common
My parents told me that plants with ostentatious flowers
were common. Also piano concertos were common. Non common plants included all plants without flowers and music that was uncommon included string quartets.
(melodious, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 16:31, 1 reply)

The Legend that is Prince Philip
The Worlds most Uncommom common man?


He told a Briton he met in Hungary in 1993: "You can't have been here that long - you haven't got a pot belly".

The Prince angered local residents in Lockerbie when on a visit to the town in 1993, he said to a man who lived in a road where 11 people had been killed by wreckage from the Pan Am jumbo jet: "People usually say that after a fire it is water damage that is the worst. We are still trying to dry out Windsor Castle."

During a Royal visit to China in 1986 he described Peking as "ghastly" and told British students: "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed."

He said of Canada: "We don't come here for our health. We can think of other ways of enjoying ourselves."

At the height of the recession in 1981 he said: "Everybody was saying we must have more leisure. Now they are complaining they are unemployed."

In 1966 he provoked outrage by saying: "British women can't cook."

Commenting on stress counselling for servicemen in a TV documentary on the 50th Anniversary of D-Day, he said: "It was part of the fortunes of war. We didn't have counsellors rushing around every time somebody let off a gun, asking `are you all right - are you sure you don't have a ghastly problem?'. You just got on with it."

Personal remarks have annoyed singing stars. In 1969 The Duke said to Tom Jones after the Royal Variety Performance: "What do you gargle with, pebbles?".

At a private lunch given 30 years ago he said he thought Adam Faith's singing was like bath water going down a plug hole.
(The Archduke of South London I'm in your Girlfriend eating her organs, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 16:18, 8 replies)

my old fella etc
Mum - common
Mummy - posh
Dad - common
Daddy - posh
settee - common
sofa - acceptable alternative
pardon - very common
what? - acceptable alternative
cutlery - common
knives and forks - acceptable alternative
minGer - common
cunt - posh
(VicePresidentOfTheFunk, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:49, 1 reply)

Surely it's a non question......
As the only real differentiation between people on this muddy ball of shit is Cunt or Not Cunt.

This has always been an easy one for me to work out - me = not cunt, everyone else = cunt.

However, I've recently decided, along with everyone else, that I'm a cunt too.

Trust me, when you come to realise that everyone = cunt, common or not common is a triviality which you don't throw a dribbling globule of sperm at.
(NoveltyCondomHead Clanks Wams., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:44, 1 reply)

I don’t know if this is common anywhere else....
But after this weekend, where I was forced to endure a night in the company of my wifes old schoolmates and their partners I realised that a common event in every secondary school in the Barnsley area is that they had a schoolkid in their yeargroup that did some unspeakable sexual act on a household pet (Usually a dog).

Rather than label Barnsley as the beastiality capital of Britain (we have enough problems as it is) , I live in hope that this is a national schoolyard lie made up by kids that can’t think of anything more creative than " Chris H once bummed a dog for a fiver ".
(mon bison powered by magnets, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:43, 15 replies)

Mercedes drivers.
I have found the drivers of the fine German quality automobile called the "Mercedes" to be more "Common" than other motorists. I ride a motorbike, and it would seem that the class of motorists that elect to encapsulate themselves in this particular brand of vehicle, have less of a regard for other peoples lives than other users of the road-network. Only the other day, one specimen of the species decided it was superfluous to requirements to check his rear-view mirror before changing lanes, thus nearly confining me to an early grave. I have learnt over the years to be extra careful when approaching:
- Mercedes cars.
- Cars where the driver wears a burberry cap.
- Cars with a Jamaican flag displayed ANYWHERE on the vehicle.
I would like to make the hypothesis that: "Peoples driving-skills are linked to how common they are." (People that are NOT common, seem to have a higher regard for the life and safety of people around them.)
Having said that, my lovely mum gave me her old car when she bought a new one, and it was a nice old Mercedes, a lovely, old 190 petrol, manual. And you know what? No bugger would EVER let you in, when I was driving the battered old Micra, people would stop, flash their lights and wave you on; "Come on mate, you may go in front of me" In the Merc, people would go out of their way to cut me up.
(Lump, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:41, 7 replies)

I've been generally keeping out of this one.
I guess I've been staying quiet because, in all honesty, I'm about as common as they come. I'm from an area I've seen referenced a few times in here, down in the southeast part, and am very much aware of my shortcomings.

