People with massive cultural voids

[Blue Jam]

It definitely is. Stephen Fry literally going missing is a famous incident.

There's also a reference to it in one of Chris Morris's Blue Jam monologues- the character gets involved with some theatre types and afterwards he reflects that they called him "the worst disaster since Stephen Fry".

My point is, I would have thought that the whole "Stephen Fry quits a West End play and does a runner to Belgium" thing must be pretty well-known if comedy writers drop it in as something they think their audience will recognise.

[Icehaven]

It definitely is. Stephen Fry literally going missing is a famous incident.

I agree, but then in 1995 when it happened I was 16 and had grown up on Blackadder, Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. I wouldn't really be too surprised at anyone much younger than me not knowing about it, particularly if Fry has a more recent association with 'disappearing' from social media.

My point is, I would have thought that the whole "Stephen Fry quits a West End play and does a runner to Belgium" thing must be pretty well-known if comedy writers drop it in as something they think their audience will recognise.

Yeah, but then Blue Jam was over 20 years ago, and even that episode of Peep Show is 12 years old. I'd expect comedy writers (to whom it would have been far more significant than to the general public anyway) would have felt it would be recognised 5-10 years after it happened but not necessarily still by 2019.

[sick as a pike]

I'd like to pompously self-aggrandise here by saying that I was chatting to Stephen Fry at a party two nights before his Belgian flit. He was very unhappy about the Cell Mate reviews, which he'd publicly claimed he didn't read, "but of course I do."

edit: I don't know how much of a cultural void it is, but I have never visited a drive-through restaurant.

[Jockice]

They've all got massive cultural voids by the time I'm finished with them.

[Cuellar]

I'd like to pompously self-aggrandise here by saying that I was chatting to Stephen Fry at a party two nights before his Belgian flit. He was very unhappy about the Cell Mate reviews, which he'd publicly claimed he didn't read, "but of course I do."

edit: I don't know how much of a cultural void it is, but I have never visited a drive-through restaurant.

You must have made some impression for him to flee across the channel just to get away

[sick as a pike]

Graham Linehan was also there, dressed as a pantomime dame and defending all women and I think he has to take his share of the blame.

[touchingcloth]

I agree, but then in 1995 when it happened I was 16 and had grown up on Blackadder, Fry and Laurie and Jeeves and Wooster. I wouldn't really be too surprised at anyone much younger than me not knowing about it, particularly if Fry has a more recent association with 'disappearing' from social media.

Yeah, but then Blue Jam was over 20 years ago, and even that episode of Peep Show is 12 years old. I'd expect comedy writers (to whom it would have been far more significant than to the general public anyway) would have felt it would be recognised 5-10 years after it happened but not necessarily still by 2019.

I'd have been 9 at the time of the ferry incident, and I don't think I had any particular awareness of Fry at the time. It would have been a couple of years later that I'd have recognised him as "the one with the moustache from Blackadder".

Blue Jam (unlike Jam) isn't a cultural touchstone for me unfortunately, but Peep Show definitely was and that line from it is only ringing a vague bell - which series was it?

My conclusion is...the podcast reference could have been to either thing. The guests were of mixed ages, some closer to my age and younger, some closer to icehaven's and older, but there was definitely a sense of a shared recognition of the reference. I hope that in reality whoever raised the subject did so as a reference to the ferry incident, but some of their fellow guests understood it as a reference to twitter. That'd be fun, like in the latest series of Glow where a man and a woman each thought they were being hired as rather than hiring a prostitute.

[sick as a pike]

I'd have been 9 at the time of the ferry incident [...]

FUCK OFF; will everyone stop being so much younger than me?!

[Icehaven]

That'd be fun, like in the latest series of Glow where a man and a woman each thought they were being hired as rather than hiring a prostitute.

Not to look like an old git yet again, but that's a straight lift from Midnight Cowboy when Joe and Tess both think they're hustling each other.

[Cuellar]

Graham Linehan was also there, dressed as a pantomime dame and defending all women and I think he has to take his share of the blame.

Oh fair play yeah, definitely him

[QDRPHNC]

I'd like to pompously self-aggrandise here by saying that I was chatting to Stephen Fry at a party two nights before his Belgian flit. He was very unhappy about the Cell Mate reviews, which he'd publicly claimed he didn't read, "but of course I do."

edit: I don't know how much of a cultural void it is, but I have never visited a drive-through restaurant.

Simon Gray's book about the whole fiasco was compulsive reading, but he didn't skimp on the vitriol for Fry.

