Talk:Recurring jokes in Private Eye

"The Eton of the West Midlands"
"The school is sometimes referred to as "the Eton of the West Midlands", the joke being that the West Midlands are not regarded as a place where such a school is likely to be located." Must be news to Rugby... —  iride scent   (talk to me!)  16:26, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Yeah, that bit could probably be worded better, I'll have a go. Jdcooper 16:42, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Tired and Emotional
Under "Tired and Emotional" it is said a trio of Labour MPs including Bevan & Crossman sucessfully sued the "Spectator". Has the name of the third member of the trio been lost?? Hugo999 (talk) 12:29, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm sure it can be found somewhere. I'll have a look see. Jdcooper (talk) 15:39, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Sorted. Jdcooper (talk) 15:43, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

I think "tired and emotional" was used originally by the BBC to excuse Commander Woodroffe's drunken rambling description of the Spithead Review sometime in the 1930's. 194.39.218.10 (talk) 12:01, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Excessive detail and factual inaccuracies
Some of the recent expansions to some of the sections here have, in my opinion, excessive detail, examples of use and information, given the fact that we have wikilinks to further information on most of the events and people mentioned. I'll list some of the ones I mean here to illustrate:

- "The saying is often wrongly attributed to the antics of a female Cabinet minister in Idi Amin's government, who was caught having sex in a public lavatory at Heathrow Airport." - This needs a source, both for the statement that it is "often wrongly attributed" to this event, and to the event itself happening. If it is not often wrongly attributed to this event, then we need not include it at all, seeing as the real source of the phrase is already referenced.

- "The euphemism is spread further, for example, before his marriage a senior member of the Royal family allegedly went on holiday with an ageing ex-Page Three girl, whereupon Private Eye reported he had contracted a "Ugandan virus". - If we are going to include examples, we should probably make them less vague than this, it doesn't serve too well as an illustration.

- "In 1996, "Getting Back to Basics" was suggested as a replacement euphemism after the policy of that name adopted by John Major's government in an attempt to refute public perception of the party as riddled with financial and sexual impropriety (it later emerged that Major himself was having an affair at the time with his colleague Edwina Currie)." - The Back to Basics campaign was a set of social policies designed to refocus British life on the family unit and traditional social practices, which was only undermined afterwards when it emerged that they were all massive hypocrites. I'm going to change this back now, unless anyone wants to bring it back here for discussion.

- "Arkell v. Pressdram is a swift rebuttal of an allegation or accusation made without merit." - I was of the understanding that referring to this specific case was a reference to obscenity in print, if I'm not mistaken that's how it is presented in the main Private Eye article. Even if I'm mistaken, as it stands it requires some clarification.

- The section about Bufton Tufton contains some fairly blatant opinion prose about the Monday Club characters, and while they weren't particularly nice men, we owe it to wikipedia to keep it objective.

- "This is a reference both to castration (hence the word "knackered")" - Is this right? I understand that PE puns often work on several levels, but failing a source I don't think this is something we can safely say without drifting into Original research.

