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English 41- 60p

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The Use of Slang in British English

- A Study of the Slang used in Football Factory and Little Britain

Tim Pedersen

C-paper, 10p Supervisor: Maria Estling Vannestål

The University of Kalmar School of Human Sciences
Spring, 2007
Abstract Spring 2007

The languages of the world are constantly changing and slang intrudes the vocabulary of
many people all over the world. But what is slang and where does it come from? Are there
differences in the slang that men and women use? And what is the point of using slang? It
seems that the slang that was used by previous generations has either gone out of use or has
now become a part of accepted standard language; basically, the youth of today reject the
slang that their parents used. This would indicate that it is not “cool” to use the same slang as
one’s parents did and to avoid this, new slang is invented to replace old slang aiding the youth
of today to be able to be shocking or amusing by speaking in a certain way.
In this essay the focus lies on the slang of British English and this is investigated by an
analysis of a contemporary film and a TV-show to see how common the use of slang is in
these kinds of medias. The intention is also too see if slang differs according to gender and in
what different areas slang is used.
The film “Football factory” and the TV-show “Little Britain” were closely watched and all
slang was noted down and categorized in terms of users and areas of use. To make this easier
and to make sure not to lose any parts of the dialogues scripts were found on the internet and
used as aids when analyzing. “Football factory” is a movie about British football hooligans
which is a very male-dominated world. “Little Britain” is a TV-show consisting of many
small sketches with very different characters of both genders but mostly played by male
actors.
The results were somewhat surprising as the expectation was to find some slang in the
chosen material but the amount of slang use exceeded the expectations. Slang seems to be
something that people use in many different areas of use, such as, when talking about sex,
drugs or other things that might be taboo. It seems that slang is a big part of the language that
both men and women use. However, in the material used for this study, young men were the
ones who used slang the most.

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Table of contents

1. Introduction .................................................................................................. 5
2. Background .................................................................................................. 6
2.1 The creation of slang.....................................................................................................6
2.2 Slang and gender...........................................................................................................7
2.3 Functions of slang.........................................................................................................8
2.4 Where do we find slang?...............................................................................................9
2.5 Cockney Slang..............................................................................................................9
3. Method and Material ................................................................................. 10
3.1 Method .......................................................................................................................10
3.2 Material ......................................................................................................................11
3.3 Problems and limitations.............................................................................................12
4. Results ......................................................................................................... 13
4.1 Football factory...........................................................................................................13
4.1.1 Areas of use .............................................................................................................14
4.1.1.1 Talking to or about someone .................................................................................14
4.1.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboos........................................................................15
4.1.1.3 Talking about drugs and alcohol............................................................................15
4.1.1.4 Talking about violence ..........................................................................................16
4.1.1.5 Talking about mood ..............................................................................................16
4.1.1.6 Talking about ethnicity..........................................................................................16
4.1.1.7 Miscellaneous .......................................................................................................17
4.1.2 Users........................................................................................................................17
4.2 Little Britain ...............................................................................................................18
4.2.1 Areas of use .............................................................................................................19
4.2.1.1 Talking to or about someone .................................................................................19
4.2.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboo areas ................................................................19
4.2.1.3 Talking about mood ..............................................................................................20
4.2.1.4 Miscellaneous .......................................................................................................21
4.2.2 Users........................................................................................................................21
5. Conclusion .................................................................................................. 22
6. References ................................................................................................... 24
Appendix 1...................................................................................................... 26
Appendix 2...................................................................................................... 31

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1. Introduction
-“Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands- and goes to work.” – Carl
Sandburg

Slang has, whether appreciated or not, always been a part of our everyday language. Even
before the birth of Christ, ancient Greek writers wrote about slang. But, as pointed out by
Partridge (1970:1) “Slang is easy enough to use but very hard to write about”. This is a true
statement as most people use slang, but if asked to define slang, would probably have a hard
time in doing so. Slang is used in many different types of media and situations. In computer
medicated communication, such as instant messaging, a lot of the language used is slang, such
as writing “lol” instead of “laughing out loud” or “C U” instead of “see you”. However, slang
occurs in oral communication all over the world. But where does this slang come from? It is
likely that some of it comes from loanwords from other languages such as the word guzz
which is Turkish and means “girl” and which many Swedes would know because of the
Turkish immigrants in Sweden.
Another important part in the development of slang is the invention of new words; this
phenomenon is very obvious within the hip-hop-culture, but it can also be words that are
substitutes for already existing words such as pub, which originated from “public house”, but
when used frequently enough and by an increasing amount of people gains status (Andersson
& Trudgill 1990:70). Today, as slang is used by more and more people one can even find
dictionaries of slang on the internet to aid in the understanding of these new words.
Why is slang so popular then? Many groups use slang as a way of defining who they are
and what group they belong to. Also in music, slang is very important for many artists to
show which genre, be it hip hop or rock, they belong to. Another possible reason can be the
film- and television-industry. Actors who are role-modals to many people use this “new cool”
language all the time and wanting to be like them many people copy this language and take it
“to the street”.
Slang is just like any other part of language changing over time. Slang has a very definite
expiry date and the slang of one generation is very often replaced with new slang by the
following generation.

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Aim
The overall aim of this essay is to investigate British slang as it is reflected in a contemporary
film and TV-show. More specific research questions are:
- What different areas of use are represented in the slang that is being used?
- What differences are there between the way men and women use slang?

2. Background
According to Andersson & Trudgill (1990:80), slang can be traced as far back as 385 BC
when Aristophanes was the first writer to use slang extensively. Also Shakespeare used a lot
of slang in his plays, such as, clay-brained instead of stupid. In the sixteenth century the
English word blockhead was first used, and it is still in use today. Some words originate in
Latin, since slang versions of Latin words have become standard versions in other languages,
such as tete which means “head” in French but origins from the Latin word testa which means
“pot” or “bowl”(Andersson & Trudgill 1990:70). The term “slang” itself was used by British
criminals to refer to their own language whereas “cant” was the word used by the outside
world (Ibid: 77).

