Recurring jokes in Private Eye

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The fortnightly British satirical magazine Private Eye has long had a reputation for using euphemistic and irreverent substitute names and titles for people, groups and organisations and has coined a number of expressions to describe sex, drugs, alcohol and other aspects of human activity. Over the years these names and expressions have become in-jokes, used frequently in the magazine without explanation. Some have passed into general usage and can be found in other media and everyday conversation.

Contents

Euphemisms

Stereotypical and exaggerated personifications of people and organisations

Lord Gnome, as well as being a media magnate, is regularly referred to as having other business interests. Special offers from "Gnomemart" frequently appear in the magazine, which also carries an occasional column called "The Curse of Gnome", chronicling the subsequent misfortunes of those who have in the past taken legal action against the publication. In 1993, during the only televised ceremony for Private Eye's Bore of the Year Awards ("the Boftys"), Lord Gnome (played by Peter Cook) made a brief appearance on a satellite hook-up from his yacht, pushing a member of the yacht's crew overboard in a parody of Robert Maxwell's death. The word "Gnome" may refer to the term Gnomes of Zurich . Occasionally, Lord Gnome is an oblique reference to editor Ian Hislop. In the sporting world, Lord Gnome CC is a nomadic cricket team, founded in 1963 and named after the fictitious proprietor.[ citation needed ]
Often, underneath a spoof sports story, the sub-column "late result" would appear, reporting on a match recently played by Neasden. This normally involved a humorously unlikely team, often one related to current affairs, such as Taleban FC. Neasden nearly always lose by a huge margin, often owing to own goals scored by veteran player "Baldy" Pevsner, who often scores a consolation "one boot", and in spite of the efforts of their goalkeeper, "One-legged net-minder Wally Foot". Neasden is also the setting for the regular column Neasden Police Log, a fictional log-entry style police report that almost invariably depicts the police as racist, incompetent, and obsessed with observing politically correct rules at the expense of maintaining law and order. In 1970, "Neasden" was a brief hit put in the Eye as a throwaway plastic single, sung by William Rushton, who contributed to the Eye as a cartoonist: it can be heard in John Betjeman's TV documentary Metro-land as a backing track. Betjeman also worked briefly on the magazine, establishing its "Nooks & Corners" architecture criticism column.[ citation needed ]

Nicknames, names intentionally misspelled or misstated

People

Companies and organisations

Jibes at individuals

Spurious surrealism

Towards the end of each issue, the magazine contains increasingly surreal jokes, references and parodies. Many of these have evolved and are familiar to long-term readers.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Adrian Room Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable, London: Cassell, 2000, pp. 714–5
  2. Natukunda, Carol (28 April 2013). "Princess Bagaya was fired for refusing to marry Amin". New Vision . Kampala. Retrieved 13 January 2014. Later that day, Amin announced that he had fired Bagaya for embarrassing him. He told his cabinet that while on her way from New York, Bagaya had a sexual escapade with a white man in a bathroom at an airport in Paris. He did not mention who this man was. 'This was both an insult and a deliberate lie, but it was also comically nonsensical. One may, I suppose, have sex anywhere – but a public toilet?' asks Kyemba, adding that they all 'laughed to tears' at Amin's absurd action. Bagaya's dismissal came on 28 November 1974
  3. "Where does the term "tired and emotional", meaning drunk, originate?". The Guardian. London. n.d. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
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  10. Orbiter (14 October 2016). "Troubled Times for Donald Trump". The Law Society Gazette .
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  12. "Brexiteer ordered to pay philosopher £20,000 in libel damages for paedophile tweet". Brett Wilson LLP. 6 March 2019. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  13. "Rap is a foreign language, rules rueful judge". The Times. 6 June 2003.[ dead link ]
  14. "Obituary: Peter Carter-Ruck". The Independent . 22 December 2003. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  15. Richard Ingrams, The Life and Times of Private Eye, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1971, p. 23.
  16. "A Tank Driver writes". Private Eye. No. 1627. 5–18 July 2024. p. 31.
  17. Moore, Charles (4 February 2016). "The Spectator's notes, 4 February 2016". The Spectator . Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  18. "Dee Nial: Ex-Conservative MP writes for the Eye". Private Eye. No. 1635. 25 October – 7 November 2024. p. 28.
  19. 1 2 Brown, Craig (2004). This is Craig Brown (new ed.). London: Ebury. p. 392. ISBN   0091896061. OCLC   56457577.
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  23. "Robert Maxwell: legacy of 'The Bouncing Czech'" . Retrieved 14 August 2019.
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  29. https://x.com/PrivateEyeNews/status/1699420444258955563
  30. "Local Phews". Private Eye No. 1640. 10 January 2025. p. 9.
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  38. 1 2 Riddell, Mary. "Non-stop Neil, at home alone". British Journalism Review. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
  39. Wilby, Peter (17 April 2019). "More than a spectator: the rise of Andrew Neil". New Statesman . Retrieved 8 June 2022. He hated Private Eye calling him "Brillo" because his wiry hair resembled a scouring pad.
  40. McVeigh, Tracy (15 August 2015). "'Bachelor of Fleet Street' Andrew Neil marries in secret". The Guardian . Retrieved 8 June 2022. Private Eye enjoyed parodying Neil as 'Brillo', a reference to his hair
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  42. "George Gideon Oliver Osborne". Archived from the original on 19 March 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  43. "Emmys Frocks Shocks!". Private Eye. No. 1633. 27 September – 10 October 2024. p. 31.