The problem with these sorts of threads is, for the most part it's not about actual cultural voids, it's about a person not being familiar with something very important to the poster that occurred before the person was born. Probably.

[Sherringford Hovis]

I have never visited a drive-through restaurant.

If there's a human activity that epitomises the holy grail of Shit For Cunts, it's drive-throughs.

Remain unsullied.

[Blue Jam]

If there's a human activity that epitomises the holy grail of Shit For Cunts, it's drive-throughs.

Remain unsullied.

A few months ago I was getting the bus home from werk when it passed a McDonald's "Drive-Thru" and hit a car being driven by some numpty who figured that if he put his foot down he could just nip in front of that double-decker bus swerving round the roundabout, piece of piss. The bus driver slammed on the brakes but the impact still knocked the numpty's car across the road. The bus was fine, the car was totalled and as the numpty swapped details with the bus driver he looked totally dejected, perhaps realising that in his hurry to get home while his burger was still hot he had now assured that by the time he got home it would be stone fucking cold, and also the most expensive burger he'd ever had.

I have never been to a drive-through either. Partly because I hate burgers, partly because I'm not American but mainly because I can't drive.

[Icehaven]

Last time I was going through a McD's drive-thru it was about 1am and these two lads lurking near the entrance asked us if we'd get them something as they wouldn't serve them because they were on bikes rather than a motor vehicle, which I thought was a bit mean. I suppose it's a safety thing (same reason you can't walk through them) but it's not as if it was busy. Jobsworths.

[Huxleys Babkins]

If you let a pushbike through the drive through, the next thing you know they'll be trying the unattended car wash at the petrol station. Those brushes might look like the ones off Pat Sharp's Fun House, but an exposed youth would be torn to fucking ribbons before he even got as far as the foam and wax.

[bgmnts]

Are you allowed through a drive thru on a motorbike?

[Huxleys Babkins]

I don't believe so and I can't imagine why a biker would want to do it either. They've nowhere to put their bag of goodies and peripheral drink once it's been handed to them. Can't put it between the legs as you'd get your thighs scolded by your Chicken Legend. Can't hold it in your hands as you'd be unable to control the bike properly. The last thing you want is to end up spread up the back of a petrol tanker because your Sausage McMuffin got caught under the brake lever.

You could always pop in in a top box, but you'd have to dismount and hold up the queue and make sure it's all secured so you don't have your Quarter Pounder With Cheese Large Meal swimming around in a pool of Sprite Zero by the time you've got home.

[kalowski]

If you let a pushbike through the drive through, the next thing you know they'll be trying the unattended car wash at the petrol station. Those brushes might look like the ones off Pat Sharp's Fun House, but an exposed youth would be torn to fucking ribbons before he even got as far as the foam and wax.

https://youtu.be/RXjTkwOJQyw

[Jockice]

Not sure if this counts as cultural but I've just remembered being invited for lunch at a friend's place around five years ago. I got them some wine and as they have a pet cat I took up some treats I'd bought for my own moggie. Those Whiskas Temptations ones in a plastic box in a sort of cat's ears shape.

I handed them to his wife and she went: 'What are these?' Er cat treats 'I've never seen them before,' she replied. She seemed totally oblivious to the entire concept of cat treats.

I mean, how could that happen? I know they've had a pet cat since the early 90s (not the same one obviously) and presume they went into shops to buy the cat food. In fact a few hundred metres from their house there is a Spar with a pet shop next to it. I've been in both and they definitely have not only Temptations but also Dreamies in stock. Yet ****** had never noticed them or thought that her cat may like a snack or anything like that. Poor Misty, that's all I can say. Missedout more like!

[kngen]

Drive-thrus are fucking magic. I completely agree that their slow creep into the British consumer experience is horrendous cultural imperialism and should be battled at all costs, but here in America, it's just a part of daily life, like guns or racism, and is fucking great. I went to get McDonald's breakfast the other day in my pants (UK definition). Nobody knew!

Australia, however, has raised it to a new level with the drive-thru bevvy shop (or bottle-o as they call it there), as immortalised in this traditional folk song.*


_{*They do, however, seem to have to get out of their car in that video. The one I went to in a small town north of Sydney, you could just say 'Four slabs of Toohey's, you mad cunt' and they sling it in the back for you. Apex of civilisation right there.}

[pigamus]

The problem with McDonalds drive-thrus is they always the neglect the inside bit. I went to the one by me the other week and it was chaos. One thing they seem to do now is pour some of the drinks beforehand, so that my Diet Coke was both warm and flat. That can fuck off.

