Shiitake mushrooms comedy sketch

Photo by frankenstoen, at Wikimedia

Shiitake (/ʃɪtɑ:kɪ/ or /ʃɪ:tɑ:kɪ/) are edible mushroom native to East Asia, which are cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. They are a feature of many Asian cuisines including Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. In the East, the shiitake mushroom has long been considered a delicacy as well as a medicinal mushroom. (Wikipedia)

They were also the subject of a short sketch in the popular British comedy series, The Catherine Tate Show, featuring Yorkshire couple 'Janice and Ray'.

Janice and Ray are a couple from Yorkshire, in the North of England, who express their disgust at the various signs of multi-culturalism in their very British circle. They often get annoyed with restaurants and bakeries, due to their perception of over-pricing or the exotic nature of the food such as grapes in a brie cheese sandwich or the use of French bread instead of good old-fashioned British white sliced (none of this fancy organic stuff for them!).

Ray likes to repeat things, but turning the word order around. He has has a couple of catchphrases - Listen to this! and the one he always finishes with - The dirty bastards! (adapted from Wikipedia)

Yorkshire dialect

This dialogue has several features of Yorkshire dialect

• the letter u in words like pub is pronounced like "oo" in foot (ʊ rather than ʌ)


• the word the is sometimes replaced with t' - t'first thing on the menu


• members of the family are often refered to as "our" - Have you seen our Susan?


• some non-standard verb forms are used:

Exercise 1 - write in the standard form of the verb in each sentence

1.	We was on our way to see our Valda
2.	So we gets in to the pub
3.	Then he read what were in it

Before you watch the video, do this exercise:

Exercise 2 - Match the beginnings and endings

1.	Listen			a	words!
2.	Well, I don't know where			b	is easily upset or shocked by things which they find unpleasant
3.	Ray hadn't brought his driving			c	soup
4.	A ring road is a road that			d	specialises in good food
5.	To stop to ask for			e	served with pineapple
6.	A gastropub is a pub that			f	glasses
7.	On the menu was mushroom			g	to this!
8.	Shiitake			h	a kind of seafood
9.	Gammon (a type of ham) is often			i	mushrooms
10.	Famous last			j	goes round a town or city
11.	Someone who is squeamish			k	to start.
12.	Whitby crab is			l	directions

The humour of this sketch is not so much in the main joke (which you might see coming) as in the way it's done: the repetitions, the unimportant little details they think so important, and the idea that what happened was such a big deal.

Now watch the video on YouTube once without looking at the transcript (it will open in a new tab), and then come back here. Now look at the transcript, and then watch again.

Show transcript

Ray:	Listen to this!
Janice:	Well, I don't know where to start
Ray:	Where do you start?
Janice:	We was on our way to see our Valda
Ray:	She just moved to Beverley
Janice:	She used to live on Bronzo(?)
Ray:	Yeah, they don't need to know that.
Janice:	So, anyway, we're on our way to see our Valda and we had to keep stopping because Ray hadn't brought his driving glasses
Ray:	I'm usually alright, but they'd just put in a new ring road, so ...
Janice:	So anyway we stopped again to ask for directions and we noticed we were opposite t'pub
Ray:	Listen to this!
Janice:	So we thought we'd better have something to eat before we get there because Valda's one of these vegetarians
Ray:	They don't eat meat!
Janice:	So we cross over to this pub, it looked alright from the outside, didn't it?
Ray:	Oh. Famous last words
Janice:	So we gets in, and there's a sign saying, it was, what did they call it?
Ray:	A gastropub. Don't ask!
Janice:	So we sits down and we looks at the menu
Ray:	Listen to this!
Janice:	Well, t'first thing on the menu was mushroom soup, well Ray liked the sound of that, didn't you?
Ray:	Yeah. Not for long
Janice:	Then he read what were in it.
Ray:	Listen to this!
Janice:	When he read what sort of mushrooms they were ...
Ray:	This is unbelievable!
Janice:	What were they called?
Ray:	Dried Shit Ache mushrooms
Janice:	You went mad didn't you?
Ray:	Dried Shit Ache mushrooms
Janice:	You don't want that in soup, do you?
Ray:	Shit Ache mushrooms, dried
Janice:	You don't want it in anything
Ray:	Now I've eaten everything, right, from Whitby crab to gammon with pineapple on it, so I'm not squeamish. But I'm not eating anything that has got dried shit in the title – No way!
Janice:	This is in Beverley!
Janice:	The dirty bastards!

map-generator.net

Map showing Beverley, in Yorkshire. from Map-Generator.net

Answers

Related posts

Gastropub is a British expression beginning to be used in the US. You can do a quiz based on these Britishisms here.

Other posts with material related to comedy videos

• Sam and Paul (The Catherine Tate Show)


• Four Candles (The Two Ronnies)


• Gerald the gorilla (Not the Nine O'Clock News)


• Going for an English (Goodness gracious me)


• Mr Mann's disappointed horse (Little Britain)


• The Subprime Crisis (The Long Johns)

Tweet

Jangan sampai ketinggalan postingan-postingan terbaik dari OBAT KUAT ALAMI | 51B333E5. Berlangganan melalui email sekarang juga:

Atau sobat juga bisa follow OBAT KUAT ALAMI | 51B333E5 dengan mengklik tombol di bawah ini:

Artikel keren lainnya:

• Inversion with so, such and as - exercises
• Fronting exercises (with a bit of subject-verb inversion)
• Let's cook!
• My diet
• Welcome back to school
• Vocab game - Food collocations (mainly British) quiz
• Video lesson - Stonehenge
• Shiitake mushrooms comedy sketch
• Video lesson - classic comedy sketch - Four candles
• Relative infinitive clauses - uses and exercises
• Modal past
• Verb patterns - quick quizzes

Ditulis oleh Blogsatu pada tanggal Jumat, 02 November 2012