Misterduncan's Full English 36 / word definitions / Listen with captions / Improve your listening

ahoy-hoy what a strange thing to say at the start of a new lesson well it might

seem strange now but did you know that after Alexander Graham Bell invented the

telephone he thought that saying hello when

answering a call would be confusing for the person at the other end of the line

so he suggested that people say ahoy-hoy instead that's a fact and you

can put that in your hat hi everyone and welcome to another full english lesson

yes we are all here together again to share our love of the English language

so without any more hanging on the line let's get over today's full English

lesson which will start around about...

now!

a man goes to the doctor he says doctor doctor I feel like a pair of curtains

and the doctor replies Oh pull yourself together

there is nothing I enjoy more than having a good laugh if I find something

funny then it is hard for me to hide my amusement

something funny amuses me the funny thing is amusing they say that laughter

is the best medicine when you are feeling sad and this might very well be

true however saying something you find funny can sometimes get you into trouble

sometimes making a joke about something can get you into hot water there are

many words relating to jokes and humor such as comedy which defines anything

done for the amusement of others a comedy act will perform something

funny then there is clowning or clowning around which describes the act of not

being serious you are playing for Laughs you are

clowning around a carnival performer who acts in a ludicrous way for the

amusement of an audience is a clown we might describe a person who always acts

the fool and never takes anything seriously as a clown

he always disrupts my lessons by acting the clown in class we wasted a whole day

clowning around with party balloons another word relating to humour is

comedian which is a person who tells amusing stories and jokes for a living

then there is a comedienne

which is the term used to describe a female comedian

although these days the word comedian is often used for both male and female

comedy performers a joke is a story with a humorous ending the funny part of a joke

is called the punchline or tagline it is the climax of a joke or story

another word that can be used to mean joke is gag you tell a gag you stand up and tell gags

a person who stands on a stage to tell jokes is called a stand-up comedian they perform stand-up comedy

their act is called a routine which is a carefully rehearsed comedy performance I saw one

I saw one of the funniest comedy routines ever last night I'm off to the comedy club

tonight to see some new routines

if a group of people are performing a short funny play with a humorous story then this is called a sketch if someone is

making a joke about a famous person or a well-known organisation such as the

government then this is called satire lampooning spoofing or sending up

a well-known celebrity or politician might be on the receiving end of a satirical sketch

the comedy performers are poking fun at the well-known person

to perform a humorous version of something serious can be described as a spoof

the movie 'This Is Spinal Tap' is a spoof of the rock music industry

then there is tongue-in-cheek humour which makes fun of something in an ironic or insincere way

the thing being watched seems to have a serious tone but it is not to be taken

seriously it is all done tongue-in-cheek it would be fair to say that a joke

which is funny to one person might not be funny to another it might even be

considered by some to be offensive each one of us has a slightly different

feeling when we hear the same joke being performed it all depends on what is being said and who is saying it

I can't believe you find Doug Stanhope funny he is so rude

I don't understand why you dislike Doug Stanhope so much he is hilarious

this is what we call our sense of humour some people will laugh at anything

whilst others will hardly ever laugh at all it is yet another

fascinating piece of the human emotion puzzle that makes us all the individuals we are

do you have a good sense of humour what makes you laugh do you know any good jokes?

here's an interesting English phrase that you might hear used from time to

time especially in a situation where authority and responsibility is being

discussed the phrase is pass the buck to pass the buck means to place

responsibility for a mistake or misjudgment on to someone other than you

you try to cover your own error by placing the blame on another person to

avoid doing something by passing the task on to someone else is to pass the buck

you avoid responsibility for your own bad judgement and laziness the action

can be described as shirking your responsibility to shirk is to evade something

you try to wriggle out of something by placing the blame on someone else

you can't wriggle out of this mess by passing the buck a person might be willing to accept responsibility by

stating that the buck stops here all responsibility is being accepted for

whatever happens be it now or in the future you are stating that you will not

shirk your responsibilities during my time as manager I promise that whatever

happens the buck stops here you are accepting responsibility for any

negative outcome the phrase pass the buck derives from a small object that

was placed on a table during a poker game to show who was dealing the cards

it was often a commonly carried object such as a knife with decorative antlers

antlers are horns that you see on a male deer which is called a buck the phrase

came into being during the late 19th century to accept responsibility is to

say the book stops here to avoid responsibility or to push an unwanted

task onto another person is to pass the buck

whilst we are on the subject of animal idioms here is another interesting

phrase that is often used in a situation where blame is being pushed on

to someone else the word is...

