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{{
{{quote|'''Bakura:''' Cor blimey, that was a smashing manoeuvre! Good show, chaps!
'''Tristan:''' Stop being so British!
|''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series]]''}}
Turns of phrase that are clichéd or even passé in the UK, but turn up in television all the time. In US TV, often used to up the level of Britishness. Many of these were originally popularized by [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]]. Some, especially the ruder ones, are still regularly used in [[Real Life]].
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Note that this article contains many colloquialisms which may not (indeed, rarely do) have fixed definitions, therefore to some extent your mileage may vary.
{{examples}}
* Aggro: Agression, trouble, etc. Used in e.g.: ''It seems there's some aggro going on!'' This one is definitely more used in Australia.
* Arse: Ass is occasionally heard as a [[Bowdlerise]]d version of arse, a sort-of [[Foreign Cuss Word]]. It tends to be used in the sense of "donkey", so that making an ass of yourself and making an arse of yourself are distinct and "ass" is slightly milder. The distinction is generally that an "ass" is a wilfully stubborn or unreasonable person (a donkey metaphor, obviously), while an "arse" or "arsehole" is a person who is unpleasant, yobbish or rude.
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* What's all this then?: What a bobby (patrol officer) says upon arriving at the scene of [[Hilarity Ensues|whatever mayhem is occuring]]. Usually preceded by "All right, all right", "'Ello, 'ello, 'ello" or "Now then, now then."
* You're nicked, chum: You're under arrest (Or its variant from ''[[The Sweeney]]'': "Get yer trousers on -- you're nicked!").
----
Notable users of '''Stock British Phrases''':▼
▲{{examples|[[Notable]] users of '''Stock British Phrases''':}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Hellblazer|John Constantine]] probably uses everything on this list and then some.
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== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Chicken Run]]'', when "chocks away" is yelled, the chocks are revealed to be boxes of [[The Toblerone|Toblerone]] [[wikipedia:Toblerone|chocolate]].
* "Sod a dog," indicating admission of a mistake, is used by Hugh Grant in the film ''[[Notting Hill]]''; censored in the American television version. It might be just a bit of silly faux English just for that film.
** Indeed, it's used so as not to say 'fuck a duck'.
* In the ''[[Harry Potter (film)|Harry Potter]]'' films, Ron Weasley has adopted "bloody hell" as his [[Catch Phrase]].
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== [[Literature]] ==
* [[P. G.
**
* In [[Joe Orton]]'s play ''Loot'' (1965) there is a little spin on a stock phrase:
{{quote|'''Truscott''': You're fucking nicked, my old beauty.}}
* [[Enid Blyton]]'s characters use "ass" in the sense of a donkey as a synonym for "idiot" ''a lot'', [[Have a Gay Old Time|much to the amusement of later generations of readers.]]
** Dick and Fanny having "a gay old time" in ''[[The Magic Faraway Tree]]''. Recent reprints of [[The Magic Faraway Tree]] have replaced Jo, Bessie and Fanny with Joe, Beth and Frannie, and Cousin Dick with Cousin Rick.
* "Bob's your uncle" is frequently mocked in ''[[Discworld]]'', especially by Carrot, who doesn't exactly understand idioms.
** "Surely Bjorn Stronginthearm is my uncle." And thereafter, every time 'is your uncle' comes up, it's Stronginthearm, rather than Bob.
▲* [[P. G. Wodehouse|PG Wodehouse]] wrote a book called ''Eggs, Beans and Crumpets'', named after the terms by which the characters would address each other.
== [[Live
* ''[[Friends]]'' includes an episode where an acquaintance (Jennifer Coolidge) insists on speaking with a fake British accent. Not only is her speech a bizarre mix of every accent in the UK, but she also uses every stock phrase in the book.
* "Good evening, all" was used in the introduction to camera of the cosy 1960s police drama ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'', spoken by the eponymous Constable (later Sergeant) George Dixon (Jack Warner). Each episode ended with another solo piece to camera with the final words "Good night, all".
* When it comes to the swear words, [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer|Spike.]] As British magazine SFX put it:
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* "Slag" is one of [[The Mighty Boosh|the Hitcher]]'s favorite insults.
** He also said "me China" a lot.
* Jamie Hyneman on ''[[MythBusters]]'' used "Bob's your uncle" as coda to his description of the function of a pneumatic cannon in the Killer Soda Cup myth. Narrator Robert Lee followed with "So Robert's your mother's brother" in the narration.
* In ''[[Porridge]]'' (which is slang for doing time, itself), a classic 1970s sitcom, Ronnie Barker popularised the term "nerk," used as a substitute for "berk" to keep the censors happy (as back then it was a far stronger curse than it is now).
** They also used (and popularised) "Naff off". The show had to get around the problem of portraying prisoners reasonably convincingly (even though it was a sitcom) but without having them swearing (as it was shown before the 9pm [[watershed]]). HRH Princess Anne hit the headlines in the 1970s having told photographers to Naff Off but it is debatable whether this was the actual phrase she used.
* A humorous variation of "Bob's your uncle" from ''[[The Young Ones]]'' is "Bob's your auntie's live-in lover".
* "Evening all" was popularised by [[Morecambe and Wise|Eric Morecambe]].
* ''[[The Two Ronnies]]'' were extremely fond of stock phrases, as a lot of their sketches hinged on word play and double meanings.
== [[Music]] ==
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* [[Gorillaz]]. Mostly in their interviews, but if you talk to them on their website, they'll use it.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* Mac Manc McManx of ''[[Get Fuzzy]]'' uses these to the point that no one can understand what he's saying.
