hey this is a random thing but im a english bisexaul dude in his 20s and wanted to say how its really awesome to see people who spoke polari and form this crucail part of our history still around so thanks for making me smile
@@chaysecrossley. No. But my friends and I called ourselves The Group. based on a novel of the same name by Mary McCarthy. It's a campy story about young women who meet at Vassar and follow their lives into adulthood. The principal themes are their problems with sexism, job discrimination, and men. In other words, like us.
@@angellover02171 As RuPaul said, Judy did a lot in her life to get to the point of taking sleeping pills. She would have gotten the pills from someone, she had a life time of getting what she wanted/needed.
I know it's not necessarily needed today as various laws have been added/ changed etc but, I actually really want to learn about it and try to speak it, just for the historical significance of it. I'll be honest, up until about 3mins ago when I saw a weird word I never knew, then I clicked on this video too. Polari was foreign to me and i didnt even consider people back then, in effect coming up with a secret code to communicate with their LGBT friends just so they could communicate their feelings etc.
I find it quite interesting how a lot of Polari is now just standard British slang. I've been looking into it for a while (and came here to actually hear the cant spoken) and I was personally shocked by just how much I already knew instinctively.
'Ello Duckies! During the 1950s, when American jazz musicians arrived to work in the UK, they brought own language, known as 'Jive talk' or 'Scat' (Not to be confused with scat singing). Not to be outdone, some British players, especially in London, started adapting Polari for their own use. It was pretty much the same as gay Polari, except that there tended to be more Yiddish words. Sadly, it has pretty much died out - but I am trying to learn it. Thank you for posting.
Fantastic!! I used to listen to Julian and Sandy with my grandpa on cassette when I was a kid. My sister and I still use a few Polari words without thinking about it. Kenneth Williams has been one of my life long heroes!!! 💜✨✨
"A tart, my dears. A tart in gildy clobber." -Velvet Goldmine (1998) I appreciate you for putting a name to the most curious bit of one of my favorite movies. When I first saw the subtitled scene when I was in high school, my American queer linguistic's brain was utterly mystified, just pushing it aside as a bit of midcentury British slang... little did I know the extent of the cant. Thanks for uploading.
This is utterly essential for preserving this language which requires real human beings to keep it alive. Being, of necessity, a secret/coded language, it is more at risk than most from disappearing altogether. I am a confirmed straight man my entire life, but I deeply feel the value of sustaining this language which, paradoxically, began to disappear almost overnight (post-Stonewall riots) once it was finally becoming safer for LGBTQ+ people to be who they actually were in public without having to hide their communications behind the veil of a defensive coded language for reasons of self preservation. Publishing a series of tutorials on actually learning to speak Polari is amazing and a priceless gift to our culture, as well as preserving a hidden history and linguistic world that has its own charms, delights, and mysteries, unlike any other. Thank you for doing this.
This is so interesting and sort of familiar. My Grandfather was gay and I wonder if some of these words filtered into day to day conversation. We were brought up to speak in different registers depending on who we were talking to, the level of trust and how formal we needed to be. The word we used was parlay or parlance rather than polari. Possibly a difference between London and the Midlands (?) I did hear my Grandmother use the word polari at least once, but it seemed to be more for people who "worked in the theater". I suppose that could be a euphemism for all kinds of things. My Grandfather was gay and came from a family that accepted that. People were either "so or not-so". They were either "one way" or "the other", but it really wasn't anybody's business. At least one of his sisters, and two of his sisters-in-law were on the game. Another was a fortune teller and sometimes table-tapper, also his father. So, there's a bit of a tradition in that family (going back to the mid 1800s) of people who didn't want a lot of scrutiny from the police. The illegality of homosexuality wasn't always consistently enforced. It seemed to be more of a problem for people who needed to be seen as middle-class and respectable. My Grandfather seemed unaware that it might even be a problem until he was conscripted in WW1. There was another punitive moral panic in the 1950s. That was much worse for him because he was forced into psychiatric care.
This is great - but a request. To make it more accessible to those who are Hard of Hearing, and also just those who want to see it written out - could you edit the subtitles for accuracy? Thank you.
especially now with one of the supreme court justices wanting to reconsider legalizing gay sex and marriage- i think it could be pretty useful if anything goes wrong
I remember speaking some polari in New York city in the 60s. I was a young sailor in the US Navy, and hung out at the Stonewall.
hey this is a random thing but im a english bisexaul dude in his 20s and wanted to say how its really awesome to see people who spoke polari and form this crucail part of our history still around so thanks for making me smile
Did you receive a “camp name” when you where in the Navy?
@@chaysecrossley. No. But my friends and I called ourselves The Group. based on a novel of the same name by Mary McCarthy. It's a campy story about young women who meet at Vassar and follow their lives into adulthood. The principal themes are their problems with sexism, job discrimination, and men. In other words, like us.
Did you kill Judy Garland?
@@angellover02171 As RuPaul said, Judy did a lot in her life to get to the point of taking sleeping pills. She would have gotten the pills from someone, she had a life time of getting what she wanted/needed.
