# Explain to me this joke in "Yes Minister" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2004, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993 "2004-03-13T00:38:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/21 "2004-03-15T17:03:17Z")
> [@aankh](#): > > On a related note, am I the only one who thinks that _iYes Minister_ and _Yes Prime Minister_ are the absolute pinnacle of humourous wordplay? Nope, I also feel the same way about the series. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/22 "2004-03-15T17:42:51Z")
> [@Patr100](#): > > Yes, you are right , **still a notch up from the civil servants** … Not if you ask Sir Humphrey. > [@](#): > > Hacker: Bernard, Humphrey is not God! > Bernard: Of course not, Minister. Err…will you tell him, or should I? ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/23 "2004-03-16T09:06:57Z")
> [@Bippy the Beardless](#): > > Nope, I also feel the same way about the series. And so do I. Recently in the UK they’ve had this thing on about a vote for the best British sitcom. It was a tough call to make between this and Blackadder, but Minister got my vote in the end. And I had to cheat to do it and pretend to be living in the UK on the website. But I guess that would be alright with Humphrey. 🙂 IMO anyone who voted for the Vicar of Dibley is out of their mind. But that’s a different thread altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/24 "2004-03-16T10:32:01Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > And so do I. Recently in the UK they’ve had this thing on about a vote for the best British sitcom. It was a tough call to make between this and Blackadder, but Minister got my vote in the end. And I had to cheat to do it and pretend to be living in the UK on the website. But I guess that would be alright with Humphrey. 🙂 IMO anyone who voted for the Vicar of Dibley is out of their mind. But that’s a different thread altogether. Butt shirley … Fawlty Towers? Gottabe, right? ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/25 "2004-03-16T11:04:25Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > Butt shirley … Fawlty Towers? Gottabe, right? Nope. Nr 3 Minister and Adder. And, while I’m busy hijacking, Spaced and Black Books might have beaten Towers too, but not the other two. However, they weren’t in the list of comedies you could vote for. ---
**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/26 "2004-03-16T11:05:44Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > Nope. Nr 3 Minister and Adder. And, while I’m busy hijacking, Spaced and Black Books might have beaten Towers too, but not the other two. However, they weren’t in the list of comedies you could vote for. Correction. Nr 3 AFTER Minister and Adder. Humphrey would never make those kind of errors. ---
**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/27 "2004-03-16T11:12:18Z")
At first when I saw the list I thought I would go for _Blackadder_ but thought that _Fawlty Towers_ would probably win because it is also excellent, but then I saw a re-run of _Yes Minister_ and it was just so funny and also incredibly clever and sharp and neatly put together. It was almost in a league of its own really. Anyway that’s a bit of a hijack - sorry. To get back to the discussion regarding balls - I always thought they (and bollocks) were testicles - not For instance a guy mught say ‘I got hit in the balls/ bollocks - it was agony’. That said, saying something is a load of balls or bollocks is basically saying it is a load of rubbish in a more emphatic (and perhaps more crude) way. ---
**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/28 "2004-03-16T11:13:29Z")
That should be ‘I always thought they were testicles - not balls of bullshit.’ Apologies… ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/29 "2004-03-16T11:26:28Z")
> [@PookahMacPhellimey](#): > > And I had to cheat to do it and pretend to be living in the UK on the website. Yes, people in Ireland are rather good at that sort of thing… ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2004, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993/30 "2004-03-16T19:06:19Z")
> [@YoudNeverGuess](#): > > That should be ‘I always thought they were testicles - not balls of bullshit.’ > Apologies… I didn’t mean that they were literally balls of bullshit. What I meant was that “balls”, meaning testicles, has a slang meaning that is the same as the slang meaning of “bullshit”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-to-me-this-joke-in-yes-minister/233993.md?page=1)