- Regarding the discussion here about the word knackered, knackers etc., it seems that some people on here neither live in or have spent much time in the UK? I've spent many years here on and off and have to say that I have never heard that it refers to castration, or used as a euphemism for killing, even though upon further examination, both things are obviously connected! It's most popular useage surely has to be as common English slang for "exhausted" and derives from the fact that slaughterhouses were called "the knacker's yard" and so if you were worn out you were said to be "ready for the knacker's" which evolved to "I'm knackered". However, elsewhere I've learned that a UK slang term for testicles is indeed "knackers" and so perhaps the same guy who later kills the animal is responsible for lopping off its jewels earlier? This guy, owner of the yard, is obviously The Knacker, himself. This could explain the connection. Funnily enough though, the origin of the word with the meaning "balls" is different supposedly from a word meaning castanets, for obvious reasons. So, to stretch the meaning to connect the "knackers" of the castanets, with the "knacker", who not only clears away carcasses, but performs castrations, must simply be from a phonetic association. Again, I have never in my life heard anyone in the UK refer to testicles as knackers, nor have I ever heard knackered used to mean castrated or as a substitute for the verb "to kill" (though I think I'm going to try to get that one going, e.g.: "I'LL KNACKER YOU, YOU LYING TWAT!!") but I'm sure it's correct as has been suggested elsewhere, that it's regional rural slang, which would make sense as slaughterhouses are not really urban things and the UK is rich in local and colourful slang. Here's the compact Oxford http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/knacker?view=uk Here's a slang dictionary definition. http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/k.htm However, as ever, both the dictionaries are way behind the popular useage. BY the way, this is one of the reasons I think that the "original research" thing is so lame. I get that you can't have people just planting lots of unsubstantiated facts here, but what do you do about eye witness and personal accounts of people on the scene who know because they are just there? Or who are just uncovering the logic by which something makes sense, which when revealed is obviously true. You just read it, do a little research of your own in that direction and verify it for yourself. I have had this problem with Wikipedia a lot. I mean I'm right here in the UK where I was born in the 1960s and although I've lived a couple of in decades other places, cumulatively I have about 17 years experience here as a resident and I'm a writer who's really interested into noticing language. So although I can't find a decent reference to prove what I'm suggesting, about how these various meanings and origins for the terms "knackers" "knackered" etc. evolved, or how much more common or well-known one useage is over another - since I can't do that, how I'm supposed to share this information? Here I guess! I can tell you for sure from the "person on the street" perspective, the word "knackered" is very common and something you here every day in London, and it has always been clear to me that this is meant to mean tired, spent, worn out and an alternate shortened form of the phrase "ready for the knacker's yard" and everyone knows that's the abbatoir. Specifically associated with horses for some reason. So, I guess that's my anecdotal original research but I happen to know it's true. Feel free to write to me dianarama@hotmail.co.uk
 * Testicles were commonly known as one's knackers when I was at school back in London in the 1960s. The more well-known slang nouns were also used interchangeably. Try going into an east-end pub and shouting ... oh, never mind. Freddie Orrell (talk) 12:07, 12 December 2015 (UTC)
 * The etymology of the noun knackers meaning testicles was stated by Fiona Phillips on the BBC television show 'Delete, Delete, Delete' series 2 episode 5, January 2017 as arising from the term gubernaculum, the scrotal ligament.Freddie Orrell 22:23, 8 February 2017 (UTC)

- "and also to policemen in British crime fiction of a certain era who were usually called "x of the Yard". The inspiration was Jack Slipper, the former senior Metropolitan Police officer responsible for the arrest of the Great Train Robbery gang in 1963 who was given the moniker "Slipper of the Yard" by the popular press." - I think we have gone into extraneous detail here, both regarding "x of the yard" and Slipper himself. They can follow links if they want to know more about Slipper, and since we've already mentioned Slipper's nickname, the stuff about crime fiction is largely redundant, IMHO.

- Re: Mr Justice Cocklecarrot, some bits of this feel slighly patronising to the readers, and I feel we could be slightly more concise here, but its not the end of the world, excepting the odd word of opinion or floral language.

- "by threatening to "go to the family solicitors, Rue, Grabbit and Son" (he was aggrieved at the implication that he was a homosexual)" - Was he really aggrieved? Notwithstanding the fact that he is actually gay, would he really have joked thus if he was aggrieved?

- "In addition to the photography, the Eye also frequently refers to Neil as "Neill", because it annoys him." - I was reading somewhere that the reason for that specific mis-spelling was to do with the unusual double-L in Pamella Bordes' name. Obviously this would need a source, and given the nature of such a claim I'm not overly hopeful of finding one, but we would also need a source to say that it annoys him.

- "It is believed that the reference "94" was originally to Haydn's Symphony 94, the "Surprise" and made by Richard Ingrams, a known music-lover and brother of Leonard Ingrams, founder of Garsington Opera." - Believed by who? This seems to me like unfeasible conjecture; the number 94 could have come from anywhere, and one of the Eye staff has, I'm fairly certain, been quoted on the "generic boringly large number" explanation.

