I disagree Alex includes such things “deliberately”. It’s just our normal lives… if people from outside the UK happen to watch, great, but things aren’t included just in case a foreigner might watch that episode!
The butter sandwich thing though could be a joke, unless they meant using butter in a sandwich (ie it’s not the actual filling)?
I'm wondering if OP is getting confused with a "butty" which is bread butter and then whatever precedes the word butty. Usually chip butty for chips in buttered bread.
No, I watched the episode (Season 9 not sure exactly which number - maybe 4?) where Alex was in the lab and said I'll have a "butter sandwich" while I wait and then proceeded to eat exactly that. I'll see if I can find it again as I don't recall if it was just related to things left over from the task or what. I assume it was a joke as it is not a usual British thing. A Crisp Sandwich on the other hand.....
...is a butter sandwich not a common thing?
I had one yesterday, previously a couple of days before that. My kids have them regularly.
Assume everyone has them, though I've never actually asked mates / people at work. It's not something you'd have for your lunch, more like a snack when you get in from work early and it'll be a while til you make tea.
Usually just one slice of bread, buttered then folded in half (butter inwards).
Two slices is a bit much, though I've absolutely had that with a brew more than once.
This whole time I was thinking butter sandwich sounds shocking who would eat that, bread and butter all the way, then I realised I do fold it in half and it is in fact a sandwich.
Just checked with two people who live at opposite ends of the country, it's definitely a thing in the UK.
They both asked me why it wouldn't be a thing elsewhere.
Never heard of Butter Sandwich, but ‘Bread and Butter’ as a tasty snack, absolutely. Just thinking of it makes me want to head to the kitchen to slice n spread.
Butter sandwiches are more common than you think, even in North America, but I typically think of it as a food item that usually only children make for themselves.
In Australia, we have butter on bread with ‘hundreds and thousands’ - it’s called fairy bread and is extremely common at kids birthday parties. But I don’t know about plain bread and butter sandwiches. :)
OK as an American I'm absolutely Appalled at the idea of a butter sandwich.... But im not too proud to deny I've ever eaten a butter sandwich. We just don't talk about it too much over here.
It’s a good thing that Steve had to have it explained what a “Bleep Test” was because as an UK born but American raised adult I had no idea what the hell this was referencing or why everyone mocked him for not knowing it, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
In Canada we call it the "beep" test, yet the UK using "bleep" test is no surprise, sounds much more British.
Never knew it was developed here though. Sorry to school kids around the world.
I am surprised Americans don't do it? It's common in Canada. They torture us with it in gym/P.E. at least 2 or 3 times in our school careers.
Given how wide spread it is now, I'd be surprised if no American schools do it.
The concept of running, with a timer based elimination or something, absolutely exists. I wouldn’t be surprised if it exists in the US even more specifically in this context. but we don’t have a nationalized school system and it certainly wouldn’t be called a “bleep test” and given the lack of further explanation in the show that was the confusing part.
I picked up on the task itself pretty quickly it’s just the “well it’s it’s a bleep test clearly” part that threw me off
I *think* it’s some sort of gym class activity where you have to run back and forth, making it to the other side before the next bleep? but yeah still no concrete idea either
You’re right. You have to run to a point and get there before the bleep. Then run back before the next bleep. The space between the bleeps gets shorter and shorter. It’s supposed to measure kids fitness.
Yep, that's exactly it. You run back and forth, and have to make it across between bleeps. When you miss one you're out. The time between bleeps gradually gets shorter, and it's a matter of lasting as long as possible. It was a dreaded ritual in gym classes in Norway in my childhood (90s and early 00s) as well, so that one isn't specifically British.
We would put butter on bread, of course. But NEVER then put them together to make a "sandwich". Plus, the acceptable amount of butter would be a very thin spread. Certainly never ever call it a "sandwich".
Would you call them "sanduíches de manteiga" in Portugal?
I have occasionally (mainly when I was a kid) have had butter sandwiches, that are just like: butter the bread and fold. I didn't put extra butter on it though.
I am sure Alex did this at one point, and referred to it as like "just a regular BUTTER SANDWICH". Maybe it's an Alex thing, he's not the most normal person
Don't trust Alex's opinion on anything food related. His palate is shocking. That's why there are so many tasks where they feed him something, he genuinely doesn't care if it's grim.
I don’t call it a butter sandwich, but have often eaten bread and butter.
Bread and butter is often offered for Full English Breakfast and Fish and Chips.
Maybe regional as I grew up in South East .
A lot of the pop-culture references have the potential to fly over the head of someone who isn't as plugged into UK television and the like. A good example is probably Greg's remark about Johnny Vegas "not selling the teabag enough" in one prize task and Johnny's response how he tried that and now no director will touch him which took a little Googling for me. (Johnny did a pretty well-known series of commercials for tea and commercials aren't the sort of pop-culture that really gets exported like TV shows and movies.)
On the flip side, I've watched Taskmaster with friends who just assume anything weird they hear is a British-ism. The one that comes to mind immediately is "the red green" but I know there were others.
I literally said to myself as I clicked "I hope this is the musical one with the cow" and I'm quite pleased that this is, in fact, the musical one with the cow. Thanks!
I loved when Mae was asked to do a task in relation to the red green, they asked for duct tape.
*Edit: to substitute non-binery pronoun. Thank you u/pksage for the friendly reminder*
The one that flew over my head was Greg talking about needing a furniture repair person when Ed suggested hanging Rose’s bra from Greg’s portrait.
I was like, “What the hell is the sight of an unoccupied bra going to make you do to your chair, *sir*?” But then someone here linked the ad he was referencing and it all made sense.
I had completely forgotten that one. Yeah, it made no sense to me when I first heard it.
I'd say it's funny the commercials that make enough of a cultural impact to be referenced as jokes years later, but it's also not like we Americans are really very different there.
I think a difference there is in our broadcasting, at least based on my limited experiences of it in the States - we have less major channels, and of those, the majority are shown across the satellite and cable providers and free to air, with the premium stuff largely being just sports and films.
There’s some regionality both specific to the ads and shows (mainly regional news and sports), but the vast majority is national, and so the vast majority of ads you’ll see are for national brands, certainly in prime time.
I barely watch live TV unless it’s sports, but I’ll know most of the big national campaigns.
The "red green" always made sense to me because it's an artificial golf "green" that's just colored red. So, a red green. I never thought of it as a Britishism though.
I don't understand why this comes up so often on British TV. No-one talks about sprinkles ever on North American TV. Also Dogging, what the hell happened in the UK to make this a cultural touchstone?!?
Americans do, that's why we're aware of the word 'sprinkles' and 'jimmies'. It probably just sails past your ears as unremarkable when it comes up, but it's noticeable to us.
Dogging comes up so often, and I’d never heard of the term or even the phenomena before watching Taskmaster. Is this a thing anywhere else in the world?!
I really like all the commentary on different geographic origins around the UK and the wider English-speaking world. Two I remember in particular, both from series 14, are Fern, after presenting her Chinese soup I haven't been able to find the name of anywhere: "I didn't think you were gonna try it, 'cause aren't you from Shrewsbury or something? You look like you just eat roasts!" And Sarah, after telling the story of her "bad taste" Halloween costume: "We just looked like we were from South Shields."
I would really love to know if other British people from outside England agree with Fern's remarks on Alex's "very English" passive-aggressiveness. On the one hand, I see what she means; on the other, I'm American and come from a family that struggles with anger management.