I've been self-conscious about my background for years now, and have been doing my best to improve myself. I think I've managed to tone down my accent a bit, and have been paying attention to matters of etiquette and the like. I try to keep my bodily functions discreet and am careful of what I say, and try to avoid broad humour.

I don't think anyone would ever mistake me for being posh- at best I might hope to be thought of as middle class.

But after reading this week's QOTW, I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit low. Please, if you see someone who's at least trying to improve, have some patience. Not all of us were born knowing proper manners. Some of us are trying desperately to catch up.
(Shimrod, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:40, 8 replies)

common Northern girl
Watching 'Strictly Come Dancing' is deeply common. What makes it even more common (for those of us that pronounce English correctly) is that ghastly female co-presenter constantly talking about 'cooples', 'joodges', 'resoolts' etc. I bet she went to a comprehensive and not to a boarding school. Why can't she shut her common face?
(VicePresidentOfTheFunk, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:13, 8 replies)

For breakfast
I'm eating a Pop Tart.

'Nuff said.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:06, 20 replies)

crime
If at least one person in your immediate family has a criminal record of something other than non-custodial traffic offences.

Extra points if someone has done time more than once.
( sandettie light vessel automatic New Twitter - @bollocksreally, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 15:03, 1 reply)

Intonation
Infuriating and very common :)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal
(pard, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:55, 4 replies)

Bit of a pearoast, but...
Once had my (now long dead) batty great aunt Dorothy to stay. For a month.

She'd never done a stroke of work in her life, and everybody else in the whole world - particularly those in the service industries or the entertainment business was either "Common", a "Jew", or both. Watching TV with her was an education to say the least.

So... sat through an episode of poor, dead Top of the Pops one Thursday evening, back in the days when it was good. She sat tight-lipped and seething through any number of soul artists and (my memory might be playing tricks here) "Babylon's Burning" by The Ruts, but one thing happened that made her explode in anger.

It was Orchestral Maneouvres in the Dark. Limp, somewhat fey OMD, doing some soppy number from their latest long-player.

"Look!" shouted Aunt Dorothy pointing at poor, not dead Andy McCluskey, "Look at him!"

"What? What is it?"

"It's a disgrace! His shirt tails are hanging out! No wonder this country's going to the dogs!"

And she was right. Fifteen years later he gave us Atomic bloody Kitten.

Shooting's too good etc etc etc...
( Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:36, Reply)

Common People
Surely the love for Saint Princess Diana, the queen of our hearts, is common.

Well it is when I'm whacking my manly kabanos off her tomb. Wallop, howzat!
(Purplebastard, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:28, Reply)

Someone....
left a used condom, tied up, and placed just under my car. This morning I stood on it as I was getting in the car. It squelched. I didn't know what it was at first, thought it might have been snail, but a snail wouldn't have the rubbery-squelchy-feel that this did. I looked down to see what it was, and immediately recognised it by the jizz-filled-narrow end.

Finding the fruit skins of love under my car is not common. However, shagging your bird up against someone's back fence, then casting your dna sample aside on the way home is, at least it was for me in my teenage years.

{sighs, and misses teenage years)
( Piper Alpha is being a grumpy northerm bastard on:, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:16, 3 replies)

My broad northern accent is surely holding me back
in the search for a better job. Common, it is, liken unto shite.

So as I can't afford elocution lessons at £25 an hour I've sent off for a book/CD self-help set from Amazon.

I'll let yous know how I get on, like.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 14:03, 14 replies)

I'm not sure what to make of this one....
...but on the one hand, a bar called "Cocktails & Dreams" does, admittedly, sound common.

Yet, the sign outside seems to suggest otherwise.



