History of the Middle Finger....

[GreyWolf]

The History of the Middle Finger

Well, now......here's something I never knew before, and now that I know it, I feel compelled to send it on to my more intelligent friends in the hope that they, too, will feel edified.

Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous English longbow was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as 'plucking the yew' (or 'pluck yew').

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and they began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, See, we can still pluck yew! Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say, the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodentals fricative F', and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute! It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows used with the longbow that the symbolic gesture is known as 'giving the bird.'



And yew thought yew knew every plucking thing.

[PhilB]

Amusing. Not even close to true, but amusing.
snopes.com: Pluck Yew

PhilB

[GreyWolf]

Uh, humor..?????

[PhilB]

Well, it depends for its claim to humor on the idea that it could be true. It's presented as being supposedly believable. So the fact that it's BS affects its humor value as well.

PhilB

[Rhetorik]

I enjoyed it; puns make me smile.

If something being fake/wrong means it is no longer funny... that must spoil a lot of jokes for you. For example, my all-time fave:

A duck walks into a pharmacy and says "Give me some chapstick... and put it on my bill." Does the fact that this is an absurd event mean that it is no longer humorous?

Or another example: The largest member of King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He got that way from too much pi. Since this is making light of a (supposed) historical council, is the level of humour lessened as a result?

[PhilB]

Originally Posted by Rhetorik

I enjoyed it; puns make me smile.

If something being fake/wrong means it is no longer funny... that must spoil a lot of jokes for you. For example, my all-time fave:

A duck walks into a pharmacy and says "Give me some chapstick... and put it on my bill." Does the fact that this is an absurd event mean that it is no longer humorous?

Or another example: The largest member of King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He got that way from too much pi. Since this is making light of a (supposed) historical council, is the level of humour lessened as a result?

No, but neither of those is pretending to be true. You may note that I haven't objected to the other jokes in this section.

That one I think crosses the line into "urban legend" -- one of the many falsities that circulate on the internet purporting to be fact.

PhilB

[