I actually think it's less of a generalb"English passive-aggressiveness" (even though that's what she said) and more to do with Alex having a posh accent, you'll hear it especially when Greg is correcting Alex because he says "tarsk" instead of "task" or "roum" (closer to a u sound) instead of "room" iirc. It's probably why it was directed at Alex and not Greg.
Accents are culturally closely tied to class in the UK, you'd probably find just as many northern English people with working class accents who think the same about southerners with Alex's accent! Saying that, we're all southerners to the Scots as my dad loves to remind me hahaha
As a Brit living in Brazil, lots of people seem freaked out by the milk in tea. But, the tea people drink in England is not so common in Brazil, most of the teas (camomila, verde, fruit teas) that are common in Brazil people wouldnt put milk in.
It's more like putting milk in coffee.
I would love to find somewhere to get some christmas crackers in Brazil. I have introduced my wife and her family to mince pies and pigs in blankets, but they are missing out on the special paper hat and terrible joke.
As a Brit living in the US, after trying and failing to find crackers over here and balking at the cost of importing them, my new favourite Christmas tradition is taking 30 minutes pre-dinner to fashion a ridiculous crown out of tissue paper (or just any paper you can find). It's lost of fun and you can decorate them as much as you like for that personal touch. Then, when I pop the hat on during dinner, I feel like I've earned it.
As a non-native English speaker, I never heard a mnemonic for it until the taskmaster episode. For some reason, my brain decided the joke, “Richard of York gave Battle Purple Purple” was in fact, the correct mnemonic and has refused to change it ever since. Fun!
We had a "down with the kids" teacher, so I learnt it as Randy Old Yvonne Got Bonked in Venice.
I mean, I remember Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain too, but until that episode of TM, I always thought Roy G Biv was an Americanism as I'd only heard it on TV.
That's so interesting. My family is from India and I grew up on bread and butter sandwiches (my mum still makes them for me when I visit) and was always told it was a snack they got from the Brits.
This only works if it’s ‘proper’ bread and butter. Try it with low quality sliced bread and margarine it’ll be awful. A fresh loaf and full fat butter - delicious. I’d have a single slice rather than a sandwich though.
I know putting butter on any kind of sandwich is practically unheard of in America. (They also don't understand why Brits put bacon in a sandwich with nothing else. Also they have no concept of sausage rolls. We should recolonise them.)
We add a slice of tomato and leaf of lettuce to our bacon sandwich to pretend it's healthy.
Also buttering a sandwich is common, though not at franchise sub shops.
American who immigrated to Australia here - the first time someone made me a peanut butter sandwich they started by buttering BOTH pieces of bread. I was like "wtf are you doing?" and they said "You don't want butter??? But it'll be dry."
I'm British and peanut butter is about the only sandwich I won't butter. Because peanut butter is so oily in itself anyway - you're not adding anything, you're just diluting the nuttiness.
Christ. Imagine a world without bacon sandwiches! I wonder if that's why they're so obsessed with God; I'd probably be waiting for the rapture if I had to live like that.
Nothing on earth is better than a bacon sandwich (bacon butty) or bacon in a roll (bacon bap) usually eaten with plenty of butter on the bread and tomato ketchup or brown sauce. There’s also a BLT; bacon, lettuce and tomato - served cold.
I’ve never heard of a butter sandwich, maybe you’re thinking of a chip butty, fries in a sandwich?
That's indirectly what it means! Subbuteo is the Latin name for the Eurasian hobby (a small falcon) and the game was called that because it is also technically a "hobby".
Henry is also a brand of vacuum cleaner.
https://www.myhenry.com/machines
Hoover is that thing when the brand (Hoover) becomes synonymous with the product (vacuum cleaner)
I learned that one from context clues in a book! I wish we could say it here. I also really liked when Alice Levine taught me "fairy liquid" in one of her team tasks with Russell Howard. It's fun because it evokes an image completely unrelated to what it's for.
And companies don't really like when that happens: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY&t=60s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY&t=60s)
Kleenex and tissues, Xerox and a copy machine, Legos and building block toys, Oreos and chocolate cream (creme?) filled sandwich cookies.
The examples are endless!
Ah! I know it as White Out (yes, a brand name) but I also remember Typex from when my mom still used a typewriter - she had the little sheets that you placed over the incorrect letter on the paper & struck the same key, so as to apply the white paint-like product to cover up the mistake!
In case you ever need to use these in the UK:
We wouldn't use Xerox for a photocopier in the UK, it's not a common brand over here. Not actually sure most people would know what you're on about.
I'd always say 'tissues' and would think it a bit odd if you asked by brand, though that may be more common.
Lego (don't know why, but we'd use the singular as the plural, so "a pile of Lego") - yes, absolutely.
Oreos are increasingly popular, though would rather have a Bourbon if I wanted a biscuit that tasted faintly of chocolate.
If you'd like to check whether other examples work on both sides of the pond, happy to help out!
There are three ways to pluralize it:
* The North American way as a count noun: one Lego, two Legos.
* The all other English-speaking countries way, which is to use Lego as a mass noun (one piece of Lego, two pieces of Lego, a pile of Lego).
* The way the Lego Corporation *wants* you to do it, using Lego as an adjective, not a noun at all: one Lego brick, two Lego bricks, a pile of Lego bricks.
I dunno, not everyone would use Lego as a generic name for building blocks. I suppose it depends though if you're vehemently against sub-par bricks. Bit like from what I've heard from USA peeps where their parents would just say 'Nintendo' to refer to absolutely every game console but those that have one know the difference.
I don’t understand what the alternative to being out in the rain with an umbrella is. Not being out? Or not having an umbrella? Is it the umbrella that is absurd? I’m so intrigued by your intrigue!!
I was a bit surprised when Greg made fun of Desiree's American pronunciation of "Snooker", because the pronunciation sounded normal to me.
Pretty much any England-specific pop culture reference, especially Mr. Blobby in Series 17. Apparently every British person knows who Mr. Blobby is, but I only knew the name because it was mentioned in a [Tom Scott video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5u9JSnAAU4).
Mr Blobby was part of the biggest family entertainment show on television at his/its peak in the mid-90s, so any British comedian in their mid to late thirties would have grown up with the apparition.
I wonder if there's room for some kind of FAQ-style British culture explainer through TM references? Because if you didn't get Blobby you're certainly not going to know How (which David Baddiel assured us is not Taskmaster)
The ribbing she gets from Greg over the pronunciation of snooker reminds me of [this clip](https://youtu.be/A2g6D6Ki_-Y?si=bGFrFylogx5osEVt) from The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (featuring actual Steve Davis).
Its not plain kidney pie, its steak and kidney (also comes in pudding form)
Other versions are:
Steak and ale
Steak and onion
Steak and oyster (a high end product you don't see mass-produced)
As someone who was born, raised and continue to live in the North West of England I've never heard of a butter sandwich. What episode was that brought up in because I can't remember it? We butter sandwiches quite frequently but it's never the main filling
i’m also north west england raised and still reside here, and butter sandwiches are absolutely a thing- mostly for children granted, but a thing! how weird lmao
And even if you haven't heard of it, it's basically just bread and butter which every western country eats.
I just assumed "butter" sandwich" was a lazy thing. Are we talking about the task they have to deliver Alex the plate of sandwiches? I thought it was just easier to make the sandwiches plain.
I think a big difference is that Americans don't commonly use sandwich bread for "bread and butter". They would eat a roll or a slice of a baguette and butter it. At least we do in Canada. I know Americans eat rolls, maybe they don't butter baguettes at the dinner table.