2.1 The creation of slang

Andersson & Trudgill (1990:143) claim that slang is often considered to be bad language
usage and the decay of language, rather than a necessary change. A phenomenon typical of
language, however, is that the people has the power and if enough people choose to use
certain words then these words gain status and are soon accepted parts of our everyday
language e.g. pub and phone which were once slang versions of “public house” and
“telephone”. Geographical location also matters in deciding what is slang or not. The word
lad (meaning “boy” or “son”) is accepted in the northern parts of England but is considered as
slang in the southern parts. Even journalists are beginning to use slang in their writing (Ibid:
70) which of course aids in the acceptance of such language. Slang is mainly a question of
vocabulary usage as there are not many grammatical features of slang (Ibid: 73).
Hip-hop is a culture that has a language of its own (jargon) which is very hard to
understand if you are an outsider, e.g. shackles and Seatown which means “handcuffs” and
“Seattle” (hip-hop dictionary [www]). Within the hip-hop culture, a lot of newly invented
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words can be found, such as, for shizzle or bling, which means “for sure” and “jewellery”.
This invention of new words is called “coinage” by linguists. To fully conform to the style
and exclude outsiders it is also very important how to dress and what music to listen to.
Very often, however, slang is not so much about the invention of new words as it is about
coming up with new meanings for already existing words, such as hot, which originally was a
word to describe temperature but now has various different meanings like “sexy”, “stolen”,
“wanted by the police” or “popular” (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 81).
What is slang to one generation may not be slang to the next generation, since language is
constantly changing, and words and expressions can move from one form of it to another.
Different forms of slang quickly grow old and are replaced by new ones. For example, super,
groovy and hip which all mean “really good” have been replaced by dope, kickass and phat
(Yule 2006: 211). This is a very natural evolution as most adolescents do not want to sound
like their parents and therefore need new slang words to distance themselves from that which
was “cool” when their parents were young.

2.2 Slang and gender

Traditionally, slang has been a male dominated area. According to Stanley (in Grossman &
Tucker, 1997:102), the use of slang has traditionally been a male dominated domain which is
indicated by the fact that there are “220 expressions for a promiscuous woman compared to
merely 22 expressions to describe the male counterpart”. However, a decade later, Chapman
(in Grossman & Tucker,1986:103) found an increasing use of vulgar and taboo slang amongst
women which he attributed in part to the feminist movement. In 1992, de Klerk (in Grossman
& Tucker, 1997:103) found that the amount of slang used by sixth- and ninth graders amongst
English speaking students in South Africa did not differ between sexes in the extent of their
slang vocabulary. However, both sexes still believed that slang was more appropriate for
males than females. Grossman and Tucker (1997:108) proved that the gap in slang used by
males and females is still closing and that it is more legitimate for females to use slang
frequently in their everyday language.

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2.3 Functions of slang

Another very important aspect to consider when discussing slang is the different situations
where we are most likely and most unlikely to use slang. Most people know the standard form
of their first language and in formal situations such as job interviews most people tend to
speak as formally as possible, avoiding slang usage to give a good first impression. Another
example is that most people tend to speak in a more formal way the first time they meet new
people whereas their language tends to loosen up after a while (Andersson & Trudgill 1990:
71). So the conclusion must be that when a boss speaks more informally to an employee for
the first time the employee has probably advanced in the company. Even though many people
use a lot of slang in their everyday language there is also awareness that it is not “correct”
language usage. Style-shifting from non-standard to standard language is referred to as overt
prestige and is according to Yule (2006: 209) most likely to be used by men and women from
the middle class; women also use it more than men. The opposite of overt prestige is covert
prestige and refers to the phenomenon that especially adolescents of lower society classes use
non-standard language consciously. According to Yule 2006: 210, it is used to show solidarity
with their social group by not shifting language-style to sound like another social group. And
according to Eble (in Moore 1996:61), three of the most typical functions of slang are to
express informality, identify group members and oppose established authority.
The point of slang is often to be amusing or shocking (Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 78).
This is also why the invention of new slang words or coming up with alternative meanings for
already existing words is crucial. When words lose their shocking or amusing effect they need
to be replaced with new words. This often goes hand in hand with other groups accepting
these words and beginning to use them in everyday-language usage. Slang does not differ
from other trends but is often invented in big cities and then spreads out to the rest of the
country (ibid, 1990: 78).
It seems that slang is often a substitute for swearing or a substitute for other words that are
taboo, a phenomenon referred to as euphemisms (Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 82). Instead of
saying “I have to piss” which is not very polite there is a vast number of slang words that can
be used instead, such as, drain the spuds, visit the sand-box, answer nature’s call or go and
look at the crops. Similarly, many forms of slang for defecating or using drugs can be found.
To many drug dealers slang usage is even a must; an entire conversation about drugs can take
place without any outsiders knowing about it. To make this further effective the slang words

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used change constantly, making it hard for the police to infiltrate these groups (Andersson &
Trudgill 1990: 79).

2.4 Where do we find slang?

According to Andersson & Trudgill (1990: 72), people use a lot more slang when speaking
than when writing. However, in novels, many authors are likely to use slang, especially in
dialogues as this is a good way of showing what the characters are like. Consider the
following example, Well now, I be ding-busted. This is a line from The adventures of
Huckleberry Finn where the run-away black man Jim is talking to Huck saying “well now, I’ll
be damned”. By consciously writing in this way, Twain gives life to the character Jim as a
poorly educated slave using a far less formal language than other characters in the book
(Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 72). In other forms of written media one is more likely to see
slang in tabloids than in broadsheets, and perhaps there is a connection with the fact that
broadsheets are considered to contain more legitimate news whereas more gossip-like news
are found in tabloids?
People who are admired will often be copied by others so a lot of the slang used is spread
via, for instance, the film or music industry. Others who are likely to be influential when it
comes to slang usage are comedians, talk-show hosts, politicians and sport-stars. TV-shows
that become very popular and are aired for many years are most likely to influence their
audience, such as Seinfeld (Battistella 2005: 8). For instance, the expression regift (meaning
“to take an unwanted gift and give it to someone else”) from the TV-show Seinfeld seems
according to Battistella (ibid), very likely to become standardized slang.