I will change some of the non-controversial things now, but does anyone have any thoughts on any of these passages? Jdcooper (talk) 16:13, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I have lined out the ones that I have changed already, for ease. Jdcooper (talk) 16:28, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Andrew Neil was called "Neill" long before Pamella Bordes appeared on the scene - he was Editor of the Sunday Times and already in the frame as a Private Eye target as a successful high-flying journalist - and at the time it did annoy him. As I recall it was a reference to "Brillo pad".  Arkell v Pressdram came about when Arkell wrote to Private Eye threatening to sue if allegations were not withdrawn and an apology published, to which the magazine replied "Fuck off".  No further correspondence was received.  Hence the reply in Arkell v Pressdram is primarily a rebuttal of an accusation or allegation made without merit.  If you remove the explanation of Sir Bufton Tufton, then there is very little point in having this section at all.  It is the prime function of an encyclopaedia to provide detail, all in one place, else again, why bother?  Why not just list biographies, newspaper articles and radio/television programmes instead?  Indeed Danny La Rue was annoyed:  he had not been "outed", and at the time being known as a homosexual was regarded as career disaster - look at all the fuss over allegations constantly being made about Cliff Richard's sexuality.  Anyway, who said he was joking?  It was more likely a misquote of the kind that the magazine always seizes upon avidly.  The reference to "Slipper of the Yard" is totally relevant, as the events happened 45 years ago, times have changed so much that a full explanation is required.  You have not indicated why "94" is the "generic boringly large number" selected, nor indicated which of the Eye staff proffered this explanation, let alone whether s/he was on the staff at the time and party to the decision.  The fact that you are not aware of what went on in the magazine earlier on in its history does not give you licence to make such drastic and heavy-handed cuts and alterations to the article.  The whole suite of Private Eye articles has many flaws and infelicities, but these are not among them.    Guy (talk) 00:13, 26 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I specifically did not change the areas of whose accuracy I was unsure, only those I knew to be wrong, asking rather for clarification on the former. In response to your response:


 * The place I had read that the double-L was a reference to Bordes was on Andrew Neil's wikipedia page. The information there is also unsourced, however, so although I cede to you, as someone who actually knows, in terms of truth, I cannot cede in terms of verifiability. You refer to me as someone "not aware of what went on in the magazine earlier on its history", and it is precisely for people like me, who don't know, but want to know, that all our information must be sourced. It is at least feasible, given the nature of the magazine, that either reason could be true or that both could be apocryphal. I doubt our chances of ever finding a definitive source of which is true, but in that case we cannot include either, per WP:V.


 * Similarly re: Arkell vs. Pressdram, the following appears in the parent Private Eye article: An unlikely piece of British legal history occurred in the case Arkell v. Pressdram. The plaintiff was the subject of an article relating to illicit payments, and the magazine had ample evidence to back up the article. Arkell's lawyers wrote a letter in which, unusually, they said: "Our client's attitude to damages will depend on the nature of your reply". The response consisted, in part, of the following: "We would be interested to know what your client's attitude to damages would be if the nature of our reply were as follows : Fuck off". This caused a stir in certain quarters. In the years following, the magazine would use this case as a euphemism for an obscene reply: In subsequent cases, instead of using the obscenity, Private Eye (and others) would say something like "We refer you to the reply given in the case of Arkell v Pressdram", or perhaps "His reply was similar to that given to the plaintiff in Arkell v. Pressdram ". The meaning of the phrase given here, as a euphemism for an obscene reply, is not mutually exclusive with your suggested meaning, but does give more context and detail. Again, a source would clear the whole issue up.


 * Which part of the explanation of Bufton Tufton did I remove? I made pains to keep the sense of the passage while removing references to things such as Gerald Nabarro's "oafishness", which is not encyclopaedic in style or content. If you have any issues with the text as it stands please mention them specifically and we can discuss them further. In general though, readers searching for greater detail regarding Tufton Beamish, or whoever, can always follow the blue link, otherwise parent articles ramble off-point in a chaos of subordinate clauses and parentheses.


 * Re: Danny La Rue, I guess I just assumed that anybody using a pun in their response would be in some way un-serious, but fair enough, I'm happy with that part as it is.