The big difference is that Brits put butter as a spread on sandwiches, and that's unusual in the US. In the UK, eating a ham sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cheese; it would be buttered by default. Americans would find that weird. They default to mayo and/or mustard. In Canada it's not typical to use butter instead of mayo in a sandwich, but I have seen it people do it. Eating something like egg salad or chicken salad(as Brits call egg mayo or chicken mayo) it would be considered really odd to butter the bread first. Yet, I think in the UK this wouldn't be strange? Mayo and butter aren't mixed in North America.
I'm American and enjoy the differences. I've learned a decent amount of British terminology and small cultural nuances. Sometimes it's self explanatory and sometimes I look it up.
Either way, I'm not bothered by it and take it as small learning experiences. The same goes for the NZ and AU versions, but the UK is still my favorite. I look forward to every new episode.
In a recent Australian episode, they had to collect "hot chips". That doesn't mean that the chips were necessarily piping hot: Australians distinguish between *chips* and *hot chips* as two completely different foodstuffs.
|UK & Ireland|US & Canada|NZ & Australia|
|:-|:-|:-|
|crisps|chips|chips|
|chips|fries|hot chips|
On my first date with my wife we sat on a blanket under an umbrella, and both pretended it was still raining so we had to stay huddled together.
Can you do that in a dry country?
Yes, probably, with a parasol. I've seen those on the telly.
The most stand out thing to me (Aussie) is the Brits have some cartoon character they all know called Mr Blobby? Its referenced multiple times in the show, and its just so british sounding to me!
Mr Blobby wasn't really a children's character, I've noticed a lot of British people who were kids at the time seem to think this.
He started out as a fake kids TV character who used to prank celebrities on a Saturday night TV programme. He's deliberately designed to be uncanny. He became a bit of a runaway pop-cultural success and used to crop up on lots of different shows and things, and even ended up releasing a number one single!
I think that's probably more common worldwide than you think. I'm not a massive fan of it, but as I'm basically never in a situation where I'm forced to pop balloons, it hasn't mattered.
Grew up in the US, lived in the UK for 6 months and Australia for 10+ years, so most of this stuff is quite normal to me. But then something completely unexpected comes up like **SALAD CREAM** and the cultural difference screeches like the mighty bald eagle....
When you say pie to a British person it seems like they automatically think of a savory food. In the US we would think of sweet desserts first even thought we do have things like chicken pot pie.
Tarpaulin… I have never heard anyone say anything other than tarp but they all acted like it was normal to say tarpaulin.
Yep, correct on both counts. We have fruit pies like apple and cherry but pie is more commonly eaten for dinner, be it steak or chicken or what have you.
And yes I would refer to tarpaulin that way, though hearing someone say tarp wouldn't be confusing, it's just no one I know would shorten it, that's a more American thing I think.
>HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS as a name for sprinkles
I'm Australian, so not sure if this counts. But hundreds and thousands and sprinkles are different things here. Hundreds and thousands are the tiny round balls, whereas sprinkles are the tiny cylinders.
As a big time sprinkles fan (seriously, I can't get enough of them on any dessert) I really love them being called hundreds and thousands. Weirdly really cool
>BUTTER sandwiches
Not really a thing (not sure where you saw that) - butter is used as a layer on the bread before the filling which often cheese, ham, tuna mayo etc.
>KIDNEY pies as a common food item;
Steak & kidney pies - not just kidneys and comes with a lot of gravy inside.
>MILK in TEA
Yep, that's standard and in coffee.
>Richard of York mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow
Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain... I'm with you, this is a weird one but it is common.
Also, Never Eat Shreaded Wheat for North, East, South West. Or My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets (Mercury, Venus, etc)
>HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS as a name for sprinkles
But there's 100s & 1000s of them! 😆
In The Netherlands they call them Hagelslag & eat them on bread for breakfast (sl*g is an insult in England so there's much amusant for tourists).
>HENRY HOOVER (I quite like this one)
Henry is a very hard working vaccum cleaner. He has a sister called Hetty! (Genuinely considered a good quality vacuum cleaner).
>CHRISTMAS CRACKER and its special hat
I only recently found out this wasn't universal - they are an essential part of a Christmas dinner! Sadly the inner "firework/bang" means they generally aren't shipped abroad.
>Being out in the rain with an umbrella and acting like it’s nothing
Oh, but we would grumble about - a lot! That said if we didn't go out in the rain then we'd never leave!
Aussie here. The use of "pants" for underpants is weird to me, because we call trousers pants (and also trousers) and underpants underpants or undies.
Also the constant satsuma references. I'd never heard of it. Turns out it's a certain variety of mandarin. But we just call them all mandarins in Australia, no reference to varieties.
>Being out in the rain with an umbrella and acting like it’s nothing (just like milk in tea, seems obvious that british people would do this, but still totally unnatural for someone who lives in a country with less rain).
You will boggle (through a window) if you ever come to North America's Pacific northwest... while it's common to use umbrellas, it's almost as common to see people standing out in the rain with NO umbrella and acting like it's nothing. Even no raincoat! I'm not that hardcore, but I do frequently go out with only a rain jacket and no umbrella during rain, for errands or just a walk. And most kids in Vancouver have recess outside when it's raining unless there's hail or lightning.
We will talk your ear off complaining if it's very cold (less than 10) or very hot (above 25) though!
And it's true, for some reason we think it's vital that kids know the order of the rainbow. In addition to our man Roy, I know of at least three children's songs about the colours of the rainbow, including an unusual one that starts at purple and goes up the rainbow, which is neat. It's actually from a British kids' cartoon, Bing.
British idiosyncrasies: human body weight in STONES.
We measure weight in "stone", not "stones". It wasn't confusing enough, so we decided it shouldn't have a separate plural form like every other unit and we'd just use the singular like with sheep or deer.
Incidentally I don't think I know anyone under 35 that measures their weight in stone, everyone uses kg these days
I was about to disagree and say I’ve got a whole what’s app group of mates that share weight updates in stone every few years when we decide we’re all doing a holiday or something and want beach bods, and then suddenly I understood the accuracy of your statement given I’m 39 and so are most of them.
Goddamn, it cut me to the core.
What’s weirder to me is using lbs for human weight (at least that’s what Americans are always using in sports) but not stone. It’s like doing height in only inches, madness.
Especially seeing as 'floor' has referred to ground outside since at least Old English, likely before and as long as 'floor' has referred to any kind of surface at all.
I think it's a more recent (maybe American?) thing to insist floors are only inside and ground is outside. Was it a 'thing' in America before that Parks and Recreation clip?
You're right, though I think the specific point of contention was whether English was Henry Hoover's first language. Key was adamant that it was, citing the song as proof. Classic Jockeys.
I’m still waiting for a TM reference to the very real British controversy over which to put on a scone first—clotted cream or jam. I think this argument hails from Devon and Cornwall.
As a Canadian a lot of this is confusing. Except the milk in tea thing, I hate it. I take my tea black, but most Canadians do milk in tea, including my wife.
Also it's ROY G BIV... Rose should've made fun of the Brits, not the other way around.
Yeah I thought this too. Like, isn't a mnemonic meant to make it *easier*? Not like, oh wait let me struggle to remember the mnemonic so I can then remember the rainbow.
My list is very limited because of my bad memory, but there are so many other things I find funny/weird.
Like calling everything that goes on one’s head a “hat” of some kind. I think I’ve seen the british refer to the towel wrap women do after taking a shower as a kind of hat, and it’s just unimaginable that someone would frame it like that in Brazil. It’s just funny, like a weird observation a kid would make.
