Editing Rhyming slang (section)

== In popular culture ==
Rhyming slang has been widely used in popular culture including film, television, music, literature, sport and degree classification.

=== In university degree classification ===
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In the [[British undergraduate degree classification]] system a first class honours degree is known as a "[[Geoff Hurst]]" (First) after the English 1966 World Cup footballer. An upper second class degree (a.k.a. a "2:1") is called an "[[Attila the Hun]]", and a lower second class ("2:2") a "[[Desmond Tutu]]", while a third class degree is known as a "[[Thora Hird]]" or "[[Douglas Hurd]]".<ref name='telegraph'>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1377510/How-to-get-a-Geoff-Hurst-in-slang-at-university.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1377510/How-to-get-a-Geoff-Hurst-in-slang-at-university.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-status=live|title=How to get a 'Geoff Hurst' in slang at university|work=The Telegraph|date=8 December 2000|access-date=1 March 2019|first=Nicole|last=Martin |url-access=subscription}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

=== In film ===
Cary Grant's character teaches rhyming slang to his female companion in ''[[Mr. Lucky (film)|Mr. Lucky]]'' (1943), describing it as 'Australian rhyming slang'. Rhyming slang is also used and described in a scene of the 1967 film ''[[To Sir, with Love]]'' starring [[Sidney Poitier]], where the English students tell their foreign teacher that the slang is a drag and something for old people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/t/to-sir-with-love-script.html|title=To Sir With Love – Script – transcript from the screenplay and/or Sidney Poitier movie|website=www.script-o-rama.com|access-date=19 March 2018}}</ref> The closing song of the 1969 crime caper, ''[[The Italian Job]]'', ("Getta Bloomin' Move On" a.k.a. "The Self Preservation Society") contains many slang terms.

Rhyming slang has been used to lend authenticity to an East End setting. Examples include ''[[Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels]]'' (1998) (wherein the slang is translated via subtitles in one scene); ''[[The Limey]]'' (1999); ''[[Sexy Beast]]'' (2000); ''[[Snatch (film)|Snatch]]'' (2000); ''[[Ocean's Eleven (2001 film)|Ocean's Eleven]]'' (2001); and ''[[Austin Powers in Goldmember]]'' (2002); ''[[It's All Gone Pete Tong]]'' (2004), after BBC radio disc jockey [[Pete Tong]] whose name is used in this context as rhyming slang for "wrong"; ''[[Green Street Hooligans]]'' (2005). In [[Margin Call (film)|''Margin Call'']] (2011), Will Emerson, played by London-born actor [[Paul Bettany]], asks a friend on the telephone, "How's the trouble and strife?" ("wife").

''[[Cockneys vs Zombies]]'' (2012) mocked the genesis of rhyming slang terms when a Cockney character calls zombies "Trafalgars" to even his Cockney fellows' puzzlement; he then explains it thus: "''Trafalgar square – fox and hare – hairy Greek – five day week – weak and feeble – pins and needles – needle and stitch – Abercrombie and Fitch – Abercrombie: zombie''".

The live-action [[Disney]] film ''[[Mary Poppins Returns]]'' song "Trip A Little Light Fantastic" involves Cockney rhyming slang in part of its lyrics, and is primarily spoken by the London lamplighters.

In the animated superhero film ''[[Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse]]'' (2023), character [[Spider-Punk]], a [[Camden Town|Camden]] native, is heard saying: "I haven't got a [[Scooby-Doo|scooby]]" ("clue").<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-09 |title=How Daniel Kaluuya's Cockney-Speaking, Authority-Defying Spider-Punk Came to Life |url=https://www.gq.com/story/spider-punk-daniel-kaluuya-across-the-spider-verse |access-date=2023-06-11 |website=GQ |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Television ===