scapegoat

'scapegoat' is a noun that means to be blamed for the wrongdoing of another person the blame

is being put on that person unfairly they are being made a scapegoat in a

situation where time is limited a person might be blamed so as to save time it is

convenient to blame that person they are the scapegoat

the accident investigators need a scapegoat for the cause of the crash

I will not be your scapegoat

however convenient it might be

as a verb you can scapegoat someone by actively placing the blame on them

the person blamed has been scapegoated

the word scapegoat relates to the biblical fable of the sins of the people being cast

into a goat which was then forced away into the wilderness

the word itself comes from the archaic use of 'scape' which means 'escape' you might say that

you might say that passing the buck and being used as a scapegoat are similar in both action and meaning

it's time to look at another buzzword a buzzword is a word or phrase that is

popular during a certain period of time or is generally popular

today's buzzword is...

clickbait

the word clickbait is a noun that means a post on the internet

that uses sensational photos or stories as a way to encourage someone to click

on a website promotion or a news story the online posting of an intriguing

story or photograph that is designed to encourage a person to interact directly

with it by clicking on the attached link is clickbait a typical clickbait link

will often use false information or a misleading photograph to lure a person

into clicking on it with their mouse the item often involves a story about a

celebrity or an outrageous event or occurrence the person clicking cannot

resist finding out what the story is about more often than not the link will

take them to a page of advertisements or worse still a web page containing a

computer virus it would be fair to say that clickbait is very prevalent

nowadays on the internet

whatever you do don't click on that link it's just clickbait

nowadays clickbait appears on all corners of the web from news alerts

on major web sites such as Yahoo to the very videos appearing right here on

YouTube clickbait uses overblown statements and hyperbole to persuade web

users to click on their links however as time goes on it would appear that people

are becoming wiser to this online scourge and are able to spot the fake

links more easily have you ever encountered clickbait on the Internet

what was the consequence

one of the most frustrating parts of living in this modern age must be the

amount of information we are expected to read and absorb to make matters worse

sometimes this information is written in such a confusing way that it becomes

unintelligible the words used are incomprehensible and perplexing it is

hard to grasp what is being explained to you we call this type of information

jargon the word jargon means a specific type of terminology that relates to a

certain subject some of the words used in one area of a particular subject can

be described as jargon I don't understand this letter I received from

my lawyer it's full of legal jargon don't try to

blind me with your science jargon just give it to me straight to follow a list

of instructions that have been given to you might force you to learn some of the

jargon to master how to operate this device I will need to learn some

computer jargon the jargon being read isn't fully understood it is too

esoteric it relates to a specialist field

the thing being read is unintelligible it is all gobbledygook it makes no sense

as far as you can tell it's just a load of mumbo-jumbo a letter from your lawyer

or doctor might contain lots of jargon an advanced textbook on a particular

subject might contain lots of confusing jargon the operating instructions of a

piece of technology will almost certainly contain lots of lovely

technical jargon we will often ask for the information to be simplified and

explained in plain English that we can easily understand just give it to me

straight without all the jargon some might say that the one good thing about

jargon is that it forces us to learn new things and absorb new information this

might be true however in this fast-paced age of new information

appearing almost on a daily basis it might be time to lessen the technical

terms cut down on the gobbledygook lay off the confusing terminology and

ease off the use of jargon

please!

they say all good things must come to an end

this means we have come to the end of today's full English lesson but don't cry dry

that eye because I will be back very soon with another lesson don't forget to

hit that subscribe button and activate the notifications so you'll never miss

another one of my lessons be they live or recorded this is misterduncan in the

birthplace of English wishing you well and all that remains for me to say is

ta ta for now 8-)

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