PS. Not quite sure how they hope to stay in business, welcoming their patrons in such a way.

EDIT: Changed to 'family friendly'.
(dchurch bah, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:57, 7 replies)

People who go to Iceland*
for their entire weekly shop :(






*yes, the supermarket, not the sub-polar money pit you pedantic cnuts
(Sloppy Giuseppe, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:55, 2 replies)

I'm watching

a Jeremy Kyle double bill on ITV 2.

That is all.
( Mrs Entity is in hiding., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:34, 10 replies)

You know who I think are really common?
People who will only drink Champagne out of a specimen jar;
Short, stout women in brightly coloured hats walking Afghan hounds in snoods;
Policemen with visible panty lines;
Waiters that spit in your food as they're serving it;
Dustmen that whistle 1970s hits as they pick up the wheelie bins;
Female weight-lifters and ballet dancers that wear their tampon strings outside their leotards;
Buskers that wink and tip their caps when you drop a £1 coin in their guitar case;
8 year olds that fart silently during funeral services;
Smokers that hold their pens like cigarettes in meetings and have a faraway look in their eyes;
Teenagers that haven't mastered the art of skulking, but pretend that they have;
Radio journalists that listen to the voice in their headphones instead of their interviewees;
Male hairdressers who pretend they're straight;
People that still wear Tom Baker/Dr Who scarves and army greatcoats;
Midwives in petrol blue that chuckle to themselves audibly on the underground....

...or have I misunderstood the question, like everyone else?
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:29, 10 replies)

I don't want to sleep with common people like you
Okay- small rant.

It's not that I think people with Croydon Facelifts wearing Kappa tracksuits and the like are lesser people just for their appearance. However, they do happen to be the same people who spit on the street, scream and talk sooo loudly about every detail of their lives (I reaaaally don't need to hear about your sexual escapades or alternatively whose face you're going to smash in).

And bringing a new life into the world just so they can qualify for a council house and benefits- aghhhhhh.

With regards to pretension, this season I am hating those guys and girls in their skinny jeans and oversized sunglasses all striving to be "alternative" wittering on about "random" things like pirates- oh FUCK OFF. A boyfriend of one of my friends wore a bumbag on a recent night out and received the exact reaction he was hoping for. "Oh WOW he's wearing a BUMBAG- that's do craaazy and mental". Most of the photos of that night are centered around said bumbag.
You're not alternative, your clothes are from H&M- mass production = common, sorry.

Sorry that was a fairly irrelevant rant.

Oh well, back to work!

(Edit: hate is strong, they're decent enough people but I wish they would just calm down and not try so hard... The End)
( awayfromthenumbers, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:04, 3 replies)

Queen Convention 2007
The band, not some cross-dressing meet btw!

Anyway, this paticular one took place at Brean Sands in Somerset, at of all places, Pontins. Halfway thru the night I decide its time for another smoke and cart my drunken self outside.

There I walk into the middle of a conversation that I will take to my grave. I hear a woman in her 40s say the immortal line " I give t'best gob job around i do" following up with " I love things in't ma p*ssy!" (Is that a decent typed version of a yorkshire accent?)

Dear god that was common.
(Krizla6.9, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 13:01, 5 replies)

Soap bar.
Not decent hash or pollen, but soap bar.

The kind you used to be able to buy for £30 an ounce.

Why would anyone spend money on this? It may be cheap, but it doesn't work! It actually physically does not get you stoned.
(Half of Stephen Fry's right buttock pissed on your dog on, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 12:58, 7 replies)

pots calling kettles....
My stepdaughter has just joined a facebook group called something like "Make people do community service to qualify for the dole rather than just getting it."
Now, putting aside for the moment the quite amazing idea that there is enough community service for everyone thats unemployed (even if you discount the ones who genuinely can't get a job rather than just being workshy)...
She is 18.
She left school in 2006, scraping together a few GCSE's despite the fact that she'd only gone there for about a third of the final year, so its not like she's thick or unqualified.
Since then she has had two attempts at further education, both lasting less than a month, and approximatly two weeks paid employment.
But when I accused her of joining a group she couldn't really justify joining, her reply was "but I was never claiming the dole, tyvm".
No, you expected your mum and me to buy you everything, to put meals in front of you, to help you tidy your room, to clean out your pets, god forbid you should find the time in your busy online lifestyle to actually go and sign on and give us some of the money when we're finding it difficult to get money together for bills.

