Lynne Murphy alerted me, via Twitter, to this photograph posted on the UK website The Poke:
It inspired various thoughts.
- Bloody good advert!
- The Poke includes no text with the photo, but the sign advertising “NY State Inspections” suggests that is was taken, in fact, in New York.
- The Poke (whose motto is “time well wasted”) appears to specialize in Photoshopped or otherwise altered photographs, so I am not sure if this is the real deal. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has eyeballed it.
notoneoffbritishisms.com 
Seems to be real: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/
Heh. I got one of each of those drinking things free from the intarwebz.
I can’t verify personally…I haven’t been to NYC in over a decade…but it’s been replicated at least two dozen times so far: http://tinyurl.com/6nj9we3.
Anyone looking at the picture has “eyeballed” the sign.
No, they have eyeballed a picture of the sign.
That’s pretty damn funny. Good old Newcastle Brown, the staple of the 1970s college dance.
I was horrified to see “Newkie” on widespread sale in California, Of all the brown ales we could export, we sent them Newkie Brown? The horror.
And no-one even drinks it properly. In Newcastle, you get a bottle and a *half-pint* glass, which you top up continually to preserve the head.
Anywhere else, of course, you drink a better brown ale (i.e. almost anything).
I think we need to make a distinction between words used purely for effect, esp. commercial effect, and words used as a result of cultural diffusion. Clearly this is commercial cute, not to be taken as an example of diffusion.
If you can understand the cockney accents, this might help!
Yes, it’s in NewYork. I live here and have seen it several times.
You mean eye-bollocked it?
Emphatically not – ‘bollocks’ is synonymous with ‘testicles’, not with ‘balls’.
Bollocks used to be a very offensive term in British English but has become more acceptable term in recent decades to the point that the recent slang term: “the dog’s bollocks” is (strangely to me) an expression of praise for exceptional quality as in: that new track by Coldplay was the dog’s bollocks.
Good example here:
There seems to be some suggestion in this thread that ‘bollocks’ is a new term. It’s not, although I’ve no idea how old it might really be. My grandfather (b1888.) was familiar with it for sure. It’s certainly been a crude word for testicles for living memory. I wonder where the earliest reference is..? Some crude Anglo-Saxon goes way back. ‘Cunt’ I think comes from the old Norse ‘Kunta’, with the same anatomical meaning.
Neither is the term ‘bollocks’ universally positive – as in ‘The dogs bollocks’, since the phrase ‘Load of bollocks’, – meaning lies or incorrect opinion or poor design, is probably an even more widespread usage in the UK.
No-one has suggested that bollocks is either new or positive, other than in the phrase “the dog’s bollocks”.
There’s a (proper) beer, widely available in pubs*, called “Dog’s Bollocks”.
*Pubs themselves are no longer widely available, obvs.
Explanation: As with rhyming slang (Aristotle = bottle & glass = arse). This is a progression that started with ‘the cat’s whiskers’. But both the animal and the relevant anatomical component have transitioned over time as an interesting new spin on the term.
As a small addendum to the above, a euphemism for “Dog’s Bollocks” that is gaining currency over here in good old blighty is “The Mutt’s Nuts”, which interestingly borrows the not-so-common American term “Mutt”. However, coming up briskly in the usage stakes is the superbly evocative “The Dog’s Danglies”!
It’s a great word, something you can get a lot of expression behind when things foul up.
Also ‘what a load of ….’ when referring to something that is rubbish or just doesn’t work.
How about ‘That politician was talking a right load of bollocks’ I guess this may get used a bit in the next month or so.
Also used as a spontaneous expression of frustration.
‘Oh bollocks!’ (with feeling) when the tree I just cut down fell on my car.
It will also be the only word on my tombstone
@rickfairs.
This has most recently been abbreviated to simply ‘the dogs’ everyone knows to what we are referring.
I have heard over here ‘the dogs cojones’ more than a few times, the obfuscation of using a foreign language adds that element of whatever.
I fear that you have missed the gag. The glass containing the liquid purporting to be a Beligian beer is in fact, known as a “bollock” in Belgium, hence the interplay between the words French “chalice” the Belgian “bollock” and the Anglo Saxon “bollocks”.
Bollocks! Can you give any examples of this? Or are you pulling our collective leg?
I was surprised to see a Newcastle Brown commercial on BBC America recently with the word bollocks in it. Not a polite word, IMO.
And Holmes just used the word in Elementary, which is on TV as I type!
Wow, if Holmes said it it must be okay now!
I wonder what other words you would never have heard from your mother or grannie’s mouth will soon become acceptable in commerce and entertainment? Tits is getting there — as for instance in the quite mild expression: “You are getting on my tits” — but I think cunt will still need a lot more time before it is on the billboards.
