Saturday 27 February 2016

What A Berk

The golden rule in American politics is if you are to have an audience behind you in a photograph, you need at least one white face, a black one, an Asian one and a selection of man and woman with different hair colour if possible to show that you appeal to everyone so i was horrified to see Donald Trump bucking tradition again by only have a sea of white faces behind him as he spouted something racist about Mexicans, probably.
It is a game of American Election Bingo we play especially with Hilary Clinton who makes sure she crams in as many different coloured faces as possible when she is stood on a stage.
Even more shocking than Trump and his flagrant disregard for our Bingo Game is my 77 year old mothers new found liking for calling people a berk as she loudly announces whenever someone she doesn't like comes on the television.
'That Trump/Cameron/Osbourne/Piers Morgan is a bit of a berk' she will announce suddenly although i am not sure that she knows exactly what she is saying as 'Berk' is not quite the low level cuss she seems to think it is.
Rhyming slang is quite big here, plates of meat are feet and whistle and flute is a suit and such is widespread that you don't even need to say it in full so if someone says 'my plates ache' you know their feet ache and if they say 'I spilt beer on my whistle' you know they got beer on their suit.
So the full rhyming slang of 'Berk' is Berkshire Hunt which is shortened to Berk so while the sentiment that Piers Morgan may indeed be a Berkshire Hunt, i don't know if my mother should be saying it quite so loudly in company.
Even more disturbing is that deep down, i think she knows exactly what it means and is playing the 'i'm a pensioner' card to get away with it.

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