. Do you know that? Um, that's one of 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:17.160 the rare ones that made its way to America because 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:20.800 everyone but you knows what blowing a raspberry is. I 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.400 guess I've never heard of the term blowing, but giving 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.600 someone a raspberry same thing. I found two more. One 0:16:27.320 --> 0:16:30.240 is controversial. It's not set in stone, but it's as 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:33.080 good an explanation as any. Get down to brass tacks. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.240 I saw that one too. That's a standing for facts. 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.760 Let's get down to the bare facts. Um, possibly it's not. 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:44.240 It's not done. Um. One that is a percent as 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:47.160 far as I can tell, is bread. I saw that 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:53.320 too for money in America, bread and honey became just bread, right, 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.360 and it caught on here and caught on again. Just now, 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.400 well bees in honey though, was also for money. Is 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.920 that just one of the local like depends on where 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:05.800 you are things, Yeah, okay, yeah, but in America, I mean, 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.800 you know we use bread. Everybody calls it bread. Yeah. 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:11.920 I didn't know that that would come back. Yeah, somebody 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:13.880 wrote in to say it had come back. Let's get 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.040 this bread right, I guess. So that's familiar. You need 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.080 to spend more time on Reddit. Uh. Here's another one. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.359 Dog and bone stands in for phone, call me on 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.640 the dog and bone. Uh. And then Ed says there 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:31.520 may be some kind of correlation between one syllable words 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:37.440 that lead off that phrase, um staying in the phrase, 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:39.679 But I don't there's so many exceptions. I don't know 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.480 if there is a rule exactly. And I think that's 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.440 really this is worth saying. We looked all over the place. 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:51.320 I know ED did too, for straight up linguistic dissertations 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:55.080 and papers on Cockney rhyming, slane, it's not there. It's 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.600 just treated as fun and hilarious, even though it is 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.800 its own made up language. It's ever evolving, still alive, 0:18:01.840 --> 0:18:03.600 has been around. We'll talk about the history of a 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:06.960 minute for a hundred and fifty plus years, but apparently 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:09.119 no linguists has ever thought enough of it to to 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:12.959 sit down and write a genuine paper about it. So 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.400 we couldn't find that. But the one thing that really 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:20.520 occurred to me was in looking into it. I don't 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.320 know if it could ever be explained. I think it's 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:27.320 the result of so many individual decisions and then collective 0:18:27.320 --> 0:18:30.440 agreements to take up and go along with those decisions, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.320 and those agreements can be totally undermined by a new 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.840 individual decision that catches on that. How could you possibly 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.919 map and even understand all or explain all of that 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.120 different stuff? But even though we can't explain it, once 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:48.800 you start to learn how it works, it's understandable. So 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.679 you can't explain, but you can't understand it. Yeah, And 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.200 it's like I always wonder with any kind of slang 0:18:55.320 --> 0:18:57.920 or like who who makes the stuff up? Who sets 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.280 the rules? It's probably just the kind of thing that 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.280 just starts on a playground and spreads from there and 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:11.720 gets codified unofficially. Uh, then everyone's using it, but I 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.880 wonder if they're I don't know. You can't trace this stuff, 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.960 which is sort of frustrating as researchers, because I think 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:20.360 we like to pinpoint things. Yeah, but it I mean 0:19:20.600 --> 0:19:23.800 people have tried to trace it and they've come awfully close. Well, 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:25.720 we'll get to that in a minute. I want to 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:28.400 go over some more of these. I want to get 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:30.640 up on my plates and get out of here your meat, 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.439 your plates of meat, plates of meat, which his feet 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:40.359 or between podcast you probably have to go take a rattle, Yeah, 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.520 rattle and his rattle and hiss like a snake. You 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:48.440 got it? And that means peep exactly. And then should 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.960 I guess we should talk about ours? Yes, that's the 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:54.560 one you were pretty excited about. Yes, because it goes 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.399 