[sick as a pike]

Australia, however, has raised it to a new level with the drive-thru bevvy shop (or bottle-o as they call it there)

Ah yes, while (as mentioned) I've not been to a fast food drive-through/thru/th, I have been to several Australian bottle shops, but only as a foot customer, which seemed slightly to unsettle the staff.  Where is the vehicle to put this into? There is no car, I am on foot, yes that's right in this heat, and I'm going to carry this large quantity of beer and wine 20 minutes up the hill to my sister's house where- Jesus I don't feel very well- yes, yes, it's all fine this is normal I am British, the insanity is baked-in now.

[kngen]

Ah yes, while (as mentioned) I've not been to a fast food drive-through/thru/th, I have been to several Australian bottle shops, but only as a foot customer, which seemed slightly to unsettle the staff.  Where is the vehicle to put this into? There is no car, I am on foot, yes that's right in this heat, and I'm going to carry this large quantity of beer and wine 20 minutes up the hill to my sister's house where- Jesus I don't feel very well- yes, yes, it's all fine this is normal I am British, the insanity is baked-in now.

Walk-in fridges in Aussie bottle-os have been my salvation many a time on a hot day. Like a weird inverse of jakeys hingin aboot in libraries for the free heat.

[QDRPHNC]

Australia, however, has raised it to a new level with the drive-thru bevvy shop (or bottle-o as they call it there), as immortalised in this traditional folk song.*

I've seen those in the States, mostly in the south.

[kngen]

I've seen those in the States, mostly in the south.

Yep, the Brew-Thrus in North Carolina, for example. Bloody pricey though.

[dannyfc]

Had a friend that pronounced Chile the same way you say bile. We were playing a co-op football game and came up against them, I was too socially awkward to call him out on it. Both around the age of 14 at the time, but I remember being staggered he'd clearly never heard the country of Chile referenced before in any conversation.

Also - no one at work had heard of the film The Brave Little Toaster despite all being of a similar age. Ended up having a bit a of a moment to the point of googling it just to confirm it's existence to myself such was the doubt. Perhaps not a massive void but still im convinced it was on tele a lot around Christmas in the 90s.

[touchingcloth]

I'm aware of The Brave Little Toaster, but I don't think I've ever actually seen it. Did you have Sky as a kid? Maybe the cultural void of others was really a void of Murdoch?

[Shit Good Nose]

The problem with these sorts of threads is, for the most part it's not about actual cultural voids, it's about a person not being familiar with something very important to the poster that occurred before the person was born. Probably.

Spectator sport.  There you go.

I, famously, have zero interest in sport, to the point where I actively avoid it.  You could introduce me to every single one of the most famous football players in the world for the last twenty years, and the chances are I wouldn't have a fucking clue who they were.

A few weeks ago we went to our village's summer event and the maypole competition (which little Nose was in) was being judged by, what I was told were, Bath rugby's top two players (they both play for England as well).  I was stood right next to them and just thought they were two local villagers until the mayor introduced them.  Even now I couldn't tell you who they were.


(I probs mentioned this earlier in the thread, didn't I...)

[jamiefairlie]

Had a friend that pronounced Chile the same way you say bile. We were playing a co-op football game and came up against them, I was too socially awkward to call him out on it. Both around the age of 14 at the time, but I remember being staggered he'd clearly never heard the country of Chile referenced before in any conversation.

Especially if he's into football. I put my encyclopedic knowledge of world geography down to being a football obsessive in my early years and knowing where a whole bunch of provincial towns are just because their team once qualified for the European Cup Winners Cup in 1976.

Has its occasional downsides too though, my pronunciation of Haiti is still off due to the way Brian Moore and David Coleman said it during the 74 world cup.

[Jockice]

Had a friend that pronounced Chile the same way you say bile. We were playing a co-op football game and came up against them, I was too socially awkward to call him out on it. Both around the age of 14 at the time, but I remember being staggered he'd clearly never heard the country of Chile referenced before in any conversation.

In our late teens a couple of mates and I went through a particularly pretentious phrase, reading, and pretending to like the likes of Kafka and Camus. Unfortunately, although the first was easy to pronounce, the second could be pronounced two different ways. And we chose the wrong one.

It was only when I mentioned him to someone else (who happened to be younger than me) and was laughed at that any of us discovered the correct prounciation. Whoops!