Stan Carey"Platty joobs", "genny lec", "menty b" & co.: I wrote about this British slang fad
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2026/02/10/dont-have-a-menty-b-about-this-bloggy-p/
#slang #language #words #phrases #hun #linguistics #wordplay
rivets@stancarey I interpreted diddification as referencing Ken Dodd not P. Diddy
Bodhipaksa@rivets @stancarey I did as well, and I was trying to remember his catchphrases to see if any of them fit with this pattern.
@bodhipaksa @stancarey It was the Liverpool reference that also steered me that way.
@rivets @bodhipaksa I know of Dodd but am not at all familiar with his material. Did he use phrases like this?
(I replied on the blog, but you may not have seen it; I'm still not entirely sure how this integration works.)
@stancarey @bodhipaksa Doddy and the Diddy men was one of his things.
@rivets @bodhipaksa Thank you. I looked into it and added an update. It definitely seems more likely
Dr Alice Violett@stancarey I remember 'nervy b' from Louise Rennison's Georgia Nicolson series of YA books in the early 2000s, which tracks, as they were HUGE among us white suburban millennial girls. In some respects they've dated horribly, though!
@alicemcalicepants Thank you for the reference!
@stancarey I thought about your article this morning as I drove my son to school past a restaurant-bar called "Patty B's."
@bodhipaksa A classic of the type!
@stancarey It's been around a long time. Maybe 20 years. That still puts it a long time after "Jackie O" and other examples, though.
@bodhipaksa Thank you for the detail. I wonder how far back the "formula" goes, particularly with names.
@stancarey Have you looked for examples in the works of Willy S and Jeffy C? 🙂