To have only just understood this pun...

[Cardboardeaux]

In a book I'm currently reading, a character talks about putting some coffee on the hob "to perk". I hadn't heard that use of the word "perk" before but it obviously derives from "percolate".

But then I realised... Central Perk (the coffee shop in Friends)!

Obviously I got the "Central Park" bit of the pun but it has taken me 25 years to get the "Perk" bit.

AIBU to think I can't be the only one not to have twigged?

Yeah some of the other replies are quite funny.

"Hitting me where it hurts, my ski skills!"😉

Wait until you start reading hairdressers and chip shop names on the High Street...

The word ‘perk’ is common in UK English as in ‘a perk of the job’ or ‘it perks you up’. I’m mid-40s and have never heard ‘perk’ in relation to using a coffee percolator. I don’t think that’s a reflection on my intelligence.

Clearly it isn’t fucking obvious given the amount of people on this thread who didn’t know it.

OK, I should have said ‘several’. IIRC we had one in the early 80s, a blue ceramic thing.

Thank you for understanding.

I have seen them but didn’t know what they were called. Americans don’t use kettles do they?

Yes we all know what perk means but in the case of Cental Perk it's a play on the word " perculate"

I didn't know either! But I'm British so that's my excuse 😊

Yes they were quite common even in the UK up until the 80s (my parents only used it when guests came round tbh) but calling it a perk has never been common in the UK, which might be another reason why people didn’t make the connection.

People used to say the coffee was ‘perking’! Some of them anyway. Most MNers will never have heard that, though.

Indeed, I know of a 'curl up and dye' hairdressers and the politically incorrect 'a salt and battered' fish shop although this was many years ago !

I am really surprised so many didn't get this, I wasn't a fan and hardly watched it but picked this up straight away but agree maybe it's because percolating isn't how we tend to make coffee now so the word isn't used much.

No need to be nasty, the OP asked a question and I answered it.

Nothing wrong with different views, that's the point of a forum.

I beg to differ.

Oh don’t be a knob

Personally I'd far rather not get the pun and be considered to lack intelligence than be a twat who feels the need to post such an unnecessarily rude comment but maybe that's just me...

Beg to differ. Honestly, I got the joke on day 1. No, not showing off but I think it might be an age thing. Those of us in our 60s are very familiar with coffee percolators, first episode of Friends 1994 so 30 yrs ago. Coffee percolators now a thing of the past. Anyone under 30, possibly never seen or used one.

Rude comment? The only rude comment I can see is you using the word “twat”.

Just as well you don’t mind being shown up as lacking intelligence.

Who knew a MN thread in 2024 about 90’s sitcom would bring that comment out of you? 😂

How was your comment not rude? You begged to differ that it wasn't a reflection on the posters intelligence.

I just thought that coffee perks you up due to caffeine. But that's now even more clever!

That’s just how I roll.

Happily, I am secure in having adequate mental faculties despite any gaps in my knowledge of not-widely-used slang related to preparing hot drinks. Mumsnet really is weird sometimes!

The one that took me about a million years to get was Birdseye potato waffles.

Central perk isn't obvious to a standard English speaker and people pulling a superiority flex over friends is fucking hilarious. Of all the things you're gonna pretend you knew 😅

Oooh that's done my head in - I hate double negatives - now I can't work out which way to vote but I hadn't worked it out (even though I'm normally quite good with puns)

Same! Who says ''Percolate?''I too thought it was because it perked one up.