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What does the biscuit mean?

24 replies

Wingingthis · 22/12/2018 23:46

New to mumsnet. Biscuit what does this mean?

OP posts:
DramaAlpaca · 22/12/2018 23:50

Officially it means 'no comment', but it really means 'I think you are being a complete twat & I can't be bothered to engage with you.'

So if you get one, it's not good Grin

WineIsMyCarb · 22/12/2018 23:50

It's used as a weapon - thrown at people for being (or being perceived as) dicks.
It doesn't go with the Brew, that's sincere!

Singlenotsingle · 22/12/2018 23:54

It means, " this really takes the biscuit!"

BalloonSlayer · 23/12/2018 03:53

It means "no comment."

It came about because Gordon Brown did a webchat when he was PM.

It had become traditional for webchat guests to be asked what their favourite biscuit is. Probably partly because GB has very poor eyesight, most of his answers were written in advance to tge questions posted in advance and cut-and-pasted into the thread (you could tell) and he didn't really respond to the ones asked on the day.

Posters started to repeat the question about biscuits. It was seen as very hilarious but was actually a bit sixth form and rather embarrassing.

The fact that he had refused to answer a question about biscuits made the national press and even Have I Got News For You. So a man whose eyesight was so poor he could see the questions popping was made to look a fool, unfairly, and Mumsnetters who had the opportunity to ask the Prime Minister any number of searching questions but chose instead to focus on biscuits also looked fools- fairly.

GB (more likely his team) popped back to the thread in the following week to say sorry and reveal what biscuits he liked.

MNHQ introduced the biscuit emoticon shortly afterwards to represent "no comment" in a - in my view at any rate - rather feeble attempt to make a joke about what was not really Mumsnet's finest hour.

As a PP has said though it tends to mean "you are such an arse I can't be bothered to reply to you but I want you to know that I can't be bothered."

BalloonSlayer · 23/12/2018 03:55

Should say "whose eyesight was so poor he couldn't see the questions popping up"

MyOtherProfile · 23/12/2018 04:16

I thought it meant arsehole.

That's horrible about GB. At least he did a web chat. Has TM ever done one?

jessstan2 · 23/12/2018 04:37

Aw, how could people be so stupid and nasty to Gordon Brown? Honestly.

The info about the biscuit emoji is useful, I thought it was just a friendly gesture, giving someone a biscuit instead of Flowers and Wine :-).

Shows what I know. I am now enlightened.

SpoonBlender · 23/12/2018 05:09

I'm way more recent here than Gordon Brown, and the modern usage I've seen has always been "I think OP is a troll". Or occasionally another poster, but usually the OP.

MaybeDoctor · 23/12/2018 05:29

It’s all a bit meaningless now and rather embarrassing that it is still hanging around to be honest.

The PM is online. Do you really care what kind of biscuits they like?

bibbitybobbityyhat · 23/12/2018 05:45

It means "no comment" but not everyone understands that - as witnessed by the variety of replies on this thread.

Cauliflowersqueeze · 23/12/2018 05:52

Not sure TM has time for a web
chat about biscuits at the moment.

LadyRochfordsFrostedGusset · 23/12/2018 05:57

I have yet to "biscuit" anyone. Am I missing out?

FestiveNut · 23/12/2018 05:58

I use it as, 'Your thread is not worthy of comment.' Usually when the thread in question is so unreasonable that it beggers belief. For added impact, you can give your first ever biscuit. Look at how it's used and you get a general idea.

FestiveNut · 23/12/2018 05:59

Keep your first biscuit, Lady Rochford. Save it for a worthy thread and then say, 'Have my first ever Biscuit'

You'll know when it's time.

MyOtherProfile · 23/12/2018 09:17

@Cauliflowersqueeze that's why I asked if she had ever done one, not if she would do one right now. And I wouldn't be asking her about biscuits. I'm genuinely interested in knowing if she has done one. It would be a pleasant surprise given how much sue usually avoids actually talking to the public.

Afonavon · 23/12/2018 09:21

Ooh interesting. I always though it was kind of...well things are about to kick off and I shall sit back, eat a biscuit and watch it all unfold from afar.

MargotMoon · 23/12/2018 09:33

Oh I didn't know about the Gordon Brown thing, how shitty.

I always thought it was posted as a non-reply by someone who thought the poster was a troll, as in 'here troll, have a biscuit' (ie I'm not going to feed your trolling by writing a response)

Bluesheep8 · 23/12/2018 09:56

I thought it meant "that takes the biscuit"?

BalloonSlayer · 23/12/2018 10:02

To be fair, I don't think posters were being malicious towards Gordon Brown. His eyesight issue was very much covered up in the press. The webchat came across as very unspontaneous - great swathes of party political broadcast would be posted in response to political questions which an individual couldn't possibly have typed in the time and all the lighthearted questions went unanswered. Hence the explosion of biscuit questions - they were posters trying to get him to lighten up and engage in a more relaxed manner. He might have ignored them because he is a stuffed shirt but I think he didn't answer them because he didn't see them, because questions were being filtered by a researcher as he couldn't read the screen at MNHQ. (From time to time you could get a glimpse of his speech notes and they were in the most enormous font.)

In contrast David Cameron did a couple of webchats and was very natural and engaging and very forthcoming about biscuits.

beanaseireann · 23/12/2018 10:13

I think it's daft that it's a put down. I love biscuits. Most people do. You give biscuits to your friends when they call round to your house for a cuppa and s chat.

MaidenMotherCrone · 23/12/2018 10:19

Been here many, many years and have never given a biscuit. I’ve never done a LTB either.

I like to think they are handed out to idiots Grin

I’m saving mine for a special idiot, I came very close recently but just couldn’t do it.

DonDrapersOldFashioned · 23/12/2018 10:20

It isn’t flattering

DonDrapersOldFashioned · 23/12/2018 10:23

I don’t think i’ve ever given one, they aren’t especially imaginative.

BalloonSlayer · 23/12/2018 10:41

Gordon Brown webchat

David Cameron webchat

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