Slang had a resurgence of popular interest in Britain beginning in the 1970s, resulting from its use in a number of London-based television programmes such as ''[[Steptoe and Son]]'' (1970–74); and ''[[Not On Your Nellie]]'' (1974–75), starring [[Hylda Baker]] as Nellie Pickersgill, alludes to the phrase "not on your Nellie Duff", rhyming slang for "not on your puff" i.e. not on your life. Similarly, ''[[The Sweeney]]'' (1975–78) alludes to the phrase "Sweeney Todd" for "[[Flying Squad]]", a rapid response unit of London's Metropolitan Police. In ''[[The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin]]'' (1976–79), a comic twist was added to rhyming slang by way of spurious and fabricated examples which a young man had laboriously attempted to explain to his father (e.g. 'dustbins' meaning 'children', as in 'dustbin lids'='kids'; 'Teds' being 'Ted Heath' and thus 'teeth'; and even 'Chitty Chitty' being 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and thus 'rhyming slang'...). It was also featured in an episode of ''[[The Good Life (1975 TV series)|The Good Life]]'' in the first season (1975) where Tom and Barbara purchase a wood-burning range from a junk trader called Sam, who litters his language with phony rhyming slang in hopes of convincing suburban residents that he is an authentic traditional Cockney trader. He comes up with a fake story as to the origin of Cockney rhyming slang and is caught out rather quickly. In ''[[The Jeffersons]]'' season 2 (1976) episode "The Breakup: Part 2", [[Harry Bentley (character)|Mr. Bentley]] explains Cockney rhyming slang to [[George Jefferson]], in that "whistle and flute" means "suit", "apples and pears" means "stairs", "plates of meat" means "feet".

The use of rhyming slang was also prominent in ''[[Mind Your Language]]'' (1977–79), ''[[Citizen Smith]]'' (1977–80), ''[[Minder (TV series)|Minder]]''<ref>{{cite book |author=Hawkins, Brian |year=2002 |title=The Phenomenon That Was Minder |publisher=Chameleon Press |isbn=978-9628681211 }}</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2017}} (1979–94), ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]'' (1981–91), and ''[[EastEnders]]'' (1985–). ''Minder'' could be quite uncompromising in its use of obscure forms without any clarification. Thus the non-Cockney viewer was obliged to deduce that, say, "iron" was "male homosexual" ('iron'='iron hoof'='poof'). One episode in Series 5 of ''[[Steptoe and Son]]'' was entitled "Any Old Iron", for the same reason, when Albert thinks that Harold is 'on the turn'. Variations of rhyming slang were also used in sitcom ''[[Birds of a Feather (TV series)|Birds of a Feather]]'', by main characters Sharon and Tracey, often to the confusion of character, Dorian Green, who was unfamiliar with the terms.

One early US show to regularly feature rhyming slang was the Saturday morning children's show ''[[The Bugaloos]]'' (1970–72), with the character of Harmony ([[Wayne Laryea]]) often incorporating it in his dialogue.

=== Music ===
In popular music, [[Spike Jones]] and his City Slickers recorded "So 'Elp Me", based on rhyming slang<!-- (without the hemiteleia)-->, in 1950.  The 1967 [[Kinks]] song "Harry Rag" was based on the usage of the name [[Harry Wragg]] as rhyming slang for "fag" (i.e. a [[cigarette]]). The idiom made a brief appearance in the UK-based DJ reggae music of the 1980s in the hit "Cockney Translation" by [[Smiley Culture]] of [[South London]]; this was followed a couple of years later by Domenick and Peter Metro's "Cockney and Yardie". London-based artists such as [[Audio Bullys]] and [[Chas & Dave]] (and others from elsewhere in the UK, such as [[The Streets]], who are from Birmingham) frequently use rhyming slang in their songs.

British-born M.C. [[MF Doom]] released an ode entitled "Rhymin' Slang", after settling in the UK in 2010. The track was released on the 2012 [[JJ Doom]] album ''[[Key to the Kuffs]]''.