== [[Theatre]] ==
* In ''[[On a Clear Day You Can See Forever]]'', when Daisy discovers her doctor has been hypnotizing her into revealing her past life as an 18th-century Englishwoman, this is how she answers him on the phone:
{{quote|"Cheerio! Oh, tally-ho, Doctor! Yes, she gave me the jolly message. Nothing's wrong. After all, what is time? If you miss me in this life, you can catch me in the next, can't one? Eh, what? Well, kippered herring."}}
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
* When you are arrested in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]: London 1969'', the police say "You're Nicked!" This appears on screen instead of "Busted!" When you die, it's "You're Brown Bread!" (Cockney Rhyming slang for dead)▼
* During the first flashback in ''Uncharted'' 2, Harry Flynn says "Bob's your uncle" after describing the plan to steal an oil lamp from the Istanbul Museum.▼
* Unsurprisingly, seeing as it was translated and had the voices provided in England, all of the main party characters in ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' have British accents (ranging from Angelo's posh uppercrust speech, through Jessica's slightly more worldly but still classy speech, to Yangus's Cockney accent) and use a fair number of these [[Stock Phrases]]. Yangus is particularly prone to just about every cliche in the book. (He also mangles his attempts at a high-flown vocabulary, but [[Delusions of Eloquence|that's another trope]].)▼
* The bulk of the dialogue in ''[[Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure]]'' is composed of this. Even the eponymous character's [[Voice Grunting]] is Stock British Phrases.▼
* The Penguin's East End accent in ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' allows him free usage of a few of these terms, including calling Bats "wanker".▼
* The Robot Sergeant from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]: Fast Forward'' seemed to be fond of "'Ullo, 'ullo, wot's dis den?" and several others.▼
* Tons of these are used in ''[[Fable]]''. Mostly just the word "arse".▼
* ''[[Call of Duty 4]]'' had plenty of these thrown around (which is justified since it proclaims Britain and the U.S. working against [[Those Wacky Nazis|Those Wacky Commies,]] Russia and China) including a "proper good job, mate!" near the very beginning.▼
* 'Berk' is an Outer Planes expression for an inexperienced traveler, appearing frequently in [[Planescape: Torment]] and occasionally in [[Neverwinter Nights]].▼
* Since [[Dragon Age|Ferelden]] is [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Fantasy!England]] some of these do tend to show up, frequently 'sod' and 'blighter' (though due to [[The Corruption|the Blight]] that last one has a different meaning in Thedas).▼
* In the American release of ''[[Tomba]] 2: The Evil Swine Return'', when being given something, the character who gives it to you says "I've only got one of the little buggers". In the UK release of Tombi! 2, this was changed to "one of the little guys".▼
== [[Web Original]] ==
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** And now there's a kerfuffle over "Spastic", a toy character who has been criticized for sharing a name with an English term for "retarded". Hasbro has decided to rectify the situation by... not releasing the toy in Britain. Brilliant, Hasbro.
* One Treehouse of Horror episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' shows the 1890's Scotland Yard HQ with a sign "Our Motto: 'What's All This, Then?'".
▲== [[Video Games]] ==
▲* When you are arrested in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]: London 1969'', the police say "You're Nicked!" This appears on screen instead of "Busted!" When you die, it's "You're Brown Bread!" (Cockney Rhyming slang for dead)
▲* During the first flashback in ''Uncharted'' 2, Harry Flynn says "Bob's your uncle" after describing the plan to steal an oil lamp from the Istanbul Museum.
▲* Unsurprisingly, seeing as it was translated and had the voices provided in England, all of the main party characters in ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' have British accents (ranging from Angelo's posh uppercrust speech, through Jessica's slightly more worldly but still classy speech, to Yangus's Cockney accent) and use a fair number of these [[Stock Phrases]]. Yangus is particularly prone to just about every cliche in the book. (He also mangles his attempts at a high-flown vocabulary, but [[Delusions of Eloquence|that's another trope]].)
▲* The bulk of the dialogue in ''[[Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure]]'' is composed of this. Even the eponymous character's [[Voice Grunting]] is Stock British Phrases.
▲* The Penguin's East End accent in ''[[Batman: Arkham City]]'' allows him free usage of a few of these terms, including calling Bats "wanker".
▲* The Robot Sergeant from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]: Fast Forward'' seemed to be fond of "'Ullo, 'ullo, wot's dis den?" and several others.
▲* Tons of these are used in ''[[Fable]]''. Mostly just the word "arse".
▲* [[Call of Duty 4]] had plenty of these thrown around (which is justified since it proclaims Britain and the U.S. working against [[Those Wacky Nazis|Those Wacky Commies,]] Russia and China) including a "proper good job, mate!" near the very beginning.
▲* 'Berk' is an Outer Planes expression for an inexperienced traveler, appearing frequently in [[Planescape: Torment]] and occasionally in [[Neverwinter Nights]].
▲* Since [[Dragon Age|Ferelden]] is [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Fantasy!England]] some of these do tend to show up, frequently 'sod' and 'blighter' (though due to [[The Corruption|the Blight]] that last one has a different meaning in Thedas).
▲* In the American release of ''[[Tomba]] 2: The Evil Swine Return'', when being given something, the character who gives it to you says "I've only got one of the little buggers". In the UK release of Tombi! 2, this was changed to "one of the little guys".
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:British Media Tropes]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/Britain]]
[[Category:Stock Room]]
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