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{{trope}}
Although in America, [[The Taxi|taxi]] drivers often have a [[Funny Foreigner]] stereotype, it's quite different (in a sense, the antithesis) in England. Often ex-[[Old -Fashioned Copper|police]], the drivers of black cabs (or to be technical, [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackney_carriage:Hackney carriage#Black_cabsBlack cabs|Hackney Carriages]]) are known for falling into the second type of [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]] and liking to share with their customers their views on what's wrong with society today (immigrants, the youth, etc.) and their proposed solutions (public hangings and floggings). Not to be confused with black people who drive cabs, toward whom this character might not be congenial.
 
Another stereotype is that cab drivers like to drop the names of celebrity passengers, as in "I 'ad that Liam Gallagher in the back of my cab last Friday".
 
The test taken to qualify as a Black Cab driver in London is called "The Knowledge<ref>of London Examination</ref>", takes about ''three years'' to study for it, and involves a ridiculously intuitive knowledge of [[One London Thirty Three Boroughs|London geography]]. As [[Bill Bryson]] put it, "[London cabbies] would sooner entrust their teenage daughters to [[Evil Chancellor|Alan]] [[Really Gets Around|Clark]] for a weekend than admit they've never heard of your destination", but chances are they have.
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== Film ==
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** And another one in which a sat-nav starts making right-wing comments (this joke has been done in other media).
* The British gangster black comedy ''Underworld'' had a taxi-driver hitman who drove a (plot-significantly) white cab, complete with constant moaning about the state of the country to his passengers, including those who he'd kidnapped or killed.
* When ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'' discussed [http://en.[wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Goma:Guy Goma|Guy Goma]], the guy who showed up at a BBC news studio looking for an IT job but was mistaken for the tech writer Guy Kewney and [[Pushed in Front of The Audience]], Andy Hamilton said that it had been initially reported that Goma was a taxi driver by trade, but he knew that was false because "a taxi driver would have talked much more authoritatively about something he knew nothing about."
** Another time it came up was when the [[Caption Competition]] at the end of the episode pictured the queen sitting in the driver's side of some kind of black vehicle, which Paul interpreted as the city having to take on more part-time drivers during the Christmas season: ''[posh accent]'' "I'm not going south of the river this time of night. You must be jokin'."
** Another example was when it was revealed that Prince Philip owned a black cab, which was a particularly good fit as he is known for making gaffes about other countries' peoples.
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[[Category:British Media Tropes]]
[[Category:Driver Of A Black Cab]]
[[Category:Trope]]
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