Now she's at college, living in most of the week, but visiting here or her boyfriends at the weekend with the occassional trip to her dad or grandma if she's skint !!
(paof2 Nude might not be rude, but rude could be nude..., Wed 22 Oct 2008, 12:48, 9 replies)

Me when I was a kid apparently...
... according to the "posh" ones at the Girls Grammar school I went to, just because I came from a council estate.

On the other hand, just because I went to the Girls Grammar, I was picked on for being a posh cow by the local chav..err..comprehensive school kids from the estate.

Bit of a no win situation my early teens were :/
(SlightlyInsane, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 12:01, 2 replies)

Now now, B3ta, not everyone is awful.
I feel I need to defend people a bit.

It seems us B3tans think that everyone and everything younger than us is common, so let me tell you a heartwarming story that broke through even my cynicism about the youth of today.

One of my old jobs in my chequered employment history was on a factory assembly line.

Now I’m sure that any of you that have been to school in Britain will remember being dragged round on a factory visit to see how industry works or whatever the point of those trips is.

As a kid, I actually quite enjoyed it, but as a worker those days were among the most dreaded of our working lives.

I shared the commonly held in B3taland view of these unbearably out of control little brats with no manners and no appreciation for other people.

Almost without exception they were a bunch of common little shits.

One day was different though, there was a small group that came round, and, lo and behold, you could just tell they were from very well to do families.

There was a girl who was extremely discerning in her tastes in food, a young lad with an encyclopaedic knowledge of film and TV that put mine to shame. There was one boy who was admittedly a tad overweight, but I just put that down to the fact that he obviously had money for a luxury diet and, finally, the cream of the crop, one delightful young lady who you could just tell was from a privileged background, she just had breeding, she knew what she wanted from life and was going to do her utmost to get it.

All in all, it was an eye opening experience, and just goes to show that you shouldn’t lump everyone in together.

The only thing I couldn’t figure out was why they were hanging round with a pikey bugger called Charlie
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:35, 12 replies)

Television
I don't have a television. It's not any form of snobbishness, nor do I look down on those who watch it all the time; I just don't think it's worth the money. If there's anything on, I get my laptop and put iPlayer.com on.

I'm sorry.

So very, very sorry.
(ThomsonsPier consumes, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:34, 7 replies)

I am a filth pig
I drink quite a lot of tea while I'm at my desk (and when I'm not: I can often be seen wandering around Manchester with a large mug of the stuff). I've just been for a refill.

Now, my mug gets washed only once a week on average, just before the Monday morning cuppa. This week, I forgot. That means that it's a little browner than usual inside. (Hell, anything that survives immersion in boiling water several times a day deserves the right to make its home there.)

So: there I am in the SCR, idly looking out of the window and checking my post while the kettle boils. Also in there is one of the professorial staff. "Shall I fill your mug, Enzyme?" he asks.
"Ooh. Ta."
"I haven't touched it."
"Huh?"
"I don't think I'll catch any diseases from it."

I think that's code for "You're a disgusting scruffy waste of space and I regret having been on the interview panel that gave you your job."
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:22, 10 replies)

socks , hankies , photographs of strangers , close personal friends , sandwiches and on a particularly energetic day , my own chin.
some of the things Ive cum on
( horace wimp needs more than 49 characters to fully express hi, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 11:16, 5 replies)

Common
I had to go to the doctors the other day because I couldn't stop singing Tom Jones songs.

He looked at me wearily and said it was fairly common.

Oh.


Hang on.
(Pickettywitchfinder General, Wed 22 Oct 2008, 10:43, 4 replies)