2.5 Cockney Slang

The perhaps most commonly known British dialect due to the export of British films such as,
Snatch, Lock stock and two smoking barrels, Football factory and Mean machine is the
Cockney dialect which is spoken in the London-area. According to Holmes (2001: 214), these
Cockney TV and film heroes help to promote a positive attitude towards the dialect as it
spreads all over the world. A characteristic of Cockney is rhyming slang such as saying bees
and honey instead of “money” or Apples and pears instead of “stairs” (Ibid: 127). There are
also expressions which are even harder to understand as they demand some kind of pre-

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knowledge, such as, can I have a butcher’s, which means “can I have look” and has
originated from butcher’s hook which rhymes with look. However, there was no such slang
usage in the material investigated.

3. Method and Material

3.1 Method

To collect the data necessary to successfully study the use of slang in British English, and
especially in the Cockney dialect, the TV-show Little Britain and the film Football factory
were watched and analyzed. All slang used was written down and the situations in which they
occurred were noted. The slang was then categorized according to areas of use in order to
investigate whether the slang words occurred more frequently in particular areas. The
categories used were, talking about sex and other taboo areas (for example, “blowy” which
means to give someone oral sex), talking to or about someone (for example, “nutter” which is
the same as calling someone an idiot), talking about drugs and alcohol (for example,
“boozer” which is a slang word referring to a public house), talking about violence (for
example, “clump” which means to hit someone) , talking about mood (for example, “buzz”
which means a state of excitement), talking about ethnicity (for example, “darkies” referring
to someone with dark skin) and miscellaneous (for example, “dodgy” which means someone
or something that is fake). Coming up with these categories was not easy and knowing in
which area of use a certain slang word was to be placed was even harder. The miscellaneous
group proved to be most necessary to place the words that did not belong within a certain area
or perhaps could be used in many different areas depending on in which context a certain
slang word is used. The material had to be reviewed many times to see some of the slang
usage again in order to be able to place them in the correct area of use. In the aid of translating
the slang, as most slang can not be found in ordinary dictionaries, a dictionary of slang on the
internet was used (Urban Dictionary [www]). The gender of the people using slang in the
material was further analyzed to see if the usage of slang differed between the sexes.

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3.2 Material

The film Football factory was released in September 2004 and directed by Nick Love. The
film is about British football hooligans and is based on a documentary by John King who
managed to infiltrate “Chelsea Head-hunters” which is the firm of hooligans supporting
Chelsea FC. A firm is a gang of football hooligans supporting a certain team and the point of
a firm is to meet other firms and fight them before and after matches. After having infiltrated
the firm, John King is now forced to live under a hidden identity as there is a price put on his
head by the firm (International Movie Database [www]). Firms have unfortunately become a
world wide problem and football has become more an more about violence. There are very
few women in the film so most of the language is produced by men. The main character is
Tommy Johnson who is a thirty-year old florist who loves violence, sex and football. The film
mainly revolves around him, his best friend Rod and the worst hooligan of them all, Billy
Bright. Billy, who wants to become leader of the firm, is the most racial of them all. His
father was a racist and brought Billy up to be on as well. His devotion to his right-wing
convictions can however be discussed as he also deals drugs to a Turk who happens to be the
leader of their rival firm of Millwall. It seems that when money is involved politics can be set
aside.
After having been aired on radio, Little Britain was adapted into a TV-show in 2004 and
aired by the BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation). So far, 25 episodes of the TV-show
have been produced and there is also an Israeli version and an American version being
planned. Episodes one and two from the first season of the TV-show are analyzed in this
essay. The show is written and also starred by Matt Lucas and David Williams, amongst
others. The show has similarly to other shows become well-known for its catch-phrases
connected to the characters. Like other popular TV-shows, many celebrities have guest-
starred on the show, such as Elton John and Robbie Williams (Lucas & Williams [www]).
Two of the best known characters of the show are Vicky Pollard who is an adolescent school
girl and Daffyd who according to himself “is the only gay man” in his Welsh village. Almost
all of the actors are men and most of the female characters are also played by men.

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3.3 Problems and limitations

When one analyzes just one film and one TV-show, no matter how much slang they contain,
it is still just the creation of a few people and their view upon the world that is reflected.
However, to analyze more than this would have yielded too much information for a study of
this kind. Also the setting of “Football Factory” limits a lot of the slang use to the world of
football and violence. On the other hand it is often in these environments that slang is used
particularly frequently. Categorizing the slang into different areas of use was not easy. The
group miscellaneous represented more than half the words in the material at first which forced
the creation of other categories. However, this group is still a very large category (indeed the
largest one in terms of types, although not tokens). Furthermore, some slang word/expressions
could belong to more than one category such as bollocks (testicles/talking rubbish), nut
(something you eat/head) or cunt (referring to female genitals but used in “Football Factory”
to address someone) which made these words harder to categorize. The movies had to be
revised again and much attention was paid to the context in which the words were being used
to correctly be able to categorize them. From a gender perspective, the film “Football
Factory” is a male-dominated film which makes the material generally uneven. Even though
there are female characters in “Little Britain” they are mostly played by men and more
importantly the scenes are written by men so the slang usage of the women in the show is
from a man’s point of view. This makes the second research question difficult to answer, and
it would have been better to use material with more even gender representation. Finally when
analyzing a film and a TV-show without the scripts there is also a risk that some of the
information is lost and can therefore not be processed. For the analysis of Football factory
this became an issue as the entire script was not to be found on the internet.

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4. Results
The results of this essay will be presented in tables summarizing the findings and examples of
some of the most frequently occurring slang words and phrases from “Football factory” and
“Little Britain” will be provided and compared to previous research on slang.

