Britain FAQ

Right, the bird versus the V's:
The bird originated in the USA, we all know this, and since it gets used a lot in US films and so on, it's migrated over the the UK. The all-pervasive nature of US cultural imperialism means that young people today quite often use the finger. It has exactly the same weight and offensiveness as it does over in the US, simply because UK people have seen how upset people get when it's used on American films and so on. The V's are used in exactly the same way, but aren't quite as offensive. You still wouldn't flick the V's at the Queen. Well actually I would, but I'm a republican, and if somebody wants to make me bow before some troutfaced old cow just because her ancestors owned more muskets than anyone else around four hundred years ago, then you'd better be ready to walk home without kneecaps.Ahem BTW:

Wanker.
A slang term for idiot. To "wank" is to masturbate, hence a wanker is someone who masturbates. Kind of redundant, really, it's a bit like saying "breather" or "eater". In any case it's left its onanistic roots, is alive and well and is now merely a fairly offensive insult, not quite has bad as "bastard", but too far off it. For a check on how offensive is, it was cut out of the 6.45pm showing in Britain, but if it had been on at around 8.00pm or so, it would have been okay. Having said that, British telly is much more lenient than American telly for swearing. Bitch and arse are fine after around 6 in the evening, past eight you get into the bastard wanker's bloody buggering zone, past nine, any fucker can swear his whore mother's tits off, and past ten, the cunts fly as thick and fast as a motherfucker.

Berk.
It is a contraction of Berkshire Hunt, which is rhyming slang for cunt.
"Berkshire Hunt" in full is still pretty crass, since it's obvious what it alludes to. Only cockneys use rhyming slang though, so I think you'd be unlikely to hear it outside of the East End of London. This isn't my area of expertise, since I'm not a Londener, but I think it is losing favour, and only older people use it. The young folk just come out and call you a cunt.
"Berk" however, has spread all over the country, even to Scotland, where swearing is considered an artform as much as a duty. Only exceptionally uptight people would be offended by hearing the word "Berk". Obviously being called a berk is different, but then the same is true of the word "cretin".
The word "Berk" is frequently used on children's telly because it has very old and mild connotations of being offensive. It isn't actually rude nowadays, but it has a very slight whiff of the crude, because of it origins.

Spike's accent
James Marsters' accent is, as far as my Scottish ears call tell, pretty good, but it is just a generic English accent that anyone middle class from the South of England would have. I'll put my bet on London as being the cradle of his birth, mostly because that's where Druscilla was based. He should say "arse" instead of "ass". It's as grating as Giles saying "Jelly Donuts" in "The Zeppo", when he should say "Jam Doughnuts" No cockney wannabe vampire would say "ass". That's his main fault. Shall I do my Spike joke? Oh, okay then... James Marsters accent is pretty good, but I keep getting distracted by Spike's "ass". Boom Boom. BTFW

Spike supporting Manchester United
Some people have used this as evidence that Spike isn't a Londoner. Man U are the biggest, best funded team in Britain, and keep winning things because they can afford better players than anyone else. As a result, when people who don't know much about football choose a team to support, they ignore their local team, and support Man U. There's a standing joke that Man U has supporters everywhere except Manchester, since real Mancunians support Man City. Consequently, someone as morally bankrupt as Spike( and most other cockneys) would have no inhibitions in supporting the giant money machine that is Man U

Dru's Accent:
It's not bad. I'm not an expert on South Londen accents, but I watch I lot of telly, so I say yay to Ms Landau.

Pants aren't Pants
When a British person says pants, they mean underwear.
When every so often you hear an American actor pretending to be British, and saying "Pants", while they should say trousers.

Follow this link how annoyed I get at Pants Vs Pants.

Sky versus BBC2
You may have heard British people talking about Sky/cable/satellite/digital. All these formats show Sky One, the basically crap main non-terrestrial channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch, the megalomaniac cunt who also owns Fox.
Sky one shows Buffy at 8pm, and Angel at 9pm, every Friday. We in Britain with Sky therefore oscillate between being eight or nine episodes behind the US, depending on the day of the week. eg Harsh Light of Day is going to be shown tomorrow (21/1/00), while Doomed was shown on Tuesday (18/1/00).
BBC2 is a vastly better channel, on terrestrial telly, which has the major weakness of showing Buffy at wierd and variable times. Usually Thursday or Friday at 6.45pm, and then an entirely uncut repeat late (11pm-ish)on either Saturday or Sunday. The other semi-downer is that it is still in season 2, Phases is in fact going to be shown in around an hour, as I type this. On the upside, the back half of season 2 is brilliant.
The best thing about BBC2 is that is has absolutely no adverts at all. Yessiree Bob, 45 minutes of uninterupted uncut Buffy is yours for the taping, every week. Makes me swell with patriotic pride when Buffy is shown like that.
Obviously sometimes I swell with sexual arousal, normally an erection, sometimes accompanied by shortness of breath, flushed face etc, but that subject is distasteful, and so I won't type it here. Back to BuffStuff