Another contributor was [[Lonnie Donegan]] who had a song called "My Old Man's a Dustman".  In it he says his father has trouble putting on his boots "He's got such a job to pull them up that he calls them daisy roots".<ref>{{cite web |title=My Old Man's a Dustman |url=https://genius.com/Lonnie-donegan-my-old-mans-a-dustman-lyrics |website=Genius Lyrics |access-date=8 August 2020}}</ref>

=== Literature ===
In modern literature, Cockney rhyming slang is used frequently in the novels and short stories of [[Kim Newman]], for instance in the short story collections "The Man from the Diogenes Club" (2006) and "Secret Files of the Diogenes Club" (2007), where it is explained at the end of each book.<ref>{{cite web | author = Newman, Kim  | date = 18 June 2014 | title = ''Cult'': A Shambles in Belgravia | website = BBC.com | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/shamblesinbelgravia1.shtml | access-date = 26 January 2017 }}</ref>

It is also parodied in ''[[Going Postal]]'' by [[Terry Pratchett]], which features a geriatric Junior Postman by the name of Tolliver Groat, a speaker of 'Dimwell Arrhythmic Rhyming Slang', the only rhyming slang on the [[Discworld (world)|Disc]] which ''does not actually rhyme''. Thus, a wig is a 'prunes', from 'syrup of prunes', an obvious parody of the Cockney ''syrup'' from ''syrup of figs – wig''.  There are numerous other parodies, though it has been pointed out that the result is even more impenetrable than a conventional rhyming slang and so may not be quite so illogical as it seems, given the assumed purpose of rhyming slang as a means of communicating in a manner unintelligible to all but the initiated.

In the book ''[[Good-Bye to All That|Goodbye to All That]]'' by [[Robert Graves]], a beer is a "broken square" as [[Royal Welch Fusiliers|Welch Fusiliers]] officers walk into a pub and order broken squares when they see men from the Black Watch. [[The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada|The Black Watch]] had a minor blemish on its record of otherwise unbroken squares. Fistfights ensued.

In [[Dashiell Hammett]]'s ''[[The Dain Curse]]'', the protagonist exhibits familiarity with Cockney rhyming slang, referring to gambling at dice with the phrase "rats and mice."

Cockney rhyming slang is one of the main influences for the dialect spoken in ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' (1962).<ref>{{cite news |title=A Clockwork Orange and Nadsat |url=https://www.anthonyburgess.org/a-clockwork-orange/a-clockwork-orange-and-nadsat/ |access-date=28 June 2022 |work=AnthonyBurgess.com}}</ref> The author of the novel, [[Anthony Burgess]], also believed the phrase "as queer as a clockwork orange" was Cockney slang having heard it in a London pub in 1945, and subsequently named it in the title of his book.<ref>[http://www.malcolmtribute.freeiz.com/aco/review.html ''Clockwork Orange: A review with William Everson''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120710224804/http://www.malcolmtribute.freeiz.com/aco/review.html |date=10 July 2012 }}. Retrieved: 2012-03-11.</ref>

=== Sport ===
In Scottish football, a number of clubs have nicknames taken from rhyming slang. [[Partick Thistle F.C.|Partick Thistle]] are known as the "Harry Rags", which is taken from the rhyming slang of their 'official' nickname "the jags". [[Rangers F.C.|Rangers]] are known as the "Teddy Bears", which comes from the rhyming slang for "the Gers" (shortened version of Ran-gers). [[Heart of Midlothian F.C.|Heart of Midlothian]] are known as the "Jambos", which comes from "Jam Tarts" which is the rhyming slang for "Hearts" which is the common abbreviation of the club's name. [[Hibernian F.C.|Hibernian]] are also referred to as "The Cabbage" which comes from Cabbage and Ribs being the rhyming slang for Hibs. The phrase Hampden Roar (originally describing the loud crowd noise emanating from the [[Hampden Park|national stadium]]) is employed as "What's the Hampden?",<ref name = "roar">{{cite news|first=Martin|last=Hannan|access-date=16 July 2011|newspaper=[[New Statesman]]|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/199909200026|title=Sounds of scandal on the terraces|date=20 September 1999|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110111070900/http://www.newstatesman.com/199909200026|archive-date=11 January 2011}}</ref> ("What's the score?", [[idiom]] for "What's happening / what's going on?").<ref name = "roar"/><ref>[https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/what-s-the-score#google_vignette what's the score?], Cambridge Dictionary</ref>

In [[rugby league]], "meat pie" is used for [[Try (rugby)|try]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nrl.com/news/2009/08/18/stats-insider-chasing-the-elusive-meat-pie/|title=Stats Insider: Chasing the elusive 'meat pie'|date=18 August 2009|work=National Rugby League}}</ref>