Completely tangentially, I play an online RPG (Baldur’s Gate 3 for you fellow nerds out there) online with some longtime friends of mine and it tickles me to no end to refer to all headwear (helmets, tiaras, actual hats) as hats. I’ve got them doing it now too. Hehehe.
Now that I think of it, maybe it’s more of an english speaking thing or, sometimes, just a joke.
I do remember once I was traveling and made 2 Australian friends. They wanted to play the “hat game” which consisted of naming as many hats as you could.
So I tried all of the [qualifier+hat] formats I knew. Cowboy hat, bowler hat, etc. Some other things made sense like sombrero or beret.
But then they went into like “turbant”, “helmet”, even “beanie” and it confused me a lot, cause it wouldn’t occur to me to call these things “hats”.
It doesn’t even make much sense, since there is not much difference between the beanie situation and the beret, which I completely agreed was a hat.
Anyways, it might be just one of those things in which, whatever the language, some people would argue strongly that a turbant is a hat and some would say that’s crazy.
These guys were Australian too, so, thinking about it, it might be something english speaking people in general do more than a Portuguese speaker like me.
I would love to hear from more native english speakers or how it feels for speakers of other languages to figure this out!
Part of this is the lateral thinking the contestants have to do (often to try and get themselves out of a hole) and comedians love of wordplay.
A hat goes on your head
Therefore anything that goes on your head is a hat
Therefore anything that goes on top of something is a hat
Antlers are a deer's hat
You have to take a bottle's hat off to drink from it
But I think a lot of normal people being silly or having a pointless pub argument would do something similar for fun. That hole "is a hotdog a sandwich or a taco" type internet discourse a few years ago is a classic example
A helmet, a turban, and a crown I would not call hats, except jokingly. A beanie, though, is definitely a hat to me. I think the reason is the function.
yeah like my English is pretty good at this point so most words I'm looking up when I'm watching Taskmaster are food items. they have some weird food over there. like what even is marmite.
Marmite is a super savoury salty spread. It’s also got a very thick consistency, like more stiff than honey, but still a liquid.
It’s got a lot of “umami” flavour, think maybe super concentrated soy sauce?
I went to London a few years ago and had to try marmite. It's not even gross, it just feels inedible. Like something contaminated by heavy metals or something like that. Tastes like hummus with mercury poisoning. Hated it completely, despite wanting really hard to grow fond of it
That's such a good description, and I adore marmite XD Eat it most days. It really does only need a very thin layer/tiny amount though, I think a lot of people new to it go too big too soon and it ruins it - so salty XD
Marmite is a yeast extract originally made from dead yeast left over from brewing beer
Its salty, savoury and good source of B-Vitamins
In colour and consistency it resembles black Nutella, it is hilarious when foreigners think that is what it is but evil to tell their children that is the case
Bovril is a similar product made from beef
Tangentially related…
I’m an American of nearly 50. I’ve lived in Georgia, North Carolina, and California. I’ve seen, I reckon, dozens of rainbows.
Never have I once considered that there might be an order to the colors. Never heard anybody mention it. Never had a conversation about it. Didn’t learn about it in school.
Tl;dr Taskmaster teaches old dogs new tricks.
I disagree Alex includes such things “deliberately”. It’s just our normal lives… if people from outside the UK happen to watch, great, but things aren’t included just in case a foreigner might watch that episode! The butter sandwich thing though could be a joke, unless they meant using butter in a sandwich (ie it’s not the actual filling)?
I'm wondering if OP is getting confused with a "butty" which is bread butter and then whatever precedes the word butty. Usually chip butty for chips in buttered bread.
No, I watched the episode (Season 9 not sure exactly which number - maybe 4?) where Alex was in the lab and said I'll have a "butter sandwich" while I wait and then proceeded to eat exactly that. I'll see if I can find it again as I don't recall if it was just related to things left over from the task or what. I assume it was a joke as it is not a usual British thing. A Crisp Sandwich on the other hand.....
You wouldn't say "I'm having a butter sandwich". You may, however, gobble down a few rounds of bread and butter if there's sod all in the fridge.
In parts of the USA, mostly the NYC region a buttered bulkie roll is not only common, but delightful and you can't easily get them out of the region.
...is a butter sandwich not a common thing? I had one yesterday, previously a couple of days before that. My kids have them regularly. Assume everyone has them, though I've never actually asked mates / people at work. It's not something you'd have for your lunch, more like a snack when you get in from work early and it'll be a while til you make tea.
Do you mean like…untoasted toast? Like two bits of bread with butter in between and nothing else?
Usually just one slice of bread, buttered then folded in half (butter inwards). Two slices is a bit much, though I've absolutely had that with a brew more than once.
This whole time I was thinking butter sandwich sounds shocking who would eat that, bread and butter all the way, then I realised I do fold it in half and it is in fact a sandwich.
Just checked with two people who live at opposite ends of the country, it's definitely a thing in the UK. They both asked me why it wouldn't be a thing elsewhere.
As a 30yo Brit who has never heard of a butter sandwich before, I am increasingly mystified
Never heard of Butter Sandwich, but ‘Bread and Butter’ as a tasty snack, absolutely. Just thinking of it makes me want to head to the kitchen to slice n spread.
Same position +10 years. Have never heard of this.
Wow, can't believe this could be the new "sit or stand after shitting?" Jason Manford will be asking this on the radio by next week, I'll bet!
Me neither. Bread and butter on the other hand....
This is a new one to 40yo British me. Makes me wonder if it's a regional thing?
I grew up poor in the southwest USA and we used to eat buttered tortillas. Might not be that uncommon.
Butter sandwiches are more common than you think, even in North America, but I typically think of it as a food item that usually only children make for themselves.
In Australia, we have butter on bread with ‘hundreds and thousands’ - it’s called fairy bread and is extremely common at kids birthday parties. But I don’t know about plain bread and butter sandwiches. :)
OK as an American I'm absolutely Appalled at the idea of a butter sandwich.... But im not too proud to deny I've ever eaten a butter sandwich. We just don't talk about it too much over here.
It’s a good thing that Steve had to have it explained what a “Bleep Test” was because as an UK born but American raised adult I had no idea what the hell this was referencing or why everyone mocked him for not knowing it, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
We have it in the Netherlands too, it’s also called the Shuttle Run test and apparently was developed in Canada so definitely not just a UK thing.
In Canada we call it the "beep" test, yet the UK using "bleep" test is no surprise, sounds much more British. Never knew it was developed here though. Sorry to school kids around the world.
It was also called the beep test in my Australian school too.
I am surprised Americans don't do it? It's common in Canada. They torture us with it in gym/P.E. at least 2 or 3 times in our school careers. Given how wide spread it is now, I'd be surprised if no American schools do it.
Americans do it (or at least when I was in school we did). We called it the pacer test.
The Fitnessgram pacer test is a multistage aerobic capacity test…
The concept of running, with a timer based elimination or something, absolutely exists. I wouldn’t be surprised if it exists in the US even more specifically in this context. but we don’t have a nationalized school system and it certainly wouldn’t be called a “bleep test” and given the lack of further explanation in the show that was the confusing part. I picked up on the task itself pretty quickly it’s just the “well it’s it’s a bleep test clearly” part that threw me off
American here: we have the PACER test
WHAT THE FUCK IS A BLEEP TEST? -me during that whole episode. Still don’t really get it
I *think* it’s some sort of gym class activity where you have to run back and forth, making it to the other side before the next bleep? but yeah still no concrete idea either
You’re right. You have to run to a point and get there before the bleep. Then run back before the next bleep. The space between the bleeps gets shorter and shorter. It’s supposed to measure kids fitness.
