Vees Up

[erwin]

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Boavista coach Jaime Pacheco has just been suspended for 12 days for criticising refs. I just thought this was a great pic ... although he was probably trying to say "two men on that no. 10, you idiots!"

Is the 'vees up' still an insult in Britain, or has it been supplanted by the 'finger'?

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[EIM]

Vees Up

I'm strongly against the finger. It looks rubbish. It's swearing for people who can't swear. Especially when they do wanky things with the finger like flash it at a jaunty angle. Or pull it out of the pocket. Or wind it up as if it's on a tiny, invisible reel.

I'm not a patriotic person, but there's something about flicking the Vs that makes me feel, well, proud. Proud to be British. My whole life has been about flicking the Vs to someone, often randomly and without provocation. And usually at great cost to my own personal development. But fuck it. The Vs look cool as fuck.

[erwin]

Vees Up

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Ha! Great pic, Eric's.

Ha! again

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[My Name Is Ian]

Vees Up

Yeah, flicking Vs is the right thing to do. That middle finger thing just implies that you're going to stick it up their backside. No defiance going on there at all.

[EIM]

Vees Up

It just doesn't look right. Someone sticks their middle finger up at me, I laugh at them. It offends, but not in the way they intend. It insults because I feel upset they've not gone to the bother to swear properly at me. Well fuck you too, buddy.

The Vs though. Ah the Vs are a thing of beauty. A gesture of defiance, often towards authority. That's how Wiki has it. You're dancing my sort of dance if you flash the Vs.



It's iconic.

[erwin]

Vees Up

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Fucking hell, yes!

(You're dead inspired with your pic picking tonight, EIM!)

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[Amor de Cosmos]

Vees Up

The single finger salute is a recent US import I think. Certainly never saw it when I was a kid.

[EIM]

Vees Up

There is, of course, one exception when the bird (or the New York Hello) is acceptable. When it's done by Johnny Cash. But then there's not much that isn't acceptable when it's done by Johnny Cash.



Swearing, I think, is fascinating. I need to be careful with me swearing. I tend to eff and jeff far too much. It leaves you with nowhere to go. If I call someone a cunt in a friendly, affectionate way, which I do ("You daft cunt. "Ah, get to fuck you silly cunt." "LOOK YOU CUNT. LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE."), then what do I say to someone who really is a cunt. It's for this reason I've toned down my language.

There's a great bit in a book by Mike Duff called Lowlife. The main character, Rooftop Rafferty, is at an old boy's house in Cheetham Hill, or somewhere. They're talking about swearing and how it's a sign of a limited vocabulary.

"Bollocks." Says the old boy. "Pick any word from that fucking dictionary, and I'll cunting well tell you what it means."

So they flick through it for a bit, looking for a really tough word, and eventually settle for antediluvian.

The old boy, without skipping a beat, replies "Of, or relating to, the period before the great fucking flood."

It's a great passage in a great book. You can bet Duff's characters are all V flickers. The Guardian had him as some sort of modern day Dickens, Vs will be right up his street.

[David Agnew]

Vees Up

Giving someone the rods is always more satisfying than flipping the bird.

[Crusoe]

Vees Up

Even the phrase is better - giving the rods rather than flipping the bird.

[Guest]

Vees Up

Giving the rods - I've never heard that one before. It used to be 'twos-up' when I was but a bairn.

I don't think I've ever 'flipped the bird' at anyone. Exclusively a Vs man.

I do have a soft spot for the 'Look in my eye' method employed by Sergeant Apone in Aliens though.

[erwin]

Vees Up

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You have to give the finger abroad, though, as the vees doesn't mean anything - thus the innocence here of the pic of Jaime Pacheco above.

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