- Hey guys, so today I have my good friend Callum with me.
- Hi! - [Hannah] So over on
Callum's channel, he's doing this massive month
of loads of LGBT themed videos.
We did a video about gay slang,
- Gay slang. - [Hannah] Callum tested me
on my gay slang knowledge.
We don't know how well that went yet, we've not filmed it.
But I thought that I would test Callum
on his Polari knowledge.
- Now what is Polari Hannah?
- Well Callum (laughing) Polari is a gay language
from the 1960s, when being homosexual was still illegal.
So it was very much an underground, secret language.
- And they had to hide it from the police and
potential homophobes, so they have this whole
little language going on. - [Hannah] Yes.
- I know nothing of it. - [Hannah] It has loads of
different origins, so there's English backward slang,
there's rhyming slang, there's some Italian, some Yiddish,
Gypsy languages, - [Callum] Wow.
- The West End, theater language as well, so...
- I've always been really really interested in this as well,
so I'm really excited to learn about it.
- So I've got some words here, Callum has to guess
what the word means, but, Polari is so awesome,
that actually, a lot of words that we now use in English
day to day, come from Polari...
- So just in the gay world, or...
- In just... - [Callum] General English.
- General English language. - [Callum] OK.
- Eek. - Well I wanna say it's like
being scared, like if you see a mouse,
but I'm guessing it's not that.
- It's not a sound effect. - [Callum] Eek, eek,
maybe is it like some very small penis?
Like he had a little eek? - [Hannah] Final answer?
- Yeah. - [Hannah] No, it means face!
- Ah! - [Hannah] Because it comes
from backwards slang, so face backwards is ecaf,
and then it's shortened to eek.
- Wow, that's amazing, that's super interesting!
- Ey, get a look at 'is eek! - [Callum] His eek is so,
I just wanna jizz all over his eek!
(laughing)
- Brilliant! - [Callum] Brilliant,
good, good stuff. - [Hannah] Varda.
- Varda, see this sounds like face as well.
Is it like body, he's got a hot varda, look at his varda
I just wanna rub my hands all over his varda.
- You actually said what the English is in that sentence
but not the right part... - Heart, is it heart?
- No. - [Callum] Sexy?
No what did I say? - [Hannah] Look at his varda.
- Look at his varda?
Oh is it look, like varda, oh!
- To see or to look! - [Callum] To look, yeah!
- What is a Betty bracelet?
- Betty bracelet, is it like a fag hag?
Like a fag bangle, no?
So you're not my Betty bracelet.
- No I'm not your Betty bracelet.
- What is it like an actual bracelet or something you wore
to say that you were gay?
Is it like the handkerchief code or something?
- No. - [Callum] Oh is it a
Betty bracelet, that's somebody who's into bondage?
Like he is such a Betty bracelet?
- No. - [Callum] No?
- Think about what you were saying before about
why they needed it to be a secret language?
- Because of the, oh!
Betty bracelet is a police officer.
- It's a police woman! - [Callum] Oh oh!
Betty bracelet's on the way.
- 'Cause it's like, bracelet, handcuffs.
- Yeah, oh. - [Hannah] Palare pipe.
- Palare pipe, is it like a, I feel like maybe dildo?
- (giggles) Not all of these are rude.
- It's not like, drugs, is it to do with drugs?
- Think about the word palare, what's the language called?
- Polari, so it's something to do with the language itself.
- Kind of. - [Callum] Palare pipe,
oh is it a telephone? - [Hannah] Yes!
- Oh! - [Callum] Oh, yeah!
- It's something, a pipe that you talk through!
- The polare pipe. - [Hannah] Ogles.
- Ogles, like to ogle somebody?
- Mm close. - [Callum] Is it breasts?
- It's a noun. - [Callum] Not breasts.
- Mm mmh. - [Callum] Somebody's balls?
- No. - [Callum] Cute boys?
Look at those ogles?
- What do you ogle at people with?
- Eyes, your eyes are your ogles!
- I'm helping you out way too much.
We're not doing points, 'cause, the main point here
is learning, it's not a competition.
- This is really interesting, 'cause I thought 'cause it was
a gay language, it would all be to do with sex.
- A lot of them are, but the ones that are about sex
you probably would'a known.
Gonna do one where I'm gonna give you three words.
- OK. - [Hannah] And you'll know
what all of them mean, but one of them comes from Polari.