 * Re: "knacker of the yard", my point is that surely Slipper was by far the most famous of the "x of the yard" types, and by referring to him and the media's nickname for him we could dock the nickname in the real world, rather than crime fiction. I grant, though, that this is not an actual problem. What is more of concern to me is characterising "Knacker of the Yard" as a reference to castration rather than the policemen being out-of-touch and unfit for purpose. Not only would the latter explanation make more sense, with regards to the Eye's coverage of policemen and policing, but is by far a more standard use of the term.


 * I could not find a non-mirror source for the term "generic, boringly-large number", which leads me to believe that it was probably the license of some mystery wikipedian. At the same time, an explanation of its origin such as the Haydn one needs some kind of source, or it is again in violation of WP:V.


 * Aside from all that, please trust me when I say I have no interest in pre-discussion drastic and heavy-handed cuts on information that I have no better suggestion for. Jdcooper (talk) 14:17, 26 March 2008 (UTC)


 * Fair enough. Re. "Knacker" - this goes right back to the earliest days of the magazine.  The "of the Yard" part would have come first, as fictional British police heroes in books, magazines (much more influential in popular culture then than now), in films, radio/television, comics even, were all "of the Yard" or "of Scotland Yard" (apart from Dixon of Dock Green - and that was part of the image of the police that the magazine was seeking to ridicule).  It is then a short step to "Knacker" and the connotations of being broken-down and past it and impotent (due to castration - "knackers" is a synonym for "testicles" in some parts of the country).  Slipper was not the first to be "of the Yard", the popular press coined this nickname in reference to an existing popular fictional character (research needed - possibly it was Gideon, possibly a creation of Edgar Wallace, Dorothy L. Sayers, A.A. Milne or somebody like that).  Regarding "Ugandan discussions", the magazine has itself commented upon the mis-attribution more than once, which is made in a published book similar to Bewer's as well as having appeared in the press.  The lady whose alleged misconduct gave rise to the mis-attribution was Foreign Minister in Idi Amin's government, and it happened at Heathrow Airport while she was in transit between Kampala and London.  The story splashed in the popular press, as in those days, though overtly racist reporting and comedy were markedly in decline, Idi Amin was still fair game, and this story further ridiculed him and his government.  Other articles in Wikipedia are not reliable as sources in this area.  I have made that point before - part of the problem of the suite of Private Eye articles is that in order to correct them you would have to correct and expand lots of other articles to which they refer, look at the article on Mohammad Fayed for example, to say nothing of Jim Slater, who was frequently mentioned in the magazine in the late 60s and early 70s.  The biggest problem is Wikipedia's own attitude to the use of cuttings, which is out of synch with the publishing world in general.  The best way to resolve differences in interpretation is to post the cutting and let the reader decide, which I have done before, but the Wikipedia hierarchy has deleted the cutting.  This is a side issue to the matter of which Jimmy Wales has been accused - tailoring Wikipedia entries to suit powerful and influential interests (and the similar activities of corporate PR departments and operators working on behalf of individuals to enhance their principals).  However, cuttings is the real issue - if one had all the magazines to hand (now 1,206 of them), a scanner and permission to use cuttings, then there is much room to improve the articles, but it would be greatly time-consuming and probably not really worth the effort.  Perhaps subtle changes in wording are in order - I am prepared to accept that for some people "right-wing" is not necessarily synonymous with "oafish". :-)    Guy (talk) 16:38, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

"which is made in a published book similar to Bewer's as well as having appeared in the press." Brewer's, surely? Dawright12 (talk) 10:10, 19 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Ok, I have altered the wording slightly on the knacker bit to (attempt to) take into account all the levels of the pun. I feel rather like I am sucking the fun out of the joke/the magazine/life often when editing these articles, but hopefully its now acceptable to all. Regarding the Uganda bit, I am familiar with this problem. On the Peaches Geldof article, it is thoroughly sourced throughout the internet and the printed press that her name is what is written there, but it has emerged, or at least been alleged, that the original source for that information was vandalism to wikipedia itself, which was then copied by lazy reporters at, amongst other places, The Daily Mail. Relating that to here, if I understand you and the article properly there are two conflicting origins, one of which is wrong but has been mis-attributed in a "reliable source". Do you know the issue number in which the Eye refuted the alternate origin? Which origin is the real one? Jdcooper (talk) 18:16, 27 March 2008 (UTC)