Hated it. I was one of the weirdos that enjoyed circuit training and the dreaded "apparatus"
Yep, that's exactly it. You run back and forth, and have to make it across between bleeps. When you miss one you're out. The time between bleeps gradually gets shorter, and it's a matter of lasting as long as possible. It was a dreaded ritual in gym classes in Norway in my childhood (90s and early 00s) as well, so that one isn't specifically British.
You're saying butter sandwiches aren't common everywhere? It's a pretty normal snack in my country (Portugal)
We would put butter on bread, of course. But NEVER then put them together to make a "sandwich". Plus, the acceptable amount of butter would be a very thin spread. Certainly never ever call it a "sandwich". Would you call them "sanduíches de manteiga" in Portugal?
we call it "pão com manteiga" (bread with butter). The amount of butter depends on what the person likes
I think you’ve misunderstood butter sandwiches. Yes we put butter on the bread when making a sandwich in the UK but butter isn’t the filling.
I have occasionally (mainly when I was a kid) have had butter sandwiches, that are just like: butter the bread and fold. I didn't put extra butter on it though.
I am sure Alex did this at one point, and referred to it as like "just a regular BUTTER SANDWICH". Maybe it's an Alex thing, he's not the most normal person
Don't trust Alex's opinion on anything food related. His palate is shocking. That's why there are so many tasks where they feed him something, he genuinely doesn't care if it's grim.
The joke there is that it's not normal, but it's just the right amount of weird that it's a believable Alex idiosyncrasy.
Yeah I think he was probably just joking. We don't tend to eat bread and butter as a sandwich
I don’t call it a butter sandwich, but have often eaten bread and butter. Bread and butter is often offered for Full English Breakfast and Fish and Chips. Maybe regional as I grew up in South East .
A lot of the pop-culture references have the potential to fly over the head of someone who isn't as plugged into UK television and the like. A good example is probably Greg's remark about Johnny Vegas "not selling the teabag enough" in one prize task and Johnny's response how he tried that and now no director will touch him which took a little Googling for me. (Johnny did a pretty well-known series of commercials for tea and commercials aren't the sort of pop-culture that really gets exported like TV shows and movies.) On the flip side, I've watched Taskmaster with friends who just assume anything weird they hear is a British-ism. The one that comes to mind immediately is "the red green" but I know there were others.
[One of the adverts ](https://youtu.be/Q4IahEqXF_o?si=WvPEhni0CDRqhXK-) for anyone interested, the monkey is iconic
I literally said to myself as I clicked "I hope this is the musical one with the cow" and I'm quite pleased that this is, in fact, the musical one with the cow. Thanks!
And the ad is a rip-off / homage to a Morecambe and Wise sketch https://youtu.be/EFgdhZGLJrY?si=SdPlG45e3czhxipp
[The Red Green](https://i.imgur.com/Pdt3JTm.png)
Totally took me a while to realize “the red green” was just classic Alex and not a Britishism
It sounds more Canadian than anything else.
I loved when Mae was asked to do a task in relation to the red green, they asked for duct tape. *Edit: to substitute non-binery pronoun. Thank you u/pksage for the friendly reminder*
The one that flew over my head was Greg talking about needing a furniture repair person when Ed suggested hanging Rose’s bra from Greg’s portrait. I was like, “What the hell is the sight of an unoccupied bra going to make you do to your chair, *sir*?” But then someone here linked the ad he was referencing and it all made sense.
I had completely forgotten that one. Yeah, it made no sense to me when I first heard it. I'd say it's funny the commercials that make enough of a cultural impact to be referenced as jokes years later, but it's also not like we Americans are really very different there.
I think a difference there is in our broadcasting, at least based on my limited experiences of it in the States - we have less major channels, and of those, the majority are shown across the satellite and cable providers and free to air, with the premium stuff largely being just sports and films. There’s some regionality both specific to the ads and shows (mainly regional news and sports), but the vast majority is national, and so the vast majority of ads you’ll see are for national brands, certainly in prime time. I barely watch live TV unless it’s sports, but I’ll know most of the big national campaigns.
I (an American) have been consuming so much UK comedy over the last few years that I actually got that reference. I was, obviously, “chuffed”.
The "red green" always made sense to me because it's an artificial golf "green" that's just colored red. So, a red green. I never thought of it as a Britishism though.
"- HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS as a name for sprinkles (you can’t just call a food item a number);" Wait until you discover MILLIONS.
Wait until you hear "Boaty McBoatFace"
I don't understand why this comes up so often on British TV. No-one talks about sprinkles ever on North American TV. Also Dogging, what the hell happened in the UK to make this a cultural touchstone?!?
Americans do, that's why we're aware of the word 'sprinkles' and 'jimmies'. It probably just sails past your ears as unremarkable when it comes up, but it's noticeable to us.
>what the hell happened in the UK to make this a cultural touchstone?!? Dogging happened
Dogging comes up so often, and I’d never heard of the term or even the phenomena before watching Taskmaster. Is this a thing anywhere else in the world?!
It comes up all the time on QI as well, and I still can’t wrap my head around it being real.
I really like all the commentary on different geographic origins around the UK and the wider English-speaking world. Two I remember in particular, both from series 14, are Fern, after presenting her Chinese soup I haven't been able to find the name of anywhere: "I didn't think you were gonna try it, 'cause aren't you from Shrewsbury or something? You look like you just eat roasts!" And Sarah, after telling the story of her "bad taste" Halloween costume: "We just looked like we were from South Shields." I would really love to know if other British people from outside England agree with Fern's remarks on Alex's "very English" passive-aggressiveness. On the one hand, I see what she means; on the other, I'm American and come from a family that struggles with anger management.
It's really worth listening to Fern's Off Menu menu, if you like Chinese food. She's serious about food.
You're talking about the woman who ate nothing but hard boiled eggs for weeks or months on end?
I didn't say she made good choices :D
I actually think it's less of a generalb"English passive-aggressiveness" (even though that's what she said) and more to do with Alex having a posh accent, you'll hear it especially when Greg is correcting Alex because he says "tarsk" instead of "task" or "roum" (closer to a u sound) instead of "room" iirc. It's probably why it was directed at Alex and not Greg. Accents are culturally closely tied to class in the UK, you'd probably find just as many northern English people with working class accents who think the same about southerners with Alex's accent! Saying that, we're all southerners to the Scots as my dad loves to remind me hahaha
As a Brit living in Brazil, lots of people seem freaked out by the milk in tea. But, the tea people drink in England is not so common in Brazil, most of the teas (camomila, verde, fruit teas) that are common in Brazil people wouldnt put milk in. It's more like putting milk in coffee. I would love to find somewhere to get some christmas crackers in Brazil. I have introduced my wife and her family to mince pies and pigs in blankets, but they are missing out on the special paper hat and terrible joke.
As a Brit living in the US, after trying and failing to find crackers over here and balking at the cost of importing them, my new favourite Christmas tradition is taking 30 minutes pre-dinner to fashion a ridiculous crown out of tissue paper (or just any paper you can find). It's lost of fun and you can decorate them as much as you like for that personal touch. Then, when I pop the hat on during dinner, I feel like I've earned it.