4.1 Football factory

The table below shows the distribution of the slang words found in Football factory according
to gender and different areas of use: talking to or about someone, sex and other taboo areas,
drugs and alcohol, violence, mood, ethnicity and a miscellaneous group. Type refers to the
different slang words and phrases that are being used in absolute figures and percentages.
Token represents the occurrences of words and phrases in absolute figures and percentages (A
table of all slang words used in the film can be found in Appendix 1).

Table 1. Distribution of slang according to gender and areas of use (Football factory).
Men Women
Areas of use Types Tokens Types Tokens
Talking to or about 17% (14) 39% (75) 100% (2) 100% (2)
someone
Talking about sex and 10% (8) 7% (13) -------- --------
other taboo areas
Talking about drugs and 11% (9) 7% (13) -------- --------
alcohol
Talking about violence 10% (8) 6% (12) -------- --------
Talking about mood 11% (9) 8% (17) -------- --------
Talking about ethnicity 4% (3) 2% (3) -------- --------
Miscellaneous 37% (32) 31% (56) -------- --------
Total 100% (83) 100% (191) 100% (2) 100% (2)

The table shows that the slang words and phrases are distributed into different areas of use.
Much of the slang was hard to categorize and was therefore placed in the miscellaneous
group. Talking to or about someone, was the largest group in terms of types as it seems that
coming up with different names for people is a big part of slang. Sex, drugs and violence,
which are all areas that are somewhat tabooed to discuss depending on the situation, occurred
just about evenly.

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4.1.1 Areas of use

4.1.1.1 Talking to or about someone

“See you cunt! I will cut you first!

This is a type of language use that the film is filled with, provoking people and then
threatening them. As the film is about football hooligans many of the slang words used are
demeaning words used to provoke other people. The word cunt (referring to female genitals)
which is a very condescending word seems to be used both to offend other people but is also
used frequently amongst friends. It seems that calling someone you do not know a cunt is
very offensive and provoking but when acquainted with someone it is quite acceptable. This is
something that is not exclusive in this type of social groups. Many young people today use
these strong words about each other and it seems that being able to call someone by certain
names is ironically somehow the proof of being very good friends. According to Eble (in
Moore 1996:61), one of the most typical functions of slang is to identify group members
which apparently can be done by fowl name-calling. In one scene in the film the main
character asks his best friend what he thinks of his new shirt, and when his friend does not
like it he calls him a horrible cunt but this is in no way said to start a fight. And as mentioned
above, Stanley (1977) stated that there are 220 expressions referring to female genitals and
only 22 referring to male genitals. It seems that using demeaning words about female genitals
when addressing males is quite popular in the world of football hooligans.

“Come on soppy bollocks, you are more confused than Scooby Doo you poof”

With this sentence, one of the main characters in the film is trying to provoke a member of a
rival firm into a fight at their sons’ football match. When trying to provoke someone, cunt is
not the only demeaning word that is being used in the film. Words like mug, soppy bollocks,
scum, poof (means gay), nutter, spives, lemon or nutter are also used to provoke. According to
(Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 78), the point of slang is often to be amusing or shocking.
To have a wank means for a man to masturbate and this verb has be transformed into a
noun when calling someone a wanker. Other derogatory ways of giving someone slang names
are to call them pal, geezer, mate, bloke or son, which are all substitutes for friend, and
girlfriends are called birds.

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4.1.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboos
“I can not wait to see your fanny. I am going to smash the granny out of you”.

The line above does not sound very romantic, but this is the way sex is talked about in the
film. The film contains a lot of slang words in this area, such as saying helmet instead of
penis, tits meaning breasts, fanny referring to female genitals and boat being used instead of
butt. A woman in the film is describing a man with a large penis as being hung like a pike. To
have sex with someone is to smash the granny out of someone or to slip into someone and
when a man masturbates it is called wanking off.

4.1.1.3 Talking about drugs and alcohol

“What are you serving mate? I got whites and browns, which ones do you want?

This is the way that one of the characters in the film purchases drugs, without once
mentioning the word drugs. When talking about drugs it becomes even more important to
disguise the language use. Police officers are referred to as gavvers and never are any names
of drugs used. Instead, whites or browns, joint and tools are used when talking about these
things. In one scene in the film, the main character wants one of his friends from the firm to
come out partying with him so he calls him at home. As he is with his wife and children he
answers, “See you tomorrow at seven, I will bring my tools” which basically means, “I will
see you in one hour and I will bring the drugs”. By using certain gang-slang the speaker
conceals the message from outsiders. According to (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 79) many
drug dealers must use slang to be able to have conversations about drugs without any
outsiders knowing about it.
By using certain gang-slang the speaker conceals the message from outsiders. Furthermore,
instead of using the words “drunk” or “intoxicated”, words like battered, smashed out of my
tree, lashed or mullered function as substitutes. And going to the pub is described by one
character in the film as the boozer. People who sniff a lot of drugs are referred to as hoovers.

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4.1.1.4 Talking about violence
I pinged that geezer so hard that his legs went like a baby giraffe.

The film deals a lot with violence but not once are the words hit or beat used. Instead, phrases
and words like clump, crack, ping, open you up, bashing people up or kick the shit/fuck out of
you are used frequently. Before fighting with other hooligans in the film in order to get the
aggression up and the adrenalin pumping the two firms involved in a fight have a verbal fight
which is called having a row. These are all examples of words that are common in the world
of football hooligans in the film. It seems that whatever is the essence of the life that people
live it is also in this particular field that slang is used most frequently. In one scene in the film
one of the characters gets annoyed by another man in a public house and tells him:

“I think I should take you outside and Open you up”

4.1.1.5 Talking about mood

I am fucking buzzing!

Before going into a huge fight with their archrivals this is how one of the main characters
describes his mood. It means to be very excited and buzzing is a word which is used
frequently. Other ways to describe excitement and readiness to fight is to be well up for it or
to be over the moon. Freaked out is used to describe to feeling of being afraid. The film
contains a lot of violence and for some of the hooligans that is beginning to affect them.
When questioned about their lifestyle they defend themselves by saying, “I’m just having a
laugh” and it seems to be done to take some of the seriousness off the matter.

4.1.1.6 Talking about ethnicity

You watch out for them Darkies!