Sherlock? On TV? Jeez I want to drink whatever you’re downing!
‘Bollocks’ is still considered an offensive term for testicles in the UK. I do not think that that advert would be allowed in the UK. The humour is spot-on though.
Wonderfully expressive word and not particularly offensive in the UK,either spat out or extended.Dogs bollocks has been around for many years and expresses satisfaction to the highest extent…’These shoes or whatever are the absolute Dogs bollocks! ‘Cojones and danglies just don’t work.Bollocks as a repost..superb.With emphasis and said carefully and slowly it packs a punch.I believe that in Medievel times a bollock was an Italian dagger used to kill fallen Knights by being thrust through the visor.Picture the shape of an errect,but pointed penis,cock,dick,prick,knob,beef bayonet,willy,chutney chaser,percy,jake, etc etc with a ball either side and you will get the idea.
Although ‘the dog’s bollocks’ as a phrase does not translate, Brits have done so for amusement purposes. There is now an antique (I use the term advisedly) shop in the Goldborne road so named.
http://www.lescouillesduchien.com/
Ha! I saw that shop the other day, and as a slightly-too-respectable French speaker didn’t know what it meant!
I have always assumed that the phrase “the dog’s bollocks” was a playful extension of the phrase “the bee’s knees”. The use of “cojones” and “danglies” are probably attempts at a playful extension of “the dog’s bollocks”.
One can say, “Of course we know that his art is all bollocks.” ie., something disreputable or worthless or deceptive.
Perhaps the pre-eminent use of the word is the Sex Pistols’ LP: Never Mind the Bollocks. No way would my parents have let me buy a record with this word plastered over the cover (so I had to tape my friend’s copy and keep it hidden!) I seem to remember that in shops the covers were censored with plain wrapping when the LP was released in 1977, though few brits would raise an eyebrow to see the cover on display these days. I agree that this advertising would not be allowed in the UK.
Incidentally, there’s a whole ad campaign on the same theme:
The advert is for real…..they’ve been showing TV commercial for over a year
“The dog’s bollocks” has also traveled east.
I was visiting the Anjuna Flea Market in Goa (India) some years ago. The market happens every Wednesday at Anjuna beach and there must be a hundred plus stalls selling anything, but majoring on Indian crafts.
I was with my daughter and we were passing one “shop” and the boy out front, who was maximum ten or eleven, was doing his sales pitch.
“Come into my shop, Sir”
“Not now. Maybe on the way back.”
“No, no Sir, come now.”
“No honestly, we’re a little short of time.”
This went back and forth a couple of more times, and then he came in with his ultimate sales pitch,
“Honestly, Sir, I give you dog’s bollocks prices.”
“What'” I said, “Who taught you that sort of language?”
He face broke into a huge proud smile,
“English people, Sir”.
Bollocks is such a useful word.Here, bollocks is a substitute for bullshit. So, here bollocks means nonsense. In that sense, it is widely used in an expression of contempt or incredulity. “What a load of bollocks!” or That’s utter bollocks!” are often heard across the UK – never preceded by an article. What’s interesting is that if the definite article is added, it flips the meaning from negative to positive. ‘THE bollocks’ means the bees knees, the very best. “Oh, that ice cream is the bollocks” is a compliment indeed. The Dog’s Bollocks is one variant (and, by the way, the name of a British beer). The dog’s danglies, the mutt’s nuts and the badger’s nadgers are others.
Bollocks on its own is also used as a general expletive, say, after stubbing a toe much as Damn, bloodyhell and umpteen others.
Of course, there is also the original meaning, testicles as in “He kicked me right in the bollocks”. All in all, a very useful word indeed.
When the Sex Pistols album Never Mind The Bollocks was publicised in the window of the Virgin Megastore record shop in Nottingham, UK the store was unsuccesfully prosecuted for obscenity. Virgin dug out an academic who gave witness under oath that the word was a slang term for priest.
How wonderful Simon! Anything that laughs at the priesthood has my blessing. Do you know if it was true?
“Professor James Kinsley, Head of English at Nottingham University and an Anglican priest, told the court the origins of the offending word. He said that during the word’s history, it had meant a small ball, a type of orchid and a nickname for a clergyman. According to Kinsley: “Clergymen are known to talk a good deal of rubbish and so the word later developed the meaning of nonsense.” Kinsley ended by stating that the understanding of the word today (in 1977) was to mean “nonsense.”“
Quoted in lots of places but I snarfed that summary from
https://rockhaq.com/retrospective/sex-pistols-indecency-trial-nottingham-24-november-1977/