The lyrics from the Streets’ songs have enlightened me to a lot of Brit slang, but one reference from the song “Empty Cans” just went over my head.
Here’s the confusing part-- the context is that the protagonist thinks a television repairman is trying to wring more money out of him.
I knew it was a simple case of the power supply gone on the back,
but he’s trying to tap me up for more money.
He says its not like that and I’m like fuck off and die, And stick up my two fingers and one more to make three.
Okay, not the most scholarly stanza ever committed to the English language, but that aside…
Think of a peace sign or “V for Victory”, but with the hand turned the other way (palm facing you). Now do it quickly with a flicking motion and a few choice words, and you’ve got it. (I owe that bit of my cultural education to Red Dwarf)
Also known as a ‘Harvey Smith’, after a horseriding celebrity of the same name used it (in)famously on TV (many years ago when such things were rather less accepted).
Well I’m a Brit and I’ve been puzzling that line since I heard it. I like the two-hand theory - flipping the bird is now pretty rude this side of the pond too.
And before anyone says so, it’s nothing to do with English archers having those two fingers cut off after being captured by the French. If you weren’t worth ransoming you were summarily executed, not maimed and released.
No, the problem with the Snopes article isn’t the silly ‘pluck yew’ thing - it’s that the real myth didn’t involve cutting off fingers at all, but simply that English knights would wave their two fingers at the French, showing off about their superior archery. Nothing in Snopes discredits this.
I wouldn’t bother trying to make sense of anything The Streets say (in fact I’m a bit embarressed you’ve heard their stuff in the States), most of it is simply to rhyme.
And who took it seriously? I guess my “age of 14” qualification equally applies to all arrested at the mentality of a stroppy teenager. That includes Liam Gallagher.
