In case anyone's missed the announcement in the Radio Times, a new series of Balderdash and Piffle starts at 2200 BST tonight, 11 May. (that's 4 o'clock pm on 5/11 for those who live in Chicago)

The BBC page is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/wordhunt/

There's not much up there at present apart from links to the OED Wordhunt site, but the programme has just finished. They may well add some clips later on.

It's being repeated on Monday at 2220, again on BBC2, if anyone missed it.

Unfortunately it's not yet being broadcast on BBCAmerica. Sigh.

And PBS hasn't picked it up either. Sigh. Don't suppose the BBC is streaming it online?

Are there any interesting points for us sighing Americans?

Last week's examined the origins of phrases that referred to stupidity, for example, "One sandwich short of a picnic".

You can find out more at the Beeb's site, here http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/wordhunt/onesandwichextras.shtml

They don't appear to have any clips on the BBC site. Last week they has a piece by Jo Brand (a former mental health nurse turned comedienne) on insults relating to mental health and stupidity. Many of the insults used today originated as technical terms used by psychologists at the turn of the twentieth century. For instance a "moron" was someone who measured just below 100 in an IQ test, but an "idiot" would score much lower. Nowadays I'd say that, interestingly, calling someone a "moron" is a greater insult than "idiot".

Some of my favorite insults of this type:

His Happy Meal is missing the prize.
A few fries short of a Happy Meal.
I think he's a few degress off plumb.

This early thread has some good ones.

Reminder to the British - including myself - that B & P is on again tonight at Ten O'Clock.

I've always heard it "a few bricks shy of a load."

"His elevator doesn't go to the top floor" and "the lights are on, but nobody's home" are two others.

I wish we could get Balderdash & Piffle over here so I could hear what they have to say about all of these interesting topics.

Sigh.

quote:

Reminder to the British - including myself - that B & P is on again tonight at Ten O'Clock.

Thanks, Arnie. I had almost forgotten.

A reminder again the B & D is on tonight on BBC 2 at 2200 BST. This evening's offering is about euphemisms (or as the Radio Times would have it, "The lace curtain of language").

It's Balderdash and Piffle again tonight on BBC2. 2200 BST.

This evening's programme contains the word "Spiv" and this is of particular interest to me. My late uncle, Arthur English, made his name as a comic spiv back in the 1940s and was at one time one of the top comedians in England.

I wrote to Michael Quinion a while back about the origin of the word (I had heard a spurious suggestion the it was a back-formed acronym from "VIPs"). Although Michael was able to throw some light on the topic it was not a 100% identification.

If you missed B & D last night, remember it's repeated on Monday. This programme is about "naughty" words