Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Gum-Throwing Dweebs?

My British readers know that I love them deeply.

But apparently, in the 1990s, they were incredibly rude and inconsiderate slobs, as the entire realm was plagued by...

...people tossing their gum into the street.

At least, that's what this series of Public Service Announcements appearing throughout 2000 AD #975-976 (1996) would have us believe:




Fortunately, that seems to have solved the problem, because...hey, what the f...?!?

OK, I'll leave the analysis of the French,Canadian and Australian slang to others. (And each nation seems to have its own special font! Discuss)

But I've been in America for well nigh unto 5 decades now, and no one (despite what the Urban Dictionary would have you believe) has EVER use the expression "Doik." Ever.

I'm just sayin', nobody in the UK is ever allowed to pick on me for allegedly misusing or making up British slang ever again...oi, mates?

2 comments:

Siskoid said...

Well the anti-gum lobby has appropriated all these words because obviously, NONE of them refer to gum litterbugs specifically.

So yes, Hoser is a Canadian expression as made popular by the McKenzie brothers on SCTV, but you know, I've never heard it come out of any real person's mouth.

I've never even heard the French word before, but then, France's slang is completely alien to French Canadians.

But Doik... you're telling me you don't use that? It's in all the movies and tv shows... oh wait, it isn't. If there's ONE country's slang well represented in easily accessible media, it's the U.S. Bizarre.

SallyP said...

If I just stepped in some gum, those phrases are not the ones that would immediately leap to my mind.