 * No doubt that the Private Eye source is the correct one. Private Eye is a difficult source to scour for references, as it is not indexed, neither is it online.  The publishers have a problem with putting it online, as many articles have been the subject of legal proceedings, and as they do not keep a list of these articles, they do not wish to run the risk of getting sued all over again.  The other issue is that the suite of Wikipedia articles is far more extensive than their status in the order of things merits - like those programmes on Sunday morning television where people sit on a sofa reading out of newspapers, if you were that interested you would buy the paper and read it for yourself.  Repeating in-jokes and explaining them to outsiders is a futile pastime - they cease to be either "in" or "jokes" - especially when the explanation is lengthier than the original comment.  When the in-joke is used somewhere else totally unconnected and picked up by different readers with no inkling of the original source (like the use of the expression "Ugandan discussions" in popular media) then waters are muddied even further.  This article is misleading too - it is headed "List of", when really it is not a list and therefore should be headed "Recurring phrases and "in-jokes" in Private Eye".   Guy (talk) 18:45, 29 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I agree, and have moved the article accordingly. So, just to clarify, which event first gave rise to the term Ugandan discussions, and was it the one listed in the article as correct (with the Brewer source)? Jdcooper (talk) 18:52, 29 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I am researching alternative sources claimed for the expression "Ugandan discussions". Private Eye is the real source, and the origins are as stated in this article (behaviour of guests at a party).  However, it has found its way into at least one book of quotes with the source mis-attributed (not necessarily Brewer's - I have to check that one out, which involves finding and looking at earlier editions of the book).  I think that the original mis-attribution was made in an article in an authoritative newspaper or magazine (minister caught in flagrante), which then found its way into reference sources.  I have looked back through the suite of articles, to assess how they fit together, and it is not good.  Starting from the premise that the bulk is out of all proportion to the subject matter (compare with The Economist, The Spectator, New Statesman, even Punch), it is chaotic.  Starting with the disambiguation.  Private eye is a disambig, Private Eye is not.  Both ought to link to the same article, and Private Eye (magazine) ought to link to a further disambig listing out the whole suite of articles.  However, the task of revision is too big for just thee and me, it needs a "Private Eye" project group to agree on what needs to be there, how to divide it up into articles and how to cross-refer the articles.  Guy (talk) 16:50, 31 March 2008 (UTC)


 * I have been trying periodically to form such a group on Talk:Private Eye, and there are a handful of others who seem somewhat interested in Private Eye articles. I have been splitting out the most obviously splittable sections from Private Eye every now and again for a while now, due to the drastic over-length that the article had originally, but I agree that the suite as a whole could do with a re-evaluation and re-structure. In which case should we move this conversation to Talk:Private Eye? Jdcooper (talk) 17:44, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

FSA
"The Financial Services Authority is invariably referred to as "The Fundamentally Supine Authority" in reference to its reluctance to act and its seemingly chummy relationship with the industry it is supposed to regulate, often contrasting its performance with the swift and draconian methods of its United States counterparts."


 * In the USA, persons such as the Enron directors, Conrad Black and Michael Milken and the three errant Barclays Bank bosses have been swiftly dealt with and despatched for long terms of imprisonment. Contrast this with the slow and drawn-out proceedings in the U.K. particularly the Guinness share-trading fraud including the remarkable recovery from Alzheimer's disease made by leading protagonist Ernest Saunders.


