Grammar
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Grammar
Shiitake mushrooms comedy sketch
Photo by frankenstoen, at Wikimedia
Shiitake (/ʃɪtɑ:kɪ/ or /ʃɪ:tɑ:kɪ/) are edible mushroom native to East Asia, which are cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. They are a feature of many Asian cuisines including Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. In the East, the shiitake mushroom has long been considered a delicacy as well as a medicinal mushroom. (Wikipedia)
They were also the subject of a short sketch in the popular British comedy series, The Catherine Tate Show, featuring Yorkshire couple 'Janice and Ray'.
Janice and Ray are a couple from Yorkshire, in the North of England, who express their disgust at the various signs of multi-culturalism in their very British circle. They often get annoyed with restaurants and bakeries, due to their perception of over-pricing or the exotic nature of the food such as grapes in a brie cheese sandwich or the use of French bread instead of good old-fashioned British white sliced (none of this fancy organic stuff for them!).
Ray likes to repeat things, but turning the word order around. He has has a couple of catchphrases - Listen to this! and the one he always finishes with - The dirty bastards! (adapted from Wikipedia)
Yorkshire dialect
This dialogue has several features of Yorkshire dialect
- the letter u in words like pub is pronounced like "oo" in foot (ʊ rather than ʌ)
- the word the is sometimes replaced with t' - t'first thing on the menu
- members of the family are often refered to as "our" - Have you seen our Susan?
- some non-standard verb forms are used:
Exercise 1 - write in the standard form of the verb in each sentence
| 1. | We was on our way to see our Valda | ||
| 2. | So we gets in to the pub | ||
| 3. | Then he read what were in it | ||
Before you watch the video, do this exercise:
Exercise 2 - Match the beginnings and endings
| 1. | Listen | a | words! | ||
| 2. | Well, I don't know where | b | is easily upset or shocked by things which they find unpleasant | ||
| 3. | Ray hadn't brought his driving | c | soup | ||
| 4. | A ring road is a road that | d | specialises in good food | ||
| 5. | To stop to ask for | e | served with pineapple | ||
| 6. | A gastropub is a pub that | f | glasses | ||
| 7. | On the menu was mushroom | g | to this! | ||
| 8. | Shiitake | h | a kind of seafood | ||
| 9. | Gammon (a type of ham) is often | i | mushrooms | ||
| 10. | Famous last | j | goes round a town or city | ||
| 11. | Someone who is squeamish | k | to start. | ||
| 12. | Whitby crab is | l | directions |
The humour of this sketch is not so much in the main joke (which you might see coming) as in the way it's done: the repetitions, the unimportant little details they think so important, and the idea that what happened was such a big deal.
Now watch the video on YouTube once without looking at the transcript (it will open in a new tab), and then come back here. Now look at the transcript, and then watch again.
Show transcript
| Ray: | Listen to this! |
| Janice: | Well, I don't know where to start |
| Ray: | Where do you start? |
| Janice: | We was on our way to see our Valda |
| Ray: | She just moved to Beverley |
| Janice: | She used to live on Bronzo(?) |
| Ray: | Yeah, they don't need to know that. |
| Janice: | So, anyway, we're on our way to see our Valda and we had to keep stopping because Ray hadn't brought his driving glasses |
| Ray: | I'm usually alright, but they'd just put in a new ring road, so ... |
| Janice: | So anyway we stopped again to ask for directions and we noticed we were opposite t'pub |
| Ray: | Listen to this! |
| Janice: | So we thought we'd better have something to eat before we get there because Valda's one of these vegetarians |
| Ray: | They don't eat meat! |
| Janice: | So we cross over to this pub, it looked alright from the outside, didn't it? |
| Ray: | Oh. Famous last words |
| Janice: | So we gets in, and there's a sign saying, it was, what did they call it? |
| Ray: | A gastropub. Don't ask! |
| Janice: | So we sits down and we looks at the menu |
| Ray: | Listen to this! |
| Janice: | Well, t'first thing on the menu was mushroom soup, well Ray liked the sound of that, didn't you? |
| Ray: | Yeah. Not for long |
| Janice: | Then he read what were in it. |
| Ray: | Listen to this! |
| Janice: | When he read what sort of mushrooms they were ... |
| Ray: | This is unbelievable! |
| Janice: | What were they called? |
| Ray: | Dried Shit Ache mushrooms |
| Janice: | You went mad didn't you? |
| Ray: | Dried Shit Ache mushrooms |
| Janice: | You don't want that in soup, do you? |
| Ray: | Shit Ache mushrooms, dried |
| Janice: | You don't want it in anything |
| Ray: | Now I've eaten everything, right, from Whitby crab to gammon with pineapple on it, so I'm not squeamish. But I'm not eating anything that has got dried shit in the title – No way! |
| Janice: | This is in Beverley! |
| Janice: | The dirty bastards! |
map-generator.net
Map showing Beverley, in Yorkshire. from Map-Generator.net
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- Vocab Game - Food Collocations (mainly British) Quiz
This game has twelve quizzes related to the food we eat in Britain. Most natives of Britain will recognise these easily, but I have to confess it will be difficult for foreign learners. There are some links at the bottom where you can get...
- Tag Questions And Short Answers - Exercises
Sometimes they're called question tags, sometimes tag questions. It's all the same. I'm sure you know the basic principles, so use your instinct to complete the exercises. The first exercise looks at some standard tags, the others at some...
- Video Vocabulary Quiz And A Look At Some Collective Nouns
A recent post (Let's not call a spade a spade) included the expression ‘to know someone in the biblical sense’, meaning to have a sexual relationship with them. This expression is informal and is usually used humorously. In a sketch from the...
- Who You Are Is What You Eat
In Britain people can have different names for certain meals, depending on their social background. It's just another example of our strange eccentricities.Random Idea English investigates, and reminisces ... One of the less savoury aspects of Britain...
- Video Lesson - Mr Mann's Disappointed Horse
I sometimes use short comedy videos in class and I find that students usually really like this particular one, a clip from the BBC series Little Britain. I've gone off the show a bit now, but I still think this one of the classic sketches of British...