These are the words of a taxi-driver in the film trying to convince two older gentlemen that
coloured immigrants are dangerous. The film contains a lot of racism as well. Immigrants
from Pakistan are called Pakis and people with dark skin are called darkies. One boy who is a

16
gypsy is referred to as the pikey kid. Giving names to people of other ethnicity seems to be a
way to be further demeaning to them.

4.1.1.7 Miscellaneous
Are you trying to mug me off?

The film also contains many examples of slang that do not fit into any of the above mentioned
categories. Much slang can be used in many different contexts and therefore does not belong
to a specific category of slang. The characters in the film pull a lot of practical jokes on each
other which in slang is called to mug someone off, have a bubble or wind someone up. If
revealed that it is just a joke the answer would be that it is just bollocks (meaning that it is just
nonsense). However, bollocks mainly refers to male genitals but not once in the film is the
word used in that specific context. One slang word used in the film may be hard to understand
for an outsider and might therefore need some explaining. When being in someone’s house or
apartment this is called their gaff. It seems that some slang words are easier to understand than
others depending on how different they are from the original meaning of the word. To bell
someone, is to call someone on the telephone and to watch the telly means to watch the
television.

4.1.2 Users

Even though the majority of examples of slang used in Football factory are used by male
hooligans, slang usage is not limited to this group. In the first scene a female passer-by who
has nothing to do with hooligans is caught in the middle of a big fight walking with her pram
and responses by yelling “You are no football supporters, you are fucking muggy little cunts”
at them. It is however reasonable to say that men in this film use this kind of language much
more than women do. But it must also be pointed out that the film is dominated by male
characters. However, it is very rare to see this kind of behaviour at a women’s football match.
Most people in the film use slang but the slang that is used varies vastly according to the
social group in which it is used. The fact that it is now accepted within certain groups to call
each other cunt may just indicate that in a near future this word will be used by more and
more people in everyday language and be replaced by new demeaning words.

17
 The film also has a side-story which is about the main character’s grandfather and his best
friend. These two older gentlemen do not use a lot of slang and this just proves what was
mentioned in the theoretical background, that slang has an expire date and the slang that they
used when they were young is no longer considered as slang and has been replaced by new
slang-words. This side-story provides a most necessary contrast to the extreme language and
violence of the film. There is also an awareness of when to use certain language. The most
violent hooligan of the firm is married and has children and when talking to his wife his
language changes dramatically to adapt to the very different social context.

4.2 Little Britain

The table below shows the distribution of the slang words found in Little Britain according to
gender and areas of use: talking to or about someone, sex and other taboo areas, drugs and
alcohol, mood and a miscellaneous group. Type refers to the different slang words and phrases
that are being used in absolute figures and percentages. Token represents the occurrences of
words and phrases in absolute figures and percentages. (A table of all slang words used can be
found in appendix 2)

Table 2 Distribution of slang according to gender and areas of use (Little Britain).
Men Women
Areas of use Types Token Types Token
Talking to or about 27% (14) 25% (19) 31% (11) 40% (17)
someone
Talking about sex and 24% (12) 39% (30) 26 % (9) 24% (10)
other taboo areas
Talking about drugs and 2% (1) 1% (1) 3% (1) 2% (1)
alcohol
Talking about violence -------- -------- -------- --------
Talking about mood 10% (5) 6% (5) 3% (1) 2% (1)
Talking about ethnicity -------- -------- 3% (1) 2% (1)
Miscellaneous 37% (19) 29% (22) 34% 12) 30% (12)
Total 100% (51) 100% (77) 100% (35) 100% (42)

Again, much of the slang was hard to categorize and was therefore placed in the
miscellaneous group. But similarly to Football Factory much of the slang in Little Britain
was used to addressing people or talking about them. There were no words used to describe
ethnicity or violence in Little Britain which is why there is no numbers or percentages for
those areas of use. When it comes to slang dealing with drugs and alcohol only two examples

18
were found in Little Britain, I need to go and powder my nose, which means to “sniff
cocaine” and Would you like some bubbly? which means “champagne”. This means that the
categories in focus in the rest of the presentation will be Addressing someone, Talking about
sex and other taboos, Talking about drugs and alcohol, Talking about violence, Talking about
mood, Talking about ethnicity and miscellaneous.

4.2.1 Areas of use

4.2.1.1 Talking to or about someone

I feel like a pillock.

In one scene in the show one of the characters is dressed up like a smurf and his caretaker
asks him how he feels and he replies: I feel like a pillock.
A lot of other strong names are used about other people, such as bitch, shit-stirrer, snotty,
gypos, bastard, wanker or she is a bit of a Judas. Using strong words to address other people
is not restricted to young people in the TV-show but amongst the adult characters there seems
to be much more awareness of the inappropriateness of doing so. In scenes with middle-aged
people the language used is of a very polite character such as saying thank you dear.
Also family names such as mother and grandmother have been replaced by slang when
using mum and nan as substitutes. And a boy is referred to as a bloke or a lad.
Furthermore, in one scene, a husband calls his wife a cow to her face which is not a very
nice word to use about one’s life partner. This strong word is used as he feels that his wife is
bleeding him dry which basically means that she is costing him a lot of money.
In one scene in the show, a character named Vicky Pollard describes someone she does not
like in these words: “That bitch is a bit of a Judas anyway”. As mentioned above, Grossman
and Tucker (1997:108) proved that the gap in slang used by males and females is still closing
and that it is more legitimate for females to use slang frequently in their everyday language.

