• Psaldorn@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    UK parlance

    “fag” = cigarette “Gay” = happy/good times “Queer” = odd or unusual

    🏳️‍🌈❤️

    • ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      My friend’s dad is from Scotland. He came to Canada and works as a dealer at a casino. One day, two obviously gay men sat at his table and one of them put down his pack of cigarettes. My friend’s dad then unknowingly said “I’m sorry sir, but we don’t allow fags at the table”. Everyone learned a bit about regional dialects that day!

    • ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      Canada is the same except

      Gay/Queer meanings are old fashioned

      And fag was a slur for religious people but that appears to be old fashioned now

      • thegiddystitcher@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        It’s kind of an old-timey usage. Comes up a lot in Lord of the Rings.

        “Gay” in this context is also old-timey.

        But a cigarette is still a “fag” to a lot of people. Interestingly uncomfortable for me to even type out even though I grew up with that being a totally normal word!

        • BarqsHasBite@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          I know gay and fag mean happy and cigarette, but didn’t know that queer was used to mean unusual (like I know it can be defined as that, but didn’t think anyone used it like that.)

          • Gabu@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            The song “Star of the County Down”, as sung by The High Kings, uses “queer” to mean “unusual”. Incidently, I find that to be the best arrange of this classic Irish tune - very melodious.

      • macrocarpa@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Not frequently said, but certainly written

        'as I crossed the misty downs I had the queerest feeling - as if being watched."

  • NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    It’s a joke from The Nanny specifically about linguistic drift.

    This post is like someone watching Austin Powers and being like “I can’t believe they almost showed his dick! What a whacky accident!”.

    • ObsidianZed@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Yeah, I know it’s black and white but some younger folks seem to way overestimate the quality of older television. This looks like it may have actually been HD, or at least higher SD.

    • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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      7 months ago

      That’s one of the only bits from The Pentaverate that really stuck the landing for me, guy really put his penis (or at least I think it might have been real) out in the open for us. Lots of people hate that netflix allowed a lot of male genitalia around that time, but I think it was a huge step forwards.

  • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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    7 months ago

    I don’t know what show this is from, but that’s an awfully strange choice of words to use to describe your butler, and I’m just saying this wouldn’t be the first time Tumblr has lied to me about what the dialogue in a TV scene was.

        • ɔiƚoxɘup
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          7 months ago

          It’s a play on words assuming that you know both meanings of all 3 words, which the audience clearly did.

          Also, it was during a time when people were becoming more aware of queer rights and those words were becoming offensive to more Americans, part of the joke, kinda like “you should never say this in the US, but in the UK it’s totally acceptable because all the words have different meanings than in the US”

          It’s also a play on linguistic drift as mentioned in another post. It’s also hanging a lantern on how unacceptable that kind of language had become and in that sense was progressive.

          I cannot think of a way that joke flies in the US today unless in a meta context of old jokes, which this meme attempts.

          Hopefully this explanation has made the joke completely unfunny at this point.

          Hahahahh

      • wander1236
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        7 months ago

        I think it’s S4E18 but I can’t find the episode to check.

  • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This is literally from The Nanny. The fact that it sounds like he’s talking about gay stuff is the joke, in the show itself.

  • mindbleach
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    7 months ago

    I’d tut at people not recognizing when a show fakes an old-timey look for a heavy-handed gag, but on reflection I’m not sure what gives it away. All I know is I can hear the laugh track between these images even without the dialog.

  • cosmicrookie@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    The funny part is that the actor who played the battler buttler (Daniel Davis) is gay (and fabulous)