You have no idea how long it took me to work out American pigs in blankets aren't actually pigs in blankets, they're just shit sausage rolls
As a kiwi, it wasn't until Rose competed on TMUK that I realised that Roy G Biv was not a common colour mnemonic elsewhere
As a Canadian, it's also the one I knew.
Grew up in the US Pacific Northwest in the 70s, and that's the one I've always known.
As a non-native English speaker, I never heard a mnemonic for it until the taskmaster episode. For some reason, my brain decided the joke, “Richard of York gave Battle Purple Purple” was in fact, the correct mnemonic and has refused to change it ever since. Fun!
We had a "down with the kids" teacher, so I learnt it as Randy Old Yvonne Got Bonked in Venice. I mean, I remember Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain too, but until that episode of TM, I always thought Roy G Biv was an Americanism as I'd only heard it on TV.
Fwiw as a British person I have never heard of a butter sandwich (it may be regional)
That's so interesting. My family is from India and I grew up on bread and butter sandwiches (my mum still makes them for me when I visit) and was always told it was a snack they got from the Brits.
My family is also from India, I’ve had butter and cucumber sandwiches quite a bit
Your username is incredibly appropriate to this discussion
'Bread and butter' is a thing sometimes, but only on the side of something else like soup, or maybe in desperation to plug a hole between mealtimes.
This only works if it’s ‘proper’ bread and butter. Try it with low quality sliced bread and margarine it’ll be awful. A fresh loaf and full fat butter - delicious. I’d have a single slice rather than a sandwich though.
I know putting butter on any kind of sandwich is practically unheard of in America. (They also don't understand why Brits put bacon in a sandwich with nothing else. Also they have no concept of sausage rolls. We should recolonise them.)
We add a slice of tomato and leaf of lettuce to our bacon sandwich to pretend it's healthy. Also buttering a sandwich is common, though not at franchise sub shops.
Really? I’ve never met an American who uses butter in a sandwich, except on the outside if they’re doing grilled cheese or the like.
American who immigrated to Australia here - the first time someone made me a peanut butter sandwich they started by buttering BOTH pieces of bread. I was like "wtf are you doing?" and they said "You don't want butter??? But it'll be dry."
I'm British and peanut butter is about the only sandwich I won't butter. Because peanut butter is so oily in itself anyway - you're not adding anything, you're just diluting the nuttiness.
Christ. Imagine a world without bacon sandwiches! I wonder if that's why they're so obsessed with God; I'd probably be waiting for the rapture if I had to live like that.
Don't worry too much, we eat plenty of BLTs!!! Bacon, lettuce, tomato (sometimes BLAT which adds avocado)
Or BELT with a fried egg!
Copy one of our supermarkets and call it a LGBT (G for guacamole, of course)
Nothing on earth is better than a bacon sandwich (bacon butty) or bacon in a roll (bacon bap) usually eaten with plenty of butter on the bread and tomato ketchup or brown sauce. There’s also a BLT; bacon, lettuce and tomato - served cold. I’ve never heard of a butter sandwich, maybe you’re thinking of a chip butty, fries in a sandwich?
Brits don't put bacon and nothing else, bread is ALWAYS buttered, then there is the red sauce, brown sauce or no sauce at all conundrum.
Had a butter sandwich yesterday. It is a delicacy!
I’m also Brazilian and it took me AGES to figure out what the hell John Kearns was saying when he brought in Subbuteo
As a Canadian, I’d never heard of subbuteo. Looked it up and I’d call it “table soccer”. As a biologist, I was like “…under… the hawk…?”
That's indirectly what it means! Subbuteo is the Latin name for the Eurasian hobby (a small falcon) and the game was called that because it is also technically a "hobby".
The inventor wanted to call it Hobby, but that name was already in use for a toy product.
Henry is also a brand of vacuum cleaner. https://www.myhenry.com/machines Hoover is that thing when the brand (Hoover) becomes synonymous with the product (vacuum cleaner)
I believe it's called a proprietary eponym when a brand name becomes common parlance. My favourite is Tannoy
I learned that one from context clues in a book! I wish we could say it here. I also really liked when Alice Levine taught me "fairy liquid" in one of her team tasks with Russell Howard. It's fun because it evokes an image completely unrelated to what it's for.
You sometimes hear 'Fairy Up Liquid' - from people mixing Fairy with 'washing up liquid'. I love how ridiculous that is.
And companies don't really like when that happens: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY&t=60s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRi8LptvFZY&t=60s)
Kleenex and tissues, Xerox and a copy machine, Legos and building block toys, Oreos and chocolate cream (creme?) filled sandwich cookies. The examples are endless!
Sellotape, velcro, tippex are some of the ones that surprised me when I learned of them
Velcro I know, and I usually say Scotch tape instead of Sellotape (but same difference). What's Tippex?
Correctional fluid is the "correct" name. Or possibly known as whiteout in some countries I believe
Ah! I know it as White Out (yes, a brand name) but I also remember Typex from when my mom still used a typewriter - she had the little sheets that you placed over the incorrect letter on the paper & struck the same key, so as to apply the white paint-like product to cover up the mistake!
Correctional fluid was invented by Mike Nesmith (of the Monkees) mum
Something that can be mistaken for hot toothpaste
In case you ever need to use these in the UK: We wouldn't use Xerox for a photocopier in the UK, it's not a common brand over here. Not actually sure most people would know what you're on about. I'd always say 'tissues' and would think it a bit odd if you asked by brand, though that may be more common. Lego (don't know why, but we'd use the singular as the plural, so "a pile of Lego") - yes, absolutely. Oreos are increasingly popular, though would rather have a Bourbon if I wanted a biscuit that tasted faintly of chocolate. If you'd like to check whether other examples work on both sides of the pond, happy to help out!
> (don't know why, but we'd use the singular as the plural, so "a pile of Lego") You'd do that because it's the correct way to pluralize Lego.
There are three ways to pluralize it: * The North American way as a count noun: one Lego, two Legos. * The all other English-speaking countries way, which is to use Lego as a mass noun (one piece of Lego, two pieces of Lego, a pile of Lego). * The way the Lego Corporation *wants* you to do it, using Lego as an adjective, not a noun at all: one Lego brick, two Lego bricks, a pile of Lego bricks.
I dunno, not everyone would use Lego as a generic name for building blocks. I suppose it depends though if you're vehemently against sub-par bricks. Bit like from what I've heard from USA peeps where their parents would just say 'Nintendo' to refer to absolutely every game console but those that have one know the difference.
I don’t understand what the alternative to being out in the rain with an umbrella is. Not being out? Or not having an umbrella? Is it the umbrella that is absurd? I’m so intrigued by your intrigue!!
From the sound of what OP has being saying, not having rain.
I was a bit surprised when Greg made fun of Desiree's American pronunciation of "Snooker", because the pronunciation sounded normal to me. Pretty much any England-specific pop culture reference, especially Mr. Blobby in Series 17. Apparently every British person knows who Mr. Blobby is, but I only knew the name because it was mentioned in a [Tom Scott video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5u9JSnAAU4).
Mr Blobby was part of the biggest family entertainment show on television at his/its peak in the mid-90s, so any British comedian in their mid to late thirties would have grown up with the apparition. I wonder if there's room for some kind of FAQ-style British culture explainer through TM references? Because if you didn't get Blobby you're certainly not going to know How (which David Baddiel assured us is not Taskmaster)
David Baddiel (we must only ever refer to him by his full name) offered a helpful aside to explain what How *is*, though, which I appreciated
The ribbing she gets from Greg over the pronunciation of snooker reminds me of [this clip](https://youtu.be/A2g6D6Ki_-Y?si=bGFrFylogx5osEVt) from The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret (featuring actual Steve Davis).
