# Whence "More tea, vicar?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482 "2007-08-22T12:32:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/1 "2007-08-22T12:32:14Z")
You know, the stock “polite company” phrase, usually used facetiously to cover an awkward silence when someone drops a gaffe at the dinner table or in similar posh surroundings. Does anyone know where it comes from? A play, a book, a film? Or is it just one of those little clichés that popped up out of nowhere? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/2 "2007-08-22T18:42:04Z")
One bump or two? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/3 "2007-08-22T18:45:45Z")
[Here?](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=More+tea+Vicar) ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/4 "2007-08-22T18:47:43Z")
It comes from Whitehall farce. A cliché (probably never actually said) in which characters in the farce are attempting to cover up an embarrassing incident while an important/respectable personage is in the room. Unfortunately “Whitehall farce” has become such a hackneyed political columnists’ phrase that I can’t actually find anything about the actual plays, and there’s no Wikipedia entry. You might look up Alan Ayckbourn, but I think he followed Whitehall farce as an homage, rather than contributing directly to the genre, which I dimly recall from my drama degree as being huge in the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2007, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/5 "2007-08-22T20:59:55Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] …and there’s no Wikipedia entry. [/QUOTE] Closest I could find is a Wikipedia entry for [Brian Rix](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Rix,_Baron_Rix) who ran a theatre company at the Whitehall. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/6 "2007-08-23T18:55:42Z")
I don’t know if this has anything whatsoever to do with it, but the juxtaposition of “tea,” and “vicar,” and wily shenanigans in an indisputably English setting arises in Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1877 operetta, _The Sorcerer_. At a village feast celebrating the betrothal of his son, Sir Marmaduke urges his guests to enjoy themselves and to partake in a spot of tea: > [@](#): > > ``` > Eat, drink, and be gay, / Banish all worry and sorrow, > > ``` > > Laugh gaily today, / Weep, if you’re sorry, tomorrow! > Come, pass the cup 'round / I will go bail for the liquor; > It’s strong, I’ll be bound, / For it was brewed by the vicar! > It’s strong, I’ll be bound, / For it was brewed by the vicar! The chorus chimes in: > [@](#): > > None so knowing as he / At brewing a jorum of tea, > Ha! ha! ha! ha! > A pretty stiff jorum of tea. There is, to the best of my knowledge, no implication being made here that the Vicar has spiked the tea with alcohol. That the tea actually _has_ been spiked (with a powerful love philter, as it happens) is a plot point as yet unknown to Sir Marmaduke and the members of the chorus. Whether the eschewal of alcohol in favor of tea on the part of the clergy was a common image in the Victorian mind, I cannot say with any certainty. But that would be my guess. Mr. Gilbert, possessed of a keen eye for satire, seems to be banking on the recognition of this characteristic as the basis of a joke that otherwise makes no sense. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/7 "2007-08-23T19:40:44Z")
I remember the line being used as a repeated line in a British sitcom [Potter](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078670/), only memorable because it starred Arthur Lowe. Can’t swear this is the earliest usage, but it’s certainly where I heard it. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/8 "2007-08-24T00:27:02Z")
In my exalted circles, we have started using “Another bun, your Eminence?” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/9 "2007-08-24T06:40:55Z")
[QUOTE=glee] In my exalted circles, we have started using “Another bun, your Eminence?” 🙂 [/QUOTE] We usually say “Good one, I’ll pay for that” ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/10 "2007-08-24T06:46:06Z")
Me, I usually ask the youngest person present, “Did you hear a duck?” Tris ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/11 "2007-08-24T15:20:16Z")
If a dog is present, then an alternative is “Bad dog, Rover!” ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2007, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whence-more-tea-vicar/416482/12 "2007-08-24T16:27:04Z")
To cover up embarassing lapses and conversational gaps in my vicinity, I sometimes use “So… how about those Blue Jays?” You can, of course, fill in the name of a different sports team.