But is it actually funny?
In the fifth form at school there was this guy transferred in from somewhere else. He was a fairly unremarkable, though drippy, kid, and soon became the object of some minor league teasing. As soon as we discovered he had an Irish passport he became Seamus. Wow that's a good 'un.
After school he went to Uni in Northern Ireland where he was surrounded by loads of English kids who got their through clearing. (so not the sharpest you might suspect.) Anyway given that our lad is from a nice middle class background and has been living in London for some years his nice middle class RP accent gave them cause to call him 'Posh John' or simply 'PJ' for short.
After Uni he returns to London, and not wishing to hang out at his crazy Irish mother's house, he starts lurking around mine. My recently acquired wife got a bit fed up with his constant presence and soon nicknamed him 'Sputnik': "Cause he's your bloody satellite, he's always in your damn orbit." Of all the nicknames that was the one he didn't like, even though I thought it was the best.
Me, I've never really had a nickname, but now they all call me Mister....Steve. That's cool, I think it lends me a certain gravitas that I don't normally possess.
(Mr Steve is jobless and fancyfree!, Thu 18 May 2006, 20:53, Reply)