 * It is not an "interesting assertion"; it is, in fact, "fact". Guy (talk) 16:11, 6 July 2008 (UTC)

An image on this page may be deleted
This is an automated message regarding an image used on this page. The image File:Andrew Neil recurring joke in Private Eye.jpg, found on Recurring in-jokes in Private Eye, has been nominated for deletion because it does not meet Wikipedia image policy. Please see the image description page for more details. If this message was sent in error (that is, the image is not up for deletion, or was left on the wrong talk page), please contact this bot's operator. STBotI (talk) 04:32, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Spiggy Topes
While the character may bear comparison with Lennon and Jagger, as the article states, the name is clearly a reference to Iggy Pop. Why this isn't mentioned is anyone's guess. --81.156.177.239 (talk) 02:03, 9 January 2009 (UTC)
 * Why? Because Spiggy Topes made his first appearance in Private Eye in 1964 -- long before Iggy Pop was even a gleam in James Osterberg's eye.  70.27.0.43 (talk) 06:44, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Grauniad
"The Grauniad" refers only to the typos, not the lower-case masthead logo. It was called the Grauniad long before the realtively recent change to a lower-case mast. 122.167.66.200 (talk) 06:50, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

"Takes out onion"
The article says this originally comes from Spitting Image caricaturing Esther Rantzen, but it is a lot older than that. I have before me a reprint of book of W. Heath Robinson's, "Wangling War Films How to Make and Fake Them (1915) in which Plate V "The Queen of the Harem. A Pathetic Incident at the taking of Constantinople" has in foreground a man, looking through a window and crying, at his feet a bag marked "onions". Si Trew (talk) 18:12, 5 January 2010 (UTC) Si Trew (talk) 18:16, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Compare and Contrast
So Polly Toynbee is Polly Filler, erm? No. Apart from the name Polly they have nothing in common. Who let this rubbish through? Have you read The Daily Mail Private Eye? You're fired.--77.99.177.87 (talk) 23:53, 17 March 2010 (UTC)


 * I have always thought that Polly Filler's cap pic was Anne Diamond, though that seems a little unlikely because of libel laws etc. Of course the name is a pun on Polyfilla (spackle), just as articles are signed by Phil Space, and so on. Am I missing the point here or are you? (cont'd Wikipeda p. 94) Si Trew (talk) 15:26, 14 July 2011 (UTC)
 * Polly Filler has nothing to do with Polly Toynbee. She is a parody of witless self absorbed lifestyle columnists who write about their own lives, or idealised versions of them, and constantly refer to the incompetence of their male partners. She is utterly devoid of self awareness. Toynbee certainly has her critics (and indeed is often mocked in Private Eye) but this is about as far from her journalistic style as it's possible to get. I've no idea who the woman in the byline photo is but it's not Toynbee. --Ef80 (talk) 00:15, 27 June 2014 (UTC)

tautological title
If they're in-jokes, they recur. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.189.103.145 (talk) 14:26, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

So what? The point is whether it helps someone to search it. The tautology is not important for that purpose.

If you care about it much, I suggest taking it to the talk page of the article for it to be discussed, and we could argue it to be renamed. But I think since it has been pretty stable at that name, with many incoming links, you would have to make a very strong argument to rename it, and I don't think tautology (though iot is) would cut the mustard - do a Google search and see how many incoming links there are to it, THEN state your case for changing it.

Please remember to Sign your posts. Best regards Si Trew (talk) 15:30, 14 July 2011 (UTC)


 * An in-joke can be a one off. The essence of an in-joke is that it contains references that are not explicitly understood by the wider public. You may make one such joke.  It doesn't have to be recurrent.  So the title is apt.  Davidpatrick (talk) 01:42, 15 July 2011 (UTC)

No, if there’s a tautology in it, it should be taken out of it, if only for consistency in one’s standards of humour writing. Unsigned comment added by ditto (talk) 09:59, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Menu cards?
An omission, I humbly suggest are the menu cards that accompany meetings of world leaders, the G8, G20 etc.

"A selection of deserts, accompanied by coffee and humbug" and so on.

I know I should write it up myself - but I couldn't match the style!

