As a proud Scouser, I do have to mention some more negative examples - Harry Enfield’s “Calm down, calm down” and “Eh, eh, eh, eh!” and the Yosser Hughes “Gis a job”.
These popularised (mis)characterisations that the people from Liverpool are largely unemployed (the implication being they are simply job shy generational abusers of the benefits system and/or thieving scallies constantly on the scrounge), as well as aggressive, loud, gobby, overly sensitive, inarticulate cadgers.
Sadly, these outdated and untrue stereotypes still persist today. As a football fan and Everton season ticket holder I’ve witnessed it first hand. In fact, I can’t count the number of times away fans visiting Goodison Park have treated us to a spirited rendition of “Sign on”, the festive special “Feed the Scousers” or even Man Utd fans’ ode to their player Ji-sung Park that exalts the fact that Chinese people eating dog meat “could be worse: you could be Scouse, eating rats in your council house.”
Hilarious eh? Perhaps made even funnier given Park is actually South Korean, not Chinese. But why worry about a bit of casual racism against a player on your own team when there’s a gilt edged chance to remind fans of an opposing club that they are nothing more than impoverished scumbags.
It’s disgraceful behaviour and there’s no excuse for it in this day and age. Thankfully, Everton have handled it with the dignity and grace so lacking from the fans involved in the nonsense; displaying the logo for Fans Supporting Foodbanks on the stadium’s big screens every time a poverty chant is heard.