- OK, cool, awesome. - [Hannah] Mug,
- Yep. - [Hannah] Plate,
- OK. - [Hannah] Fork.
- I'm gonna guess mug is Polari,
- What do you think it means? - [Callum] Face.
For somebody's face, you know how we say, look at his mug?
- Yeah. - [Callum] Final answer.
- You're wrong! - [Callum] Oh!
- It's plate, plate comes from Polari, it comes from
rhyming slang, so you say a plate of meat,
so it means feet, plate can mean feet.
But also it has another meaning, 'cause plate also
rhymes with fellate. - [Callum] Oh!
- You finally got a sex act! - [Callum] Oh a rude one!
Oh so, oh OK. - [Hannah] Yeah, so
plate can mean feet or blowjob.
- I do like a bit of plating.
I'm gonna start using these in just general conversation
with you. - [Hannah] Please do.
We can have our own secret language.
You might know this one, 'cause we still do use
this one today. - [Callum] OK.
- Glossies. - [Callum] Glossies, is that
like the yellow pages? - [Hannah] Kind of, close.
- Like the, oh magazines! - [Hannah] Yeah!
- Oh glossies! - [Hannah] Glossies!
- Oh that's cute. - [Hannah] That's a
Polari word.
Which one of these words is Polari?
- OK. - [Hannah] Fantabulosa,
grand, spiffing. - [Callum] I think it's
probably the first one, grand is Irish.
Spiffing sounds very sort of cockney.
So I'm gonna guess it's fabuloso.
- Fantabulosa! - [Callum] Fantabuloso!
- Just means great, means fucking brill.
Last one, bod. - [Callum] Bod, hot bod.
- Pecs. - [Callum] Pecs.
- Crack.
- (laughing) Uh, I'm gonna guess it's bod
is the Polari word. - [Hannah] Yeah!
- And does it mean, like hot bod?
- Yeah it just means body, yeah.
- I like that you got crack in there.
- There's actually some other things that were on this list
that I couldn't figure out how to test you on them.
But that I thought were really interesting.
So, camp is a Polari word... - [Callum] Yes I knew that,
yeah. - [Hannah] But in Polari,
it's originally spelled with a K, and it means
known as male prostitute.
- Seriously, is that where camp comes from?
- That's what the internet told me.
- Wow, the internet's full of information!
- Naff. - [Callum] Naff, like rubbish?
- Yeah, meaning rubbish.
It means not available for fucking.
- No I don't believe that, I do not believe that
for a second!
That's a bit naff.
- That's a bit naff, he's a bit naff!
- My grandma would use that word.
- Exactly that's why Polari is so cool.
- Everyone uses it now. - [Callum] Wow.
- Also, one of the things I love is that bona means good.
So you know if something's like bonafide...
Not boner. - [Callum] Ah, OK.
- Bona, bona.
- (laughing) Boner means good in my world too.
(laughing)
- Mine too. - [Callum] Good.
- Good, good good, bona!
- Bona, brilliant.
We just got very excited about the word bona.
- Riah, - [Callum] Riah.
- Means hair. - [Callum] Riah as in, Rear...
- No, R-I-A-H. - [Callum] Oh, OK, riah,
means hair. - [Hannah] Means hair.
Because it's backwards, if you think about it.
- Hair, rhi, oh, so it is! - [Hannah] Yeah, so it's
backwards slang, I think you can still find
some hairdressers... - [Callum] Called riah?
- Called bona riah.
- Wait what did... - [Hannah] Good hair!
- Oh good hair, bona riah.
Sounds like a gelateria gone very wrong
or very right. - [Hannah] Bone.
- A rear, oh! - [Callum] A rear, oh!
(laughing)
- We're so childish. - [Hannah] Brilliant.
- I'm not naff. - [Hannah] Me neither.
(laughing)
End of video!
Thank you guys for watching, please give the video
a thumbs up if you enjoyed it.
And let us know your favorite Polari words in the comments.
- Or contribute some new ones if you know them.
- Yes. - [Callum] We'd love to
see them. - [Hannah] That would be
really cool, and don't forget to subscribe to Callum,
and check out the video that we did over there.
- Tada, fantabuloso. - [Hannah] OK bye!
- [Callum] Bye!
- [Hannah Voiceover] Just a quick little announcement,
I am hosting a screening of Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone this Sunday in London.
If you are around, it would be lovely to meet you
and watch Harry Potter together.
There is a link in the description where you can
buy tickets, and I hope to see you there, bye!