Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not like the expression 'good egg' being used to refer to a persons character

155 replies

giraffeupatree · 16/03/2016 09:29

It is being used in the Co-op's Easter advert on the radio. It makes me wince each time I hear it.

Am I being far to politically correct?

I'm assuming that the marketing department of the Co-op have not researched the origins of the expression?

OP posts:
Original poster
giraffeupatree · 16/03/2016 10:02

your are being too PC! Good! I'm actually glad about this, I have a close friend who gives me grief for not being PC enough. I am not offensive at all but there are many entirely 'normal' expressions that are off limits for her.

OP posts:
BoomBoomsCousin · 16/03/2016 10:02

I do wonder if threads like these increase racism. Making links between words that the vast majority of the population didn't have, increasing people's focus on the negative, reframing communication so that it has a racist pov when it didn't before. Etc.

If this were a phrase that people from non-white backgrounds found offensive, or that had been shown to be attached to negative talk about minorities it would be be worthwhile. But publicizing a little known and tenuous connection seems to be the opposite of adressing discrimination.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 16/03/2016 10:03

Well it's totally possible egg and spoon was Cockney rhyming slang for racist language. However the phrase "good egg" seems to be pretty unrelated to Cockney rhyming slang. What about "bad egg" or "curate's egg"?

I have never heard a black person referred to as an egg.

OurBlanche · 16/03/2016 10:03

You have now, Tinkly Smile

JanetOfTheApes · 16/03/2016 10:04

there are many entirely 'normal' expressions that are off limits for her

I bet she's a bundle of fun at parties.

JassyRadlett · 16/03/2016 10:06

Giraffe, the phrase is first noticed in the US around the time of the Civil
war, and not in the UK until around 50 years later. This undermines your theory a bit (and the reports about Met Police talk about concerns that the term could be linked to 'egg and spoon', not because it was derived from it ie inherently racist in origin).

MoonfaceAndSilky · 16/03/2016 10:07

but there are many entirely 'normal' expressions that are off limits for her.

Such as?..............

hmcAsWas · 16/03/2016 10:07

What Janet said

She sounds rather hard work!

blearynweary · 16/03/2016 10:07

It means the opposite of a 'bad egg'

dont be silly!

givemushypeasachance · 16/03/2016 10:08

Or teaching your grandmother to suck eggs.

Banning all phrases featuring the word egg because it might theoretically be used in one situation to refer to a racist slur us the same as banning all phrases featuring the word black because that could sometimes be used in a racist context. So no ba ba black sheep, because unpleasant people sometimes use the term "black bastard"... it's the same level of being way OTT for fear of causing offence.

BertrandRussell · 16/03/2016 10:08

The only reference I could find was the Manchester Guardian one too. Which clearly said that nobody was disciplined or anything, and a spokesman said something vague about having to be sensitive in the use of language. Which, frankly, if I was part of the police force involved int he Stephen Lawrance enquiry, I would say about anything. But the expression is apparently jot on their banned list.

Wodehouse used it in 1915, apparently.

senua · 16/03/2016 10:09

Is this a joke yolk?
It's not April 1st, is it?

PaulAnkaTheDog · 16/03/2016 10:10

I want to know what else your friend doesn't like being said...

BertrandRussell · 16/03/2016 10:12

"Am I being far to politically correct?"

No you're not. As far as I am concerned you're not being politically correct at all.

Provide some proper references and I might think again. I can't find any.

BertrandRussell · 16/03/2016 10:14

"your are being too PC! Good! I'm actually glad about this, I have a close friend who gives me grief for not being PC enough. I am not offensive at all but there are many entirely 'normal' expressions that are off limits for her."

Like what?

ExConstance · 16/03/2016 10:17

My son's school used to have a silver egg cup awarded each year to the pupil who was the best egg.

Oldprof · 16/03/2016 10:18

This is just being silly. No rhyming slang involved. It's about the special qualities of eggs.
Look it up.
Old Punch cartoon("True Humility" by George du Maurier, originally published in Punch, 9 November 1895). shows a nervous curate having a boiled egg for breakfast at the Bishop's palace.

Bishop: "I'm afraid you've got a bad egg, Mr Jones"; Curate: "Oh, no, my Lord, I assure you that parts of it are excellent!"

The point is that an egg can't have good and bad bits. It has to be totally good or totally bad. So a good egg= a totally OK person.

Life must be really unnerving for OP if anything can blow up in their face as a Bad Thing To Say.

FirstWeTakeManhattan · 16/03/2016 10:18

Am I being far to politically correct

I'm assuming that the marketing department of the Co-op have not researched the origins of the expression

Since virtually no one else was aware of 'the origins' (I've certainly never heard it), how did you stumble upon it?

I don't think you're politically correct or incorrect. I think you're trying to attach a very negative meaning to a widely used and completely benign phrase.

I feel slightly uncomfortable about this to be honest.

Notimefortossers · 16/03/2016 10:23

Yes you're being ridiculous and I say that as a woman married to a black man with 4 mixed heritage children

Original poster
giraffeupatree · 16/03/2016 10:26

I feel slightly uncomfortable about this to be honest. Then you are overacting massively, because if you actually bother to read my previous posts you will see that this: I think you're trying to attach a very negative meaning to a widely used and completely benign phrase is not the case at all.

Call me stupid, oversensitive...fine, fill you boots. But please don't suggest that I trying to turn an innocent phrase into a racist slur. I am not.

OP posts:
AdrenalineFudge · 16/03/2016 10:26

The problem with seeing offence in this type of thing is that it erodes focus from the core issue at hand of racism. If people get themselves in knots over whether or not it is appropriate to use the term 'good egg' then they entirely miss real racism that affects people with the added benefit of having people dismiss it as political correctness gone mad - again, missing the core issues surrounding racism. This is really a case of not seeing the wood for the trees.

JanetOfTheApes · 16/03/2016 10:27

. But please don't suggest that I trying to turn an innocent phrase into a racist slur. I am not

Are you sure? Because you haven't said how you have formed the opinion about it having dodgy origins. It seems like you have plucked this idea pretty much out of the air, and then are telling other people they should be aware of it....

Original poster
giraffeupatree · 16/03/2016 10:28

And for those of you who don't have all of the OPs comments hi-lighted in a different colour so that they are easy to read:

giraffeupatree Wed 16-Mar-16 10:02:21
your are being too PC! Good! I'm actually glad about this, I have a close friend who gives me grief for not being PC enough. I am not offensive at all but there are many entirely 'normal' expressions that are off limits for her.

OP posts:
Mamadothehump · 16/03/2016 10:28

DD's teacher used this expression to describe her during parents evening. I thought it was sweet so for that, YABU

PaulAnkaTheDog · 16/03/2016 10:30

People being overly pc is as depressing as people not being pc enough.

Swipe left for the next trending thread