to think most people would understand who Pinnocchio is despite Boris Johnson's dad saying they wouldn't

[chomalungma]

Maybe they can't spell the name.
But they know the idea. A liar.

His dad is upset his son, who has been sacked for lying before, is being called Pinocchio. He claims the British public don't have the literacy to understand it.

Well that would require a degree of social and cultural awareness, which I think the average upper class snob doesn't necessarily have...

I thought that Pinocchio was the younger brother of Prosecco

Sadly I think he’s right. The reference would sail right over most people’s heads.

Astral not sailed over my head but then I was a working class, single parent, labour voter, living north of Manchester.

Stanley and Boris, the two "C's" in Pinocchio.

Sadly I think he’s right. The reference would sail right over most people’s heads.

But it's a Disney film... As a cultural reference, it's up there with calling someone with big ears "Dumbo", after Dumbo the elephant!

Sadly I think he’s right. The reference would sail right over most people’s heads.

It has. This thread only goes to prove the point.

But it's a Disney film 😂

Well, what fine point of culture do you think we're missing, Snoozy?

chomalungma, wow, BJ's dad really does look a bit like Trump in that thumbnail....

Anyway, we don't need to know how to spell Pinocchio any more. We just need to be able to spell Boris. (Though I do LOVE that Facebook meme.)

In many ways BoJo is nothing like Pinocchio, because Pinocchiofaced the consequences of his lies, learned to tell the truth and redeemed himself, while BoJo never has.

But the basic metaphor, that a liar is a 'Pinocchio', is something that most people would recognise. The spelling is immaterial.

His main objection was that it should not be possible to call the PM a liar. And on that point he is massively wrong. If we can't call our politicians to account, what sort of country are we living in? There is evidence that BoJo has lied on a large number of occasions. He appears to do it almost habitually.

I want to know which other classical fairy tales and children's books Johnson père thinks are obscure and unknown to the British public, because he doesn't realise Disney did a version.

Hans Christian Anderson's the Little Mermaid? Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Cinderella?

@JamieVardysHavingAParty

The tale of the wooden puppet Pinocchio created by a carpenter in Florence may arguably be the most widely-known children's tale. Now new research reveals that the story, written by Carlo Collodi 130 years ago on July 7, 1881, has deep roots in reality*

Disney is a bit of an afterthought.

Astralweaks What are you quoting and why are you quoting it?

Ah, never mind. I think I get it. You are genuinely under the impression that because I pointed out that it is a popular Disney film, and it doesn't need much literacy to make references to it, I must not know that it was a book.

If this is indeed the case, I feel this says more about you than me.

Especially as I already discussed having read it earlier in the thread. Although not in the original Italian, so I lose culture points for that.

not in the original Italian

You are obviously a slouch and an intellectual pygmy, sorry

You are obviously a slouch and an intellectual pygmy, sorry

Yup.

Actually, mind you, I think it's probably a better book in Italian! As I remember it, the version I read was dry with clunky prose; that is, clunkier than other English children's books from the same period. In retrospect, that might very well have been a bad translation.

Boris's Dad has better hair than him

Stanley has great hair.

He has a hairbrush and he doesn't think it reflects on his masculinity to use it.