Its not plain kidney pie, its steak and kidney (also comes in pudding form) Other versions are: Steak and ale Steak and onion Steak and oyster (a high end product you don't see mass-produced)
Think we found Frank Skinner's reddit account
My cat is named something way better than the "Chairman Miaow" he and David Baddiel came up with
As someone who was born, raised and continue to live in the North West of England I've never heard of a butter sandwich. What episode was that brought up in because I can't remember it? We butter sandwiches quite frequently but it's never the main filling
also born and raised in the north west and I sometimes had butter sandwiches growing up - mostly as a lazy, quick snack :)
i’m also north west england raised and still reside here, and butter sandwiches are absolutely a thing- mostly for children granted, but a thing! how weird lmao
And even if you haven't heard of it, it's basically just bread and butter which every western country eats. I just assumed "butter" sandwich" was a lazy thing. Are we talking about the task they have to deliver Alex the plate of sandwiches? I thought it was just easier to make the sandwiches plain. I think a big difference is that Americans don't commonly use sandwich bread for "bread and butter". They would eat a roll or a slice of a baguette and butter it. At least we do in Canada. I know Americans eat rolls, maybe they don't butter baguettes at the dinner table. The big difference is that Brits put butter as a spread on sandwiches, and that's unusual in the US. In the UK, eating a ham sandwich with lettuce, tomato, cheese; it would be buttered by default. Americans would find that weird. They default to mayo and/or mustard. In Canada it's not typical to use butter instead of mayo in a sandwich, but I have seen it people do it. Eating something like egg salad or chicken salad(as Brits call egg mayo or chicken mayo) it would be considered really odd to butter the bread first. Yet, I think in the UK this wouldn't be strange? Mayo and butter aren't mixed in North America.
How does Britain have more rain than a country famous for its rainforest? That's completely unfair.
I'm American and enjoy the differences. I've learned a decent amount of British terminology and small cultural nuances. Sometimes it's self explanatory and sometimes I look it up. Either way, I'm not bothered by it and take it as small learning experiences. The same goes for the NZ and AU versions, but the UK is still my favorite. I look forward to every new episode.
In a recent Australian episode, they had to collect "hot chips". That doesn't mean that the chips were necessarily piping hot: Australians distinguish between *chips* and *hot chips* as two completely different foodstuffs. |UK & Ireland|US & Canada|NZ & Australia| |:-|:-|:-| |crisps|chips|chips| |chips|fries|hot chips|
I could only think of the band Hot Chip during that task and was so confused
STEAK AND kidney pies STEAK AND Nobody is eating kidney pies.
On my first date with my wife we sat on a blanket under an umbrella, and both pretended it was still raining so we had to stay huddled together. Can you do that in a dry country? Yes, probably, with a parasol. I've seen those on the telly.
Kidney pie would be just offal.
The most stand out thing to me (Aussie) is the Brits have some cartoon character they all know called Mr Blobby? Its referenced multiple times in the show, and its just so british sounding to me!
Mr Blobby wasn't really a children's character, I've noticed a lot of British people who were kids at the time seem to think this. He started out as a fake kids TV character who used to prank celebrities on a Saturday night TV programme. He's deliberately designed to be uncanny. He became a bit of a runaway pop-cultural success and used to crop up on lots of different shows and things, and even ended up releasing a number one single!
[Mr Blobby on The Big Fat Quiz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97fw8xjB5u4&t=192s) with a few TM contestants.
I'm not British but for me a butter sandwich is a kind of depression meal lmao. or when there's nothing else at home. better than dry bread
Quite a few people being uncomfortable with balloon popping. Getting a little fright :p
I think that's probably more common worldwide than you think. I'm not a massive fan of it, but as I'm basically never in a situation where I'm forced to pop balloons, it hasn't mattered.
It's called globophobia! I have it! I'm terrified. If I was ever on TM I'd have to tell them upfront - sorry folks, no tasks with popping balloons.
Also Brazilian here. Panel shows in general made me familiar with so much of British culture, politics and ways of life. It's really a bonus point.
Grew up in the US, lived in the UK for 6 months and Australia for 10+ years, so most of this stuff is quite normal to me. But then something completely unexpected comes up like **SALAD CREAM** and the cultural difference screeches like the mighty bald eagle....
When you say pie to a British person it seems like they automatically think of a savory food. In the US we would think of sweet desserts first even thought we do have things like chicken pot pie. Tarpaulin… I have never heard anyone say anything other than tarp but they all acted like it was normal to say tarpaulin.
Yep, correct on both counts. We have fruit pies like apple and cherry but pie is more commonly eaten for dinner, be it steak or chicken or what have you. And yes I would refer to tarpaulin that way, though hearing someone say tarp wouldn't be confusing, it's just no one I know would shorten it, that's a more American thing I think.
>HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS as a name for sprinkles I'm Australian, so not sure if this counts. But hundreds and thousands and sprinkles are different things here. Hundreds and thousands are the tiny round balls, whereas sprinkles are the tiny cylinders.
milk in tea, yes. Tea in milk, [NO, JOSH!](https://youtu.be/1T-hSPWpmJs?t=1207)
Another Brazilian who likes Taskmaster! Now there are three of us!
É nois demais
There must be hundreds and thousands, if not brazilions of you out there
As a big time sprinkles fan (seriously, I can't get enough of them on any dessert) I really love them being called hundreds and thousands. Weirdly really cool
I love them and the name! I saw on an american baking show (think it was sugar rush) them being called Jimmies - now that to me is odd!
they are JIMMIES! (New Englander here). But we also call milkshakes Fribbles.
Butter sandwiches aren't common as far as I'm aware. We put butter in our sandwiches but along with other fillings too.
>BUTTER sandwiches Not really a thing (not sure where you saw that) - butter is used as a layer on the bread before the filling which often cheese, ham, tuna mayo etc. >KIDNEY pies as a common food item; Steak & kidney pies - not just kidneys and comes with a lot of gravy inside. >MILK in TEA Yep, that's standard and in coffee. >Richard of York mnemonic for the colors of the rainbow Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain... I'm with you, this is a weird one but it is common. Also, Never Eat Shreaded Wheat for North, East, South West. Or My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets (Mercury, Venus, etc) >HUNDREDS AND THOUSANDS as a name for sprinkles But there's 100s & 1000s of them! 😆 In The Netherlands they call them Hagelslag & eat them on bread for breakfast (sl*g is an insult in England so there's much amusant for tourists). >HENRY HOOVER (I quite like this one) Henry is a very hard working vaccum cleaner. He has a sister called Hetty! (Genuinely considered a good quality vacuum cleaner). >CHRISTMAS CRACKER and its special hat I only recently found out this wasn't universal - they are an essential part of a Christmas dinner! Sadly the inner "firework/bang" means they generally aren't shipped abroad. >Being out in the rain with an umbrella and acting like it’s nothing Oh, but we would grumble about - a lot! That said if we didn't go out in the rain then we'd never leave!
Aussie here. The use of "pants" for underpants is weird to me, because we call trousers pants (and also trousers) and underpants underpants or undies. Also the constant satsuma references. I'd never heard of it. Turns out it's a certain variety of mandarin. But we just call them all mandarins in Australia, no reference to varieties.