4.2.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboo areas

“Shelley Sherman gave Craig Sherman a blowy in the shallow end”

This is how Vicky Pollard, one of the many characters of Little Britain explains to a lifeguard
that two people had oral sex in the shallow end of a swimming pool. The slang that this
character uses is slang that is very typical of young people and much of it is related to sex
19
such as fingered, blowy, get off with or go to third base with. As sex is still a bit taboo to
many young people there seems to be a need to disguise the language when referring to sex.
The word gay is used several times in Little Britain and almost all of the time it is used it is
done so by a character who is homosexual, whereas other characters who are not gay use the
word homosexual instead. This may indicate that using the word gay about someone is not
considered polite and is often replaced by referring to someone as a homosexual, but if
someone is homosexual it is more accepted for them to use the word gay. The word queen is
also used when talking about homosexuals, but in this case it is only used by the character
Daffyd about another homosexual man.
There seems to be no limitations to the development of slang. The noun poof, which was
mentioned above, has been translated into an adjective when calling someone poofy referring
to them acting like a homosexual. Other examples of slang taking new forms are out gay man
(openly homosexual), gaywise (acting like a homosexual) and blowy, which originated from
the word blowjob and means for a woman to give a man oral sex.
As mentioned above, when something is taboo to talk about, slang words seem to be used
as substitutes. In this case, when talking about people who are overeaters and have weight
problems, they are called gluttons or people who are scoffing.
Also talking about using the toilet is an area of slang which is much developed when using
phrases like; having a wee, do toilet, off for a slash or to do one’s dirty business. As
mentioned above, slang is often a substitute for swearing or a substitute for other words that
are taboo, a phenomenon referred to as euphemisms (Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 82).

4.2.1.3 Talking about mood

It was such a Hoot.

This is how an exciting event is described in the film and it means that something is a lot of
fun. Having a laugh is also used to describe similar excitement. The opposite of having a lot
of fun is to be upset and to describe this state of mind one character uses the phrase, “she had
an eppy”. And instead of saying “I am sad” the phrase “I am so down” is used.

20
4.2.1.4 Miscellaneous
“Getting him into the water is not really a kerfuffle, it is getting him out that might be a bit of
a kerfuffle”

As always with slang, some of the slang used is hard to understand for an outsider. In this
case the word kerfuffle has replaced the word “trouble”. Other miscellaneous words and
phrases used in Little Britain are: jot down “write down”, a hoot “lots of fun”, grub “food”,
snotty “rude”, popped “went”, nicked “stole”, in the pipeline “coming soon” or saying good
bike which means “good bye”.

4.2.2 Users

In this TV-show, the use of slang becomes even more important to give life to the many
different characters. Some of the characters of the show, like scenes with the prime minister
or the teacher and pupils of Kelsey Grammar School (a joke referring to the actor Kelsey
Grammar who plays a snob in the American TV-show Frasier), do not use slang at all which
gives credibility to the show as it is very unlikely that slang would be used in these specific
environments. In these scenes the language is very formal and the humour is not at all
connected to the way the characters speak but rather to what happens to them.
Similarly to Football Factory it is mostly men who use slang. Most of the female slang
comes from the same character (Vicky Pollard) who is a school girl and according to research
upon this subject young girls do use a lot of slang but this language usage decreases with age
(Yule 2006: 209).
Slang is often used to be amusing or chocking. In one scene between a gay man and an old
lady selling magazines the word rimming (to give someone anal stimuli with ones tongue) is
used by the old lady when talking about the content of a gay magazine and it would probably
be shocking to most people to hear such a word from an old lady. The slang of today is mostly
used by young people but in TV-shows and films having old people using contemporary slang
has a shocking effect and often creates laughter. This is one way for comedians to test the
limits of what is fun and what is not. Using certain slang with different characters that are not
expected to use slang is an easy way of being fun.

21
5. Conclusion

The aim of this essay has been to analyze the use of slang in the British dialect as reflected in
the film “Football factory” and two episodes of the TV-show “Little Britain” in terms of
areas of use and from a gender perspective. Slang is a world wide phenomenon that was used
even by the ancient Greek writers and is still used in the everyday language of most people.
Slang is used for many different functions but mostly to show which social group, social
class, music genre etc that people belong to. It can also be used to exclude outsiders from
understanding what is being said and in this way slang becomes jargonized. One important
aspect of this essay was to determine if slang is more likely to occur in certain situations and
in the material slang was often used for addressing people or talking about them (often in
derogatory terms) and in conversations dealing with sex, drugs and other things that are taboo
to talk about, such as, using the toilet. A way of taking this study further could be to find
material that is set in totally different environments and see what kind of slang is used and to
compare if it is used as frequently as it is in the material used for this essay.
The slang that people use may differ vastly according to age, gender, social class, social
groups and context. Young males seem to be the most frequent users of slang and males are
also the ones who are most unlikely to avoid the use of slang no matter what situation they
find themselves in. This was also the case in Football factory and Little Britain where most of
the slang that occurred was used by young men. However, there is a problem in the fact that
in the film and the TV-show that was analyzed most of the characters were men. A natural
step from here would be to analyze material with mainly female characters and compare the
use of slang in such material to the findings of this essay.
Slang is often used to be shocking as in the case of cunt or wanker but it is also used to be
amusing such as when we come up with different names or phrases for things that are
normally taboo to talk about, such as slipping into “to have sex with someone” or to do ones
dirty business “going to the toilet”. Slang also seems to develop when creating new forms of
already existing slang such as taking the noun poof which means “gay” and transforming it
into an adjective when describing someone as being poofy. Some slang is easy to understand
such as calling a television-set, a telly, whereas other slang is very hard to understand if you
are not acquainted with it. An example of this would be gavvers, which means “police-
officers”.
Slang is usually short-living, meaning that the slang of one generation is unlikely to be
used by the next one. There is no shocking value in using the same words as one’s parents or
22
grandparents once used. The slang of the contemporary youth will mostly be replaced within a
couple of decades as a new generation creates slang of its own.
TV-shows, films and music help promoting the spreading of slang as much of these
contemporary media contain a lot of slang. People who are admired are also very likely to be
copied and the slang of music and the film- and TV-industry are copied by many people.
Some TV-shows even become famous for certain catch-phrases such as I am the only gay man
in this village which is the catch-phrase of Daffyd, one of the characters in Little Britain. But
it is not just phrases but also certain slang words that catch on from these medias and become
popular with their audience such as the language of hip-hop artists.
It seems that slang constitutes a large part of people’s language usage. For instance, in the
film Football factory and in the TV-show Little Britain a great deal of the language used is
slang replacing standard forms of language. Perhaps some of this usage will be part of our
standard language in the future?