even so much farther than our Stephen. Yeah, it's pretty convoluted. Okay, 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.000 you want to take it? No, go ahead? So urs 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:06.480 the very famous name for ass in the UK. Everybody 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:12.160 knows that it's actually it comes from Aristotle, which you're like, well, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:13.639 what does that have to do with ass well. Let 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:18.879 me tell you Aristotle is Cockney rhyming slang for bottle. Again, 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:20.879 the question is what does that have to do with 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.439 ass well. Originally the Cockney rhyming slang word for ass 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:30.439 was bottling. Glass became shortened to bottle. Somebody came along 0:20:30.440 --> 0:20:34.080 and rhymed Aristotle with it. That got shortened to aris, 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:37.560 and then to ours. It goes even further than that. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:45.879 I saw one plaster for ours, plaster of Paris, Paris, Aristotle, bottle, 0:20:46.040 --> 0:20:50.080 bottle and glass. Ass That's how deep the Cockney rhyming 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.920 slang has covered up the collective ass of the UK. Yeah, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:58.440 and again it's like why you can't You can't put 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:00.480 that in a book and explain in it in any 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.080 kind of way that makes sense. You gotta do it 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:04.359 on a podcast or a paper. You just have to 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:06.440 accept it. It's like, that's how it happened on the street. 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.200 I think that's a really good way on the streets 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.720 to the east end right right in your cocaine, No, 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:17.600 not your cocaine. Uh. They do have for all that 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:20.000 we're saying about how don't look at glossaries and stuff 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.600 like that, they do have dictionaries that you can buy. 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.760 If you're a total square, I would guess it's probably 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:29.840 not a good thing to do. That's like saying, you know, 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:31.760 I want to become a rapper, so let me get 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:34.800 a rhyming dictionary. Although I did have a rhyming dictionary 0:21:34.800 --> 0:21:37.600 at one point. Well, rhyming it's not, you know, just 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:41.639 limited to Cockney. We love to rhyme, Yeah, which is 0:21:41.680 --> 0:21:47.120 one assertion d makes for why it's popular so long lasting. Well, 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.200 should we talk about some of the theories on where 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:52.920 it originated? Because I looked in a bunch of places 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:57.159 and I don't think I mean, I think calling it 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.240 theory is a little um. I think they kind of 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:04.120 know where it came from. They just don't know exactly why. 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:07.199 They can't pinpoint it to like on this day, on 0:22:07.320 --> 0:22:11.440 this in this place. But it's not a complete mystery though. No, 0:22:11.640 --> 0:22:14.840 they've got it basically localized to about a one and 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:19.359 a half mile area of London and basically down to 0:22:19.400 --> 0:22:22.639 the year. It's just exactly where and exactly who is 0:22:22.880 --> 0:22:26.080 and exactly why are the real outstanding questions, which is 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:29.000 actually a lot of questions. Yeah, one of the one 0:22:29.000 --> 0:22:32.919 of the wise was that, uh, and this one I 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.480 think doesn't have as much credence now, but it's like 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:37.720 the most common one, right is that you will hear 0:22:38.160 --> 0:22:42.360 that it was coded language created by criminals to keep 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:45.560 the cops confused as to what was going on, which 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:48.639 makes sense in one way because it certainly could cause confusion, 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:52.199 but it also um and I think it makes a 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.159 pretty good point that like, were they like, were cops 0:22:55.200 --> 0:22:58.280 just hanging around overhearing things like why did they feel 0:22:58.320 --> 0:23:01.360 like they needed to create this whole langue? Which and cops, 0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:04.800 if they were street cops would have figured this stuff 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:07.320 out as well, you know, because it wouldn't have been 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:09.240 that big of a secret. Yeah, there's this guy named 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.000 Dick Sullivan who wrote an essay on the Victorian Web 0:23:12.680 --> 0:23:15.680 which is actually kind of cool. Um, And he said 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:18.479 the the street cops would have come from the same 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:21.600 areas and families and neighborhoods that the criminals would have, 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:24.320 so they would have been raised on this rhyming slang anyway. 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:26.800 So it doesn't really hold up to scrutiny when you 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:29.879 when you look at it like that it was a 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:35.440 intentionally created coded language meant to confuse the cops, right, then, 0:23:35.480 --> 0:23:39.439 that's not to say it nevertheless wasn't associated with some 0:23:39.560 --> 0:23:43.439 kind of criminal underworld East London types. Yeah, and it 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:46.240 almost certainly was taken up by the Cockneys, but it 0:23:46.280 --> 0:23:50.000