To hate - I lived in a box in the middle of the road....

[brasty]

Yes I know it comes from a sketch about competitive poverty. But it is most often used to shut down and silence people talking about poverty.

I’ve no idea what you’re on about but hopefully someone will be along in a minute ...

TAAT

Is there a link @brasty?

TAAT

It's about the thread on someone's DH who who claims poverty - it started out as a joke on the the four yorkshiremen sketch till people started speaking about actual poverty

And yes it is used to shut people up because knowing people who experience poverty are the same as everyone else makes some people uncomfortable

Ha ha. I know what you mean. Yesterday I was listening to the radio they spoke about oxbridge discriminating against students from deprived backgrounds saying even those applicants from state school had parents who were in professional or managerial roles.

It made me wonder about the friends I've had who went to Oxford- dad a builder, mum an admin assistant. They must be considered the deprived ones yet they were comfortable, home owners, 2 car, 3/4 child families and I grew up thinking that was fairly normal

It's a funny sketch. I personally don't find it offensive at all and I grew up fairly poor.

Here's the original sketch:

Yes that is the sketch. Sorry I thought it was pretty well known.
I often see on MN and elsewhere, people quoting the sketch to stop people talking about poverty and the reality of it.

And the sketch is not offensive, it is talking about competitive poverty. What is offensive is when people use it to shut people up when they are talking about poverty.

I thought the line was used to take the piss out of people who do try to shut it down?

The same way if someone talks about taking a day off work when ill, someone will often jokingly post along the lines of "staying off with a sickness bug?! My legs fell off and I still dragged myself to work" before you get the dozens of posters who do tell OP to "woman up" and get on with it, since they did the same when worse off.

Not entirely sure why you are deriding this sketch, have to take your funny where you can find it when poor. Structural inequality is a valid concern, but I don't get the equation

I’m with weird. I find it’s more commonly used to take the piss out of people who try to make it a race to the bottom.

But ta, that made me laugh a lot

I get what you mean, but it's an odd thing to take target at.

I have never heard that expression but people do seem to like a bit of poverty top trumps.

It's more about human nature than poverty