Threw my head back and vomited

[VDCNI]

I don't know - being a redhead tends to be associated with the Scots so it could be a Engligh v Scottish thing. It is also ginger men that seem to get the worst of it.

Personally I can't get enough of ginger guys!

 

[lurok]

In the UK it could be some weird irrational anti-Celt/Gaelic prejudice from wayback. Ginger, freckles, redhead, titian tend to be associated with Scots and Irish. Go figure.

 

[Lonemagpie]

It's also been referenced a couple of times in Doctor Who - each time that the Doctor has regenerated in the new series, the new Doctor either asks if he's ginger or comments on the fact that he still isn't ginger.

And just to be clear, this is not derogatory; he wants to be ginger and is disappointed when he isn't. (I think the Doctor has been ginger once, when he was Colin Baker, though I'm not entirely sure whether Baker was ginger or blond.) I think it's a callback to the original series' "Battlefield," which involved a mention of a future incarnation of the Doctor, who I believe was described as ginger/redheaded at one point, at least in the novelization. So I figure he's wondering whether he's become that Doctor yet. Or maybe it's just a coincidence.

Colin was blond rather than Ginger, and, yeah, the Merlin Doctor was described in the novelisation of Battlefield as having red hair and beard (actually he's described as looking awfully like Andrew Keir in the movie version of Quatermass And The Pit aka Five Million Years To Earth, or possibly Brian Blessed), so the original reference in the new series was to that...

 

[Christopher]

Ah, so I was right. Hadn't known about the Quatermass thing, though -- that's cool.

 

[Relayer1]

There's apparently been some anti ginger prejudice developed here in the UK over the last couple of decades or so. I say apparently as I have NEVER experienced it. I am not 'bright' carroty ginger though. Well, I wasn't - it's mostly gray now...

Also it is Cockney slang for gay - ginger beer / queer. I'd say it's probably a bit derogatory but depends on who uses it and the context.

And personally I think Karen Gillan is easily the most gorgeous companion.

 

[VDCNI]

I'd forgotten about ginger beer, you don't hear that very often these days. That's the kind of thing Are You Being Served would have used though so that could explain the original query.

 

[RoJoHen]

That's surprising. At least here in the US, many people (myself included) find redheads of the opposite sex to be particularly attractive. I wonder why it would've acquired a negative connotation in the UK.

Well, there's the redheaded ginger, and then there's the redheaded, pasty-white, covered-in-freckles, Children of the Corn-type ginger.

One is hot. The other is creepy.


But on that note, Rupert Grint for the next Doctor!

 

[Timewalker]

Also it is Cockney slang for gay - ginger beer / queer. I'd say it's probably a bit derogatory but depends on who uses it and the context.

BINGO! Yes, that makes sense now! It's been puzzling me for over TWO DECADES, just what the context was that I was missing when I'd see some bit of body language or hear a line in reference to somebody being "ginger" and not understand it.

Thank you - now I can go back and watch this series (for about the 15th time at least - it's my favorite Britcom) and understand more than I did before.

I'd forgotten about ginger beer, you don't hear that very often these days. That's the kind of thing Are You Being Served would have used though so that could explain the original query.

Yep. They used it on numerous occasions and it was always confusing for me, since I could never understand what the big deal was about red hair. But then my mother and her entire family are red-haired. I'm not red-haired, but I have the proverbial temper that goes along with it.

BTW, the only reference to "ginger" that I can recall from Classic Doctor Who is in "The Android Invasion" when Tom Baker's Doctor goes into a pub and orders a ginger beer because he wants something to drink.

 

[Relayer1]

Also it is Cockney slang for gay - ginger beer / queer. I'd say it's probably a bit derogatory but depends on who uses it and the context.

BINGO! Yes, that makes sense now! It's been puzzling me for over TWO DECADES, just what the context was that I was missing when I'd see some bit of body language or hear a line in reference to somebody being "ginger" and not understand it.

My work here is done....

 

[Christopher]

It occurs to me that Americans can't be entirely unaware of the use of "ginger" to mean redhead, because Tina Louise's redheaded sexpot on Gilligan's Island was named Ginger Grant.

 

[bullethead]

It occurs to me that Americans can't be entirely unaware of the use of "ginger" to mean redhead, because Tina Louise's redheaded sexpot on Gilligan's Island was named Ginger Grant.

Plus South Park made a whole episode about Gingers. If anything, that increased awareness of what "ginger" means.

 

[Christopher]

^I am blissfully free of awareness of most of what happens on South Park.

 

[Paris]

^I am blissfully free of awareness of most of what happens on South Park.

Some of us like South Park. No need to take a dig at the show.

 

[Greg Cox]

It occurs to me that Americans can't be entirely unaware of the use of "ginger" to mean redhead, because Tina Louise's redheaded sexpot on Gilligan's Island was named Ginger Grant.

I always just took that to mean she was "spicy."

Like Pepper Potts in the IRON MAN comics, who, if I'm remembering right, was originally a redhead.

 

[JD]

Has she ever not been a red head? I'll admit I've never read a whole issue of an Iron Man comic, but every image I've ever seen of her shows her with red hair.

 

[Therin of Andor]

It occurs to me that Americans can't be entirely unaware of the use of "ginger" to mean redhead, because Tina Louise's redheaded sexpot on Gilligan's Island was named Ginger Grant.

In Australia, nicknames are often deliberate reversals, eg, a short man might be called "Stretch" and a red-headed guy, esp. in the 1940s and 50s, might be called "Bluey". I used to have a ginger cat; he started out as a stray and answered to "Bluey" (which we tried after he totally ignored "Ginger", "Puss" and "Here, Kitty Kitty").

The current, rather derogatory, term we tend to hear about redheads here is "ranga", derived from "orange", but it also has an association with "orangutan". Our current Prime Minister is often parodied unmercifully because she's a "ranga".

 

[Christopher]

I used to have a ginger cat; he started out as a stray and answered to "Bluey" (which we tried after he totally ignored "Ginger", "Puss" and "Here, Kitty Kitty").

That's not surprising, since that "oo-ee" sound is similar to a friendly/nonconfrontational sound that cats make. Generally in the animal kingdom, sounds that go up at the end are nonhostile and inviting while ones that go down at the end are aggressive or warning. (I often wonder if it was a mistake to name our gray cat "Shadow," since it has just that kind of "unfriendly" sound at the end. Calling him "Sir" or "Mister" with that "rrr" sound at the end probably didn't help either, not with an American accent.)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I think throwing your head back, and then vomiting is a good way to choke. I'd avoid doing it that way, if I were you.

You know how they always say you throw up? You don't do that...if anything, you throw OUT!

(although, check your shoes. Looks like you threw down!)

 

[KRAD]

Of course, the throwing-the-head-back-and-laughing thing is something Brian Thompson did several times when he played Klag in "A Matter of Honor," and the times he does that is a call-back to his rather unique laugh in that episode. Sorry it made BenSisko throw up.

Also sorry that BenSisko feels the need to slag my work, but whatever.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^I think you rock, and I say so in all sincerity.