There are hundreds of slang words in gay men’s vernacular. Expressions such as bear, chicken hawk, pitcher, catcher and spank bank have become commonplace over the years. During the years that homosexuality was still a criminal offense in Great Britain gay men sometimes communicated with Polari, a largely forgotten form of speech believed to have originated during the 16th century and was commonly used by circus and fairground showmen, merchant navy sailors, criminals and prostitutes.
Most of the words and phrases (“omi-palone” referred to an effeminate man or homosexual) have drifted into obscurity, but a few are still with us. If you appreciate a bit of “rough trade” (and who doesn’t?), Polari is responsible for giving a name to your desire for a thuggish sex partner. Hooray for language!
Brian Fairbairn and Karl Eccleston have made a short film to demonstrate how two strangers in England in the early 1960s might have met on a park bench and strike up a conversation on a park bench using the forgotten form of speech. It’s an interesting reminder that gay men once needed more than an iPhone to arrange a hookup.
Watch Putting on the Dish below.
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Jason Zahlen
It almost needs subtitles.
Richard Koehler
I think I understood about 6 words.
Jonathonz
I think I caught the gyst…I’d love to see it with subtitles and a translation. Be fun to see another one less dark too!
Duncan Noel Campbell
Only 55 years ago…and it seems like another world. How far we’ve come.
David Kent
Does this take you back Michael Burke ?
Curty
In Rock Hudson’s book written by Sara Davidson, Rock and his friends used to refer to gay men as “musical” this was circa 1951 or whenever Rock met george nader and his partner mark miller.
Hinton Owen
There is a ‘free Polari’ app done by a university lecturer . Worth getting should you have a translating emergency
Tommy Martin-Edwards
Polari is a beautiful language/dialect when done well. I wish it was preserved for historical value.
mlbumiller
Between the differences across the pond and time needs subtitles
MarionPaige
First off, the conversation in the video sounds like a typical conversation in the book A Clockwork Orange.
Second, in order for a distinct dialect to establish itself in a population across class lines, there has to be some “vehicle” for transmitting the dialect to new people and new generations of people. Specifically, “vehicles” like “prisons” and “the military” are famous for propagating a lot of slang relating to man on man sex, especially prison culture.
t just seems unlikely that language from “circus life” could propagate itself across class lines in a society as class conscious as England.
MarionPaige
https://youtu.be/M_QbxRwnYHI
Luis A. Salazar
Harris Mercer how interesting is this?!
Sam Oropeza
Dean Richardson
Educational.. But I think Julian and Sandy did it so much better.
https://youtu.be/OZL4rTEWU5c
Michael Burke
Ooh, how bona to varda your dolly old eek, heart face
dazzer
A rough (and shortened) translation of the film is as follows:
The smoker asks the reader for for a cigarette in Polari to establish that they’re both gay. After a brief chat they discover they have a friend in common who’s not in a good way because he’s broken up with his boyfriend, who was promiscuous. At this points the smoker relates a story about getting a BJ from the ex-boyfriend. He also tells how the ex ended up being arrested by the police after shenanigans in a public toilet (‘cottage’) and in court, but the magistrate let him off easy. He then makes a joke about how the man the ex was looking at had a small willy.
Emboldened by the laughs, the smoker then goes on to tell of an experience wherein he was in a cottage and had sex with another man, but as he was leaving, he was stopped by the police, so to get out of the situation, he tells the cop ‘There’s a queer in there’ so the cop will ignore him.
Outraged at this hypocrisy, the reader storms off.
If anyone wants to learn more about Polari, I can’t recommend highly enough The Polari Bible, which is the King James Bible translated into Polari by the Manchester, England, convent of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Not only will it provide a decent explanation as to what Polari is, there’s also a translation of the Bible, which is a very funny way to learn Polari.
It’d be good if gay men and women had their own language again.
dazzer
Forgot to add, The Polari Bible can be found at
http://timgreeningjackson.webspace.virginmedia.com/PolariBible5A.pdf
Billy Budd
I didn’t understand a word of it.
Mark Mood
DEFINITELY needs subtitles!
stranded
Ok, what the fuck happend!?!?! They were getting along kiking and shit, and then the scarf guy tells a story and the suit gets turned off.
meghanada
That language was copied from Black trans WOCs who are being erased from history and are having their tremendous cultural impact being co-opted by privileged white gay men.