>Being out in the rain with an umbrella and acting like it’s nothing (just like milk in tea, seems obvious that british people would do this, but still totally unnatural for someone who lives in a country with less rain). You will boggle (through a window) if you ever come to North America's Pacific northwest... while it's common to use umbrellas, it's almost as common to see people standing out in the rain with NO umbrella and acting like it's nothing. Even no raincoat! I'm not that hardcore, but I do frequently go out with only a rain jacket and no umbrella during rain, for errands or just a walk. And most kids in Vancouver have recess outside when it's raining unless there's hail or lightning. We will talk your ear off complaining if it's very cold (less than 10) or very hot (above 25) though! And it's true, for some reason we think it's vital that kids know the order of the rainbow. In addition to our man Roy, I know of at least three children's songs about the colours of the rainbow, including an unusual one that starts at purple and goes up the rainbow, which is neat. It's actually from a British kids' cartoon, Bing. British idiosyncrasies: human body weight in STONES.
We measure weight in "stone", not "stones". It wasn't confusing enough, so we decided it shouldn't have a separate plural form like every other unit and we'd just use the singular like with sheep or deer. Incidentally I don't think I know anyone under 35 that measures their weight in stone, everyone uses kg these days
I was about to disagree and say I’ve got a whole what’s app group of mates that share weight updates in stone every few years when we decide we’re all doing a holiday or something and want beach bods, and then suddenly I understood the accuracy of your statement given I’m 39 and so are most of them. Goddamn, it cut me to the core. What’s weirder to me is using lbs for human weight (at least that’s what Americans are always using in sports) but not stone. It’s like doing height in only inches, madness.
Calling the ground outside the "floor" makes me angrier than it should
although, a forest has a floor, so there's that.
.... https://preview.redd.it/qmb4h17apr8d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2d9e1a9203b12037721a8115647a2b4329848397
Best possible response.
So does the sea.
Bed
Especially seeing as 'floor' has referred to ground outside since at least Old English, likely before and as long as 'floor' has referred to any kind of surface at all. I think it's a more recent (maybe American?) thing to insist floors are only inside and ground is outside. Was it a 'thing' in America before that Parks and Recreation clip?
Saaaaaame!
Obligatory Henry Hoover song that won't really help: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3_zJpMz7Cdg
IIRC, there was quite a big argument on "No More Jockeys" about whether Henry Hoover is bilingual
You're right, though I think the specific point of contention was whether English was Henry Hoover's first language. Key was adamant that it was, citing the song as proof. Classic Jockeys.
I’m still waiting for a TM reference to the very real British controversy over which to put on a scone first—clotted cream or jam. I think this argument hails from Devon and Cornwall.
As a Canadian a lot of this is confusing. Except the milk in tea thing, I hate it. I take my tea black, but most Canadians do milk in tea, including my wife. Also it's ROY G BIV... Rose should've made fun of the Brits, not the other way around.
I'm British but I prefer Roy G Biv, whoever he is. Much snappier
The fact that everyone using “Richard of York” got confused should demonstrate the superiority of yer man Roy.
Yeah I thought this too. Like, isn't a mnemonic meant to make it *easier*? Not like, oh wait let me struggle to remember the mnemonic so I can then remember the rainbow.
Richard of York makes a lot of sense when you're learning monarchs at primary school. Who ever heard of someone surnamed Biv?
Every Canadian and New Zealander (apparently) know of Roy... he's our bud!
American here and I also know Roy G Biv.
Such a lovely guy, educating all of us about rainbows.
He's a colorful man!! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRP1KcSfg5A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRP1KcSfg5A)
Kidney pie… solo kidney?? Nope. Not on your nelly. Steak AND kidney, yes please.
[the Henry Hoover song](https://youtu.be/miA54ItQ3qU?si=h1BqGOqD9hu-ykY6)
Tarp is short for something? Those big blue plastic sheets. Tarp is just like, the abbreviation? It’s tarpeter or tarpaulin or some shit like that?
Tarpaulin
You freaks call a crossing guard a "lollipop man". i was very confused for a very long time.
My list is very limited because of my bad memory, but there are so many other things I find funny/weird. Like calling everything that goes on one’s head a “hat” of some kind. I think I’ve seen the british refer to the towel wrap women do after taking a shower as a kind of hat, and it’s just unimaginable that someone would frame it like that in Brazil. It’s just funny, like a weird observation a kid would make.
Completely tangentially, I play an online RPG (Baldur’s Gate 3 for you fellow nerds out there) online with some longtime friends of mine and it tickles me to no end to refer to all headwear (helmets, tiaras, actual hats) as hats. I’ve got them doing it now too. Hehehe.
Now that I think of it, maybe it’s more of an english speaking thing or, sometimes, just a joke. I do remember once I was traveling and made 2 Australian friends. They wanted to play the “hat game” which consisted of naming as many hats as you could. So I tried all of the [qualifier+hat] formats I knew. Cowboy hat, bowler hat, etc. Some other things made sense like sombrero or beret. But then they went into like “turbant”, “helmet”, even “beanie” and it confused me a lot, cause it wouldn’t occur to me to call these things “hats”. It doesn’t even make much sense, since there is not much difference between the beanie situation and the beret, which I completely agreed was a hat. Anyways, it might be just one of those things in which, whatever the language, some people would argue strongly that a turbant is a hat and some would say that’s crazy. These guys were Australian too, so, thinking about it, it might be something english speaking people in general do more than a Portuguese speaker like me. I would love to hear from more native english speakers or how it feels for speakers of other languages to figure this out!
Part of this is the lateral thinking the contestants have to do (often to try and get themselves out of a hole) and comedians love of wordplay. A hat goes on your head Therefore anything that goes on your head is a hat Therefore anything that goes on top of something is a hat Antlers are a deer's hat You have to take a bottle's hat off to drink from it But I think a lot of normal people being silly or having a pointless pub argument would do something similar for fun. That hole "is a hotdog a sandwich or a taco" type internet discourse a few years ago is a classic example
A helmet, a turban, and a crown I would not call hats, except jokingly. A beanie, though, is definitely a hat to me. I think the reason is the function.
yeah like my English is pretty good at this point so most words I'm looking up when I'm watching Taskmaster are food items. they have some weird food over there. like what even is marmite.
Marmite is a super savoury salty spread. It’s also got a very thick consistency, like more stiff than honey, but still a liquid. It’s got a lot of “umami” flavour, think maybe super concentrated soy sauce?
I went to London a few years ago and had to try marmite. It's not even gross, it just feels inedible. Like something contaminated by heavy metals or something like that. Tastes like hummus with mercury poisoning. Hated it completely, despite wanting really hard to grow fond of it
Genuinely a hilarious way the describe marmite. You should do food reviews
Marmite is famous for the fact that ypu either love it or hate it. If you hate it that's ok. Nobody is perfect, after all.
That's such a good description, and I adore marmite XD Eat it most days. It really does only need a very thin layer/tiny amount though, I think a lot of people new to it go too big too soon and it ruins it - so salty XD
Marmite is a yeast extract originally made from dead yeast left over from brewing beer Its salty, savoury and good source of B-Vitamins In colour and consistency it resembles black Nutella, it is hilarious when foreigners think that is what it is but evil to tell their children that is the case Bovril is a similar product made from beef
>Bovril Hot beef tea as Alan Partridge described it
Tangentially related… I’m an American of nearly 50. I’ve lived in Georgia, North Carolina, and California. I’ve seen, I reckon, dozens of rainbows. Never have I once considered that there might be an order to the colors. Never heard anybody mention it. Never had a conversation about it. Didn’t learn about it in school. Tl;dr Taskmaster teaches old dogs new tricks.