I know it's not necessarily needed today as various laws have been added/ changed etc but, I actually really want to learn about it and try to speak it, just for the historical significance of it. I'll be honest, up until about 3mins ago when I saw a weird word I never knew, then I clicked on this video too. Polari was foreign to me and i didnt even consider people back then, in effect coming up with a secret code to communicate with their LGBT friends just so they could communicate their feelings etc.
Try listening to Morrissey s Picadilly Palare- it contains Polari.
I was reading a story and the characters spoke in it now I’m finding all i can on it
I find it quite interesting how a lot of Polari is now just standard British slang. I've been looking into it for a while (and came here to actually hear the cant spoken) and I was personally shocked by just how much I already knew instinctively.
'Ello Duckies! During the 1950s, when American jazz musicians arrived to work in the UK, they brought own language, known as 'Jive talk' or 'Scat' (Not to be confused with scat singing). Not to be outdone, some British players, especially in London, started adapting Polari for their own use. It was pretty much the same as gay Polari, except that there tended to be more Yiddish words. Sadly, it has pretty much died out - but I am trying to learn it. Thank you for posting.
'ello there duckie, thank you so much for this information. I had no idea! I love that all of this was going on in Soho back in the day.
Fantastic!! I used to listen to Julian and Sandy with my grandpa on cassette when I was a kid. My sister and I still use a few Polari words without thinking about it.
Kenneth Williams has been one of my life long heroes!!! 💜✨✨
"A tart, my dears. A tart in gildy clobber." -Velvet Goldmine (1998)
I appreciate you for putting a name to the most curious bit of one of my favorite movies. When I first saw the subtitled scene when I was in high school, my American queer linguistic's brain was utterly mystified, just pushing it aside as a bit of midcentury British slang... little did I know the extent of the cant.
Thanks for uploading.
This is utterly essential for preserving this language which requires real human beings to keep it alive. Being, of necessity, a secret/coded language, it is more at risk than most from disappearing altogether. I am a confirmed straight man my entire life, but I deeply feel the value of sustaining this language which, paradoxically, began to disappear almost overnight (post-Stonewall riots) once it was finally becoming safer for LGBTQ+ people to be who they actually were in public without having to hide their communications behind the veil of a defensive coded language for reasons of self preservation.
Publishing a series of tutorials on actually learning to speak Polari is amazing and a priceless gift to our culture, as well as preserving a hidden history and linguistic world that has its own charms, delights, and mysteries, unlike any other.
Thank you for doing this.
Elllo duckie, glad you made this. Hope you keep on it!
Ello Duckie! Thank you! I'm working on ep two right now!
I just stumbled upon this and it made me nostalgic for all those nights at Duckie!
This is so interesting and sort of familiar. My Grandfather was gay and I wonder if some of these words filtered into day to day conversation. We were brought up to speak in different registers depending on who we were talking to, the level of trust and how formal we needed to be. The word we used was parlay or parlance rather than polari. Possibly a difference between London and the Midlands (?) I did hear my Grandmother use the word polari at least once, but it seemed to be more for people who "worked in the theater". I suppose that could be a euphemism for all kinds of things.
My Grandfather was gay and came from a family that accepted that. People were either "so or not-so". They were either "one way" or "the other", but it really wasn't anybody's business. At least one of his sisters, and two of his sisters-in-law were on the game. Another was a fortune teller and sometimes table-tapper, also his father. So, there's a bit of a tradition in that family (going back to the mid 1800s) of people who didn't want a lot of scrutiny from the police. The illegality of homosexuality wasn't always consistently enforced. It seemed to be more of a problem for people who needed to be seen as middle-class and respectable. My Grandfather seemed unaware that it might even be a problem until he was conscripted in WW1. There was another punitive moral panic in the 1950s. That was much worse for him because he was forced into psychiatric care.
Please keeps this going! Why are there only two episodes!?
seriously its so good
aww thank you. I have more planned soon!
I love this! Please make more!
this is making me smile much i really want to incorporate polari into my own daily langue just to keep our history alive
This gives me strong clockwork orange vibes
This is great - but a request. To make it more accessible to those who are Hard of Hearing, and also just those who want to see it written out - could you edit the subtitles for accuracy? Thank you.
loving it my duckie
I say we bring this back as a closed lgbt language again
especially now with one of the supreme court justices wanting to reconsider legalizing gay sex and marriage- i think it could be pretty useful if anything goes wrong
That was joyful and your voice is delicious! Thank you Lovely - followed you on Twitter. More, More More please! Xxx
Thanks for this, gonna try this on my gay friend
Ello duckie! Love love love this
Bona drag, ducky?
You are awesome!
When is unit 2
What are the spellings for the goodbyes? (Im trying to learn polari :)
When's the next
Working on the second one at the moment, thanks for listening duckie!
@@EddusPoet looking forward to it, darling
Bona to vada your dolly ol'eek
WAIT TARA IS POLARI??????? WE SAY THAT IN SOUTH WALES EVEN THE CISHETS SAY THAT HERE OMG 🥺❤️
How do you spell couii 😔
is it wrong to learn this as a straight man?
Is it wrong to learn French if you're English?
@@vulpes7079 good point... also realized I'm bi
@@ghostcat11 good for you, ghost cat 11!!!! fabelle!!
@@ghostcat11 hell yeah, one more for the club :) I'm bi too