23
6. References

Primary sources

Love, Nick. 2004. Football Factory. Columbia Tristar Films.

Lucas, Matt & Williams, David. Little Britain. 2004. British Broadcasting System.

Secondary sources

Andersson, Lars-Gunnar & Trudgill, Peter. 1990. Bad Language. London. Penguin.

Battistella, Edwin L. 2005. Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Oxford.
Oxford University press.

Grossman, Aryn L & Tucker, Joan S. 1997. Gender Differences and Sexism in the Knowledge
and Use of Slang. Brandeis University.

Hip-hop dictionary
http://www.anthonyvitti.com/hiphopdictionary.html

Holmes, Janet. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, second edition. Harlow. Longman.

International Movie Database (IMDB)

http://www.imdb.com/

Moore, Robert L. 1996. We’re Cool, Mum and Dad are Swell: Basic Slang and Generational
Shifts in Values. Rollins College.

Partridge, Eric. 1970. Slang Today and Yesterday. London. Routledge & Kegan.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Reading, Berkshire. Cox & Wyman
Limited

24
Urban dictionary
http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Yule, George. 2006. The Study of Language. Cambridge. Cambridge University press.

25
Appendix 1
Slang of Football factory

Males to males
Slang words and Area of use Frequency of Translation of slang
Phrases slang
A row Talking about 1 A verbal fight
violence
Have a bubble Miscellaneous 1 Make fun of someone
Bash people up Talking about 1 Hit people
violence
Battered Talking about drugs 1 Very drunk
and alcohol
Bell Miscellaneous 1 Call someone on the
phone
Bird Talking to or about 1 Girlfriend
someone
Blanked Miscellaneous 1 To be ignored
Bloke Talking to or about 2 A guy
someone
Boat Talking about sex 1 Rear end
and other taboo areas
Bollocks Miscellaneous 5 Talking nonsense
Boozer Talking about drugs 2 Pub (Public house)
and alcohol
Brief Miscellaneous 1 Identification
Buzz Talking about mood 9 Anything that creates
excitement
Canister Miscellaneous 2 Head
Clump Talking about 1 Hit
violence
Crack Talking about 1 Hit
violence

26
Crack on Miscellaneous 1 Go on with something
Cunt Talking to or about 28 Demeaning word
someone referring to female
genitals
Darkies Talking about 1 Coloured immigrants
ethnicity
Dodgy Miscellaneous 1 False/fake
Fancy? Miscellaneous 1 Would you like to?
Fanny Talking about sex 3 Female genitals
and other taboo areas
Firm Miscellaneous 2 Name for a gang of
football hooligans
For a laugh Talking about mood 1 Do something for fun
Freak them out Talking about mood 1 Scare them
Fuck about Miscellaneous 1 Joking
Fuck off Miscellaneous 2 Get out of here
Fuck this up Miscellaneous 1 Mess something up
Gaff Miscellaneous 3 Apartment/house
Gavvers Talking to or about 2 Police officers
someone
Geezer Talking to or about 3 A guy
someone
Get off Talking about sex 1 Have sex with someone
and other taboo areas
Get your skates on Miscellaneous 2 Hurry up
Going begging Miscellaneous 1 Left over
Have a laugh Talking about mood 2 Have fun
Helmet Talking about sex 2 Penis
and other taboo areas
Hoover Talking about drugs 1 Someone who uses a lot
and alcohol of drugs
Hung like a pike Sex and other taboo 2 Someone who has a big
areas penis

27
Joint Talking about drugs 2 Marijuana
and alcohol
Jog on Miscellaneous 4 Move on
Kick the shit/fuck Talking about 3 Beat someone badly
out of someone violence
Lashed Talking about drugs 2 Drunk
and alcohol
Lemon Talking about mood 1 Someone who is angry
Lot Talking to or about 4 A group of people
someone
Mate/mates Talking to or about 10 Friend/Friends
someone
Mug Talking to or about 7 Idiot
someone
Mug me off Miscellaneous 3 Trying to make me look
like
an idiot
Mullered Talking about drugs 1 Drunk
and alcohol
Nick Miscellaneous 3 Steal
Nut Miscellaneous 2 Head
Nutter Talking to or about 1 Idiot
someone
Nutty skunk Talking to or about 2 Idiot whore
someone
Open you up Talking about 3 Beat someone up
violence
Over the moon Talking about mood 1 Excited
Pakis Talking about 1 Immigrants from
ethnicity Pakistan
Pals Talking to or about 2 Friends
someone

28
Pikey Talking about 1 Gypsy
ethnicity
Ping Talking about 1 Hit someone
violence
Pissed off Talking about mood 1 Angry
Poof Talking to or about 3 Gay
someone
Rodder Talking to or about 1 Slang for the name
someone “Rod”
Scum Talking to or about 1 Someone of low social
someone status
Shine Miscellaneous 1 To do well
Shut your noise Miscellaneous 1 Be quiet
Skint Miscellaneous 1 Poor
Slip into Talking about sex 1 Have sex with
and other taboo areas
Smashed out of my Talking about drugs 1 Very drunk
tree and alcohol
Smash the Granny Talking about drugs 2 To have rough sex with
out of her and alcohol someone
Son Talking to or about 2 Friend
someone
Soppy Miscellaneous 6 Man acting like a girl
Sort you out Miscellaneous 1 Help you
Spives Addressing someone 1 Idiots
Stone me Miscellaneous 1 What a surprise
Streak of piss Talking to or about 1 Person with low
someone credibility
Telly Miscellaneous 3 Television
Tits Talking about sex 2 Breasts
and other taboo areas
Tools Talking about drugs 1 Drugs
and alcohol

29
Wank/wanker Talking to or about 3 To masturbate/some
someone who masturbates
Well up for it Talking about mood 1 Ready for it
Wind me up Miscellaneous 2 Try to make a fool out
of me
Wires crossed Miscellaneous 1 Got different
information

