A selection of headlines from stories in the news. They use English in a way that you might think is intended to confuse but it’s all perfectly clear to the native speaker.
The Daily Star reported that ‘Brits are fuming after German newspapers branded us all as beer-bellied lager louts. A cheeky How English Are You Quiz published in the Bild (the German equivalent of the Sun) came on the back of a story that showed 50 per cent of British people have some German blood.’ The Star hit back by claiming that a recent poll called Germany the least funny nation in Europe. The Star’s headline was ‘Don’t Mention The Guffaw’, a reference to the line ‘Don’t Mention The War’ used by John Cleese in the 1975 BBC TV comedy Fawlty Towers when Cleese’s character, the Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty, upset some German guests.
!Note – A guffaw is a loud and boisterous laugh.
For those who don’t know what Fawlty Towers is, here’s the clip:-