And (unrelated) regarding the 'graffiti banner' (as I like to think of them) so kindly appended by someone in the Wiki-world regarding original research, can we not just reference the issue numbers where examples of each item appear? It doesn't have to be the first occasion - just one or two. 217.73.23.163 (talk) 20:33, 16 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Both good ideas. Martinevans123 (talk) 20:23, 8 June 2016 (UTC)

Organ
Isn't this a reference to Pravda's masthead formerly stating it was "Organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU"? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.85.47.138 (talk • contribs) 20:11, 8 June 2016‎ (UTC)

Dave Spart
"(modelled on and sometimes directly applied to Ken Livingstone) " - I'm certain that references to Spart precede Livingstone's time in the news, and his style when quoted was clearly that of a post-1968 revolutionary pseudointellectual, not the rather down to earth persona affected by Livingstone. 81.174.245.208 (talk) 17:43, 9 March 2017 (UTC)


 * I have been a Private Eye reader since 1971, and I remember Dave Spart's arrival. He was nothing to do with Ken Livingstone, but a parody of the archetypal Trotskyite splinter-group member. "Spart" is a reference to "Spartacist".  Deidre Spart and Cedric Spart were the female and gay counterparts.  It was only later, several years I believe, that Ken Livingstone rose to greater prominence and was satirised as "Ken Leninspart".  I have a large collection of Eyes from the seventies and early eighties so I'll check the dates on a rainy day. Sasha (talk) 08:37, 12 July 2020 (UTC)

Private Eye also frequently referred to itself as "Etavirp Yee" – an anagram.
Shome mishtake, shurely?

Terrible title
"Recurring in-jokes" might not have been ideal but "memes" is far, far worse. David G (talk) 00:20, 14 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree completely. They aren't memes by any stretch of the term. For a brief moment, the page was renamed "Recurring themes and in-jokes in Private Eye" which I think is the best. --Meanderingbartender (talk) 09:08, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree. "Recurring themes and in-jokes in Private Eye" is a better title. Pinging who made the recent page move, who might like to join this discussion. Poltair (talk) 11:19, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I also agree. The point about memes is that they spread through the wider community. That might be true to a limited extent of one or two of the jokes here ("tired and emotional", The Grauniad), but not of the vast majority. They are in-jokes – allusions that would be meaningless to the uninformed outsider, but that are immediately recognisable and meaningful to regular readers. Personally, I don't think "themes and ..." is necessary either: I can't see any entries here that relate to themes but not jokes. GrindtXX (talk) 19:25, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * I'm not that fussed either way but I think they can be considered memes as the formats evolve from year to year, even if only within the confines of the Eye. Crookesmoor (talk) 22:01, 16 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Unless there's any dissatisfaction, I'm going to request the page be moved to Recurring in-jokes in Private Eye. Need an admin to delate the page as there's already a redirect. Meanderingbartender (talk) 14:40, 11 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I would be satisfied with that page move. Poltair (talk) 18:43, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Possibles?
An ex-pat, now located elsewhere in the world, I have recently rediscovered the Eye and still enjoy it immensely. Might I suggest a few that seem to be missing?

- The Graudian: The Eye, if I remember correctly, used to use this spelling of that newspaper's title because--in spite of its excellent writing--The Guardian was often guilty of dreadful typos. [Ah! I've just spotted this referenced above]

- '..eyes passim': There is a reference here here to Private Eye's use of this phrase. I'd be curious to know exactly what it meant --24.87.154.112 (talk) 20:34, 15 December 2020 (UTC)


 * "A Latin word meaning ‘widely scattered’, used in scholarly notes with the sense ‘throughout’, to indicate that the word or expression referred to occurs so often in a given text that references to specific instances are needless." - from [] Bonusballs (talk) 19:07, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Requested move 29 January 2021

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion. 

The result of the move request was: Moved to "Recurring jokes in Private Eye"  (t &#183; c)  buidhe  11:37, 5 February 2021 (UTC)

Memes in Private Eye → Recurring in-jokes in Private Eye – Per discussion above. Meanderingbartender (talk) 11:22, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Move - Not what either definition of "meme" means. "Recurring jokes in Private Eye" or "Private Eye in-jokes" would both be more WP:CONCISE however. HumanBodyPiloter5 (talk) 06:07, 31 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Move - As discussed above (Talk:Memes_in_Private_Eye), meme is inappropriate. Happy to support "Recurring jokes in Private Eye" or the concise suggestion. Poltair (talk) 10:11, 31 January 2021 (UTC)
 * Move - This article falls under neither Richard Dawkins' original definition, nor the modern definition. The alternative title is much better. Absconded Northerner (talk) 21:56, 3 February 2021 (UTC)