Narration of main character

Bollocks Miscellaneous 1 Talking rubbish
Buzz Talking about mood 1 Excited/Full with
adrenaline
Clump Talking about 1 Hit someone
violence
Cunt Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word about
someone someone referring to
female genitals
Fuck that for a laugh Miscellaneous 1 What a joke/something
that someone does not
want to be part of
Still game Miscellaneous 1 Still a lot of fun
Wank off Talking about sex 1 Masturbate
and other taboo
areas

Female to males
Cunts Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word about
someone someone referring to
female genitals
Muggy Talking to or about 1 Idiot
someone

30
Appendix 2
Slang of Little Britain

Males to males
Slang words and Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
phrases
Bitch Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word
someone referring to a woman
Boost Miscellaneous 1 Energy
Bastard Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word
someone referring to someone
born without married
parents
Do toilet Talking about sex 1 Go to the toilet
and other taboo areas
Gay Talking about sex 16 Homosexual
and other taboo areas
Has a crush Talking about sex 1 Is in love
and other taboo areas
Heavy Miscellaneous 1 Something that is very
good
Have a laugh Talking about mood 1 Have fun
I am so down Talking about mood 1 Feeling unhappy
Kerfuffle Miscellaneous 3 Trouble
Lad Talking to or about 1 Boy, common in the
someone northern parts of
Britain
Mate Talking to or about 2 Friend
someone
Nan Talking to or about 1 Grandmother
someone
Off for a slash Talking about sex 1 Going to urinate
and other taboo areas

31
Off you pop Miscellaneous 1 Off you go
Powder my nose Talking about drugs 1 Do drugs, cocaine
and alcohol
Popp in Miscellaneous 1 Come in, come to visit
Poofy Talking about sex 1 Acting like an
and other taboo areas homosexual, after the
word poof which
means homosexual
Pillock Talking to or about 1 Idiot
someone
Queen Talking about sex 1 A homosexual man
and other taboo areas
Soppy Talking to or about 1 Man acting like a
someone woman
Screw you Talking to or about 1 Cursing someone,
someone older version of Fuck
you
Telly Miscellaneous 2 Television
What do you Miscellaneous 1 What do you think?
reckon?

Males to females
Slang words and Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
phrases
Bleed me dry Miscellaneous 1 Cost someone a lot of
money
Cow Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word for
someone man to say about a
woman
Fancy? Talking about mood 1 Would you like?
Gay Talking about sex 4 Homosexual
and other taboo areas

32
I will give it a miss Miscellaneous 1 I will not go
Mum Talking to or about 4 Mother
someone
Mate Talking to or about 1 Friend
someone
Nan Talking to or about 2 Grandmother
someone
Reckon? Miscellaneous 1 Guess/suppose
Up for it Talking about mood 1 Ready for it
Wanker Addressing someone 1 Someone who
masturbates

Females to males
Slang words and Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
phrases
Bitch Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word to say
someone about a woman
Bubbly Talking about drugs 1 Champagne
and alcohol
Bloke Talking to or about 1 Man
someone
Blowy Talking about sex 1 Give oral sex to a man
and other taboo areas
Cock Talking about sex 2 Penis
and other taboo areas
Do ones dirty Talking about sex 1 Go to the toilet
business and other taboo areas
Eppy Talking about mood 1 Get very upset
Fingered Talking about sex 1 To get fired or to
and other taboo areas pleasure someone
sexually with ones
fingers

33
Full of shit Miscellaneous 1 Talk nonsense
Give someone Miscellaneous 1 Be mean to someone
evils
Gay Talking to or about 2 Homosexual
someone
Go to third base Talking about sex 1 Sex using fingers
and other taboo areas
Go off with Talking about sex 1 Have sex with
and other taboo areas
Gypos Talking about 1 Gypsies
ethnicity
Have a wee Talking about sex 1 To urinate
and other taboo areas
In the pipeline Miscellaneous 1 Coming soon
Ma Talking to or about 1 Mother
someone
Mum Talking to or about 1 Mother
someone
Nicked Miscellaneous 1 Stole
Nasty Miscellaneous 1 Unpleasant
Nan Talking to or about 1 Grandmother
someone
Popped Miscellaneous 1 Went
Reckon Miscellaneous 1 Guess/suppose
Rimming Talking about sex 1 Stimulating of anal
and other taboo areas with tongue
Someone who is a Talking to or about 1 Someone who betrays
Judas someone
Snotty Miscellaneous 1 Rude
Tits Talking about sex 1 Breasts
and other taboo areas

34
Females to females
Slang words and Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
phrases
Bitch Talking to or about 1 Demeaning word to say
someone to someone
Give me evils Miscellaneous 1 Be mean to me
Grub is up Miscellaneous 1 Dinner is served
Mum Talking to or about 6 Mother
someone
Nan Talking to or about 1 Grandmother
someone
Rip-off Miscellaneous 1 Being fooled/a con
Scoff Miscellaneous 1 Overeat
Shit-stirrer Talking to or about 1 Troublemaker
someone

Narration
Slang words and Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
phrases
A hoot Talking about mood 1 Lots of fun
Bomb Miscellaneous 1 Splash water by
jumping into a pool
Gluttons Talking to or about 1 Overeaters
someone
Good bike Miscellaneous 1 Good bye
Gaywise Talking about sex 1 Do it like a
and other taboo areas homosexual
Gay Talking about sex 1 Homosexual
and other taboo areas
areas
Half past René Miscellaneous 1 A time of day
Half past Tula Miscellaneous 1 A time of day

35
Jot down Miscellaneous 1 Write down
Julia O’clock Miscellaneous 1 A time of day
Out gay man Talking about sex 1 Someone who is
and other taboo areas openly homosexual
Outlet Miscellaneous 1 Escape
Pop down Miscellaneous 1 Go down
Popp into Miscellaneous 1 Go into
Petting Talking about sex 1 Touching in a sexual
and other taboo areas way
Who do they? Talking about sex 1 Who do they sleep
and other taboo areas with?

36
37