WHO'S A BAD BOY THEN?

[Gatwick1946]

Noticed on the TV lately, a lot of things, (not people yet!), being referred to as "These Bad Boys". Does that mean they are goods boys, or what???

Latest culprits are Mr Dick Strawbridge on Carry on Up the Chateau (as I call it) and Joe Lycett on The Great British Sewing Bee: Celebrity Christmas Special (I know - but someone has to watch it!).

If words keep reversing their meanings how can an old git like me be expected to keep up? Now I understand why more and more people are so easily offended!

I think this calls for a bottle of single malt, headphones on and a trawl through YouTube for more lesser known Shadows tracks, methinks?

I'll get me coat.

Kindest regards and may you and yours be safe,
Christopher

[Moderne]

Wicked post! Sick, even!! (Sorry - those idioms are a few years old now...)

[MikeAB]

You're good, I'm good, we're all good - but what at!!?

[JimN]

Noticed on the TV lately, a lot of things, (not people yet!), being referred to as "These Bad Boys". Does that mean they are goods boys, or what???
Latest culprits are Mr Dick Strawbridge on Carry on Up the Chateau (as I call it) and Joe Lycett on The Great British Sewing Bee: Celebrity Christmas Special (I know - but someone has to watch it!).
If words keep reversing their meanings how can an old git like me be expected to keep up? ...
Christopher

Some years ago now, the actor Daniel Rigby used to a TV advert for an internet ISP (it was that persuasive that I can't remember which one it was). He referred to the ISP-provided router and wi-fi combo as "this bad boy", on the obviously-implied basis that it was excellent.

I "got" the irony, but thought the script was perhaps being aimed at the wrong household members. The one who pays the bill would surely be a better target...

[Gatwick1946]

And again, same phrase used by Bradley Walsh in Dr Who Revolution of the Daleks.

But a cracking episode nonetheless, I even detected a slight backswing against the rush to praise the "WOKE" generation. Sic transit gloria mundi!

Kindest regards,
Christopher

[Gatwick1946]

Jim,

Daniel Rigby eh? If its several years ago ago, that is probably an early reference. (Though you made me think of the actor Terence Rigby, 1937 - 2008, who was in "Get Carter" and quite a few TV cop shows.)

Michael Jackson's album "Bad" was in 1987, which might have spawned this reverse word type thing. Just don't get me started on cockney back-slang etc - "I say I don't understand your banter" (Monty Python RAF officers skit). A lot of cockney back slang is used to cover up use of rude words!!! You take the last letter of the word and put it at the front of the other 3 letters in the naughty 4 letter (or 5) word, and then speak the word as it looks when written down.

With kindest regards,
Christopher

[JimN]

Jim,

Daniel Rigby eh? If its several years ago ago, that is probably an early reference. (Though you made me think of the actor Terence Rigby, 1937 - 2008, who was in "Get Carter" and quite a few TV cop shows.)

Terence Rigby was also in "Airline" (YTV's Freddy Laker-based drama of about forty years ago).

The series of ads that Daniel Rigby did was for BT Infinity (it says on t'internet).

I've seen him in other things. He was brilliant and totally-believable as Eric Morecambe in "Eric & Ernie".

[Gatwick1946]

Ay Jim,

For some reason I thought Terence Rigby was in Z cars or Softly,Softly , but I cannot confirm this on the IMDB. He seemed to be always the sergeant or the No.2 in the command chain in his acting roles.

I don't know how got to cockney back-slang in my post above?. I have just had to dig out the medical cards for me and the wife (we may need to know our NHS numbers for a future vaccination) and saw my birth cert. and I was reminded that I was born in the metropolitan borough of Lambeth on 26th November 1946, probably within the sound of Lambeth Palace bells (if it has any bells) so nowhere near Bow Bells. Being a south Londener then, we did not cross north of the London river, without a good reason, even back the 1940s/1950!

This board is certainly well named The Lounge!

With thanks and my kindest regards,
Christopher

[Gatwick1946]

PS to the above, for anyone London born (or any one with a liking for verbal traditions) :-

When I were a lad my father was paid in cash - even back then copper coins were not worth much (and they were heavy in the pockets) and my father used to store them in a bag. I liked to look through them - some,albeit worn nearly smooth so only a ghost image remained, pre-dating, Queen Victoria. Someone (probably one of my many uncles, who tended to come and go in my life) told me that one of the Victorian pennies was known (in low circles, doubtless) as a Honolulu penny.

On most pennies the figure of Britannia is personified holding a shield and a trident. On most coins the end of the trident handle or shaft rests on the ground beside her left foot. But on the penny I have illustrated on my iPad screen at the moment, dated 1862, the end of the trident shaft disappears from view at her waist level, hence the wily Londoner joked that the end rested on "On her Lulu"!

I have never seen or heard of another reference to this - can it be a verbal tradition dating back to the 1860s - which has been lost when the old coinage was withdrawn from public use. To me it is something like the people in Charles Dickens' books who pronounced the letter W as a V, i.e. gone out of fashion and current speech.

But I can almost picture the wily Victorian era cockney, tossing a penny on to the scarred bar counter for his jigger of gin, and passing a wry quip to the barman.
A faint ghost of times nearly faded from memory or record.

With kindest regards ( and hoping for your indulgence of my ramblings),
Christopher

[JimN]

For some reason I thought Terence Rigby was in Z cars or Softly,Softly, but I cannot confirm this on the IMDB. He seemed to be always the sergeant or the No.2 in the command chain in his acting roles.

I am sure that TR was indeed in at least one of those two programmes, if not both.

In fact, his wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_Rigby...

...supports his having been a cast member in:

Film: Get Carter (1971), Watership Down (1978), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997),[2] Elizabeth (1998), Mona Lisa Smile (2003) and Colour Me Kubrick (2006).

TV: Dixon of Dock Green / Softly, Softly: Taskforce / Z-Cars / The First Lady / Callan / The Saint / Public Eye / Edward & Mrs. Simpson / Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy / Airline / Rumpole of the Bailey / Boon / Lovejoy / Our Friends in the North / Born to Run, / Holby City / Midsomer Murders / Crossroads / The Beiderbecke Affair / The Beiderbecke Connection.

I can't comment on the movies (I thought "Watership Down" was animated?), but I do remember him in five or six of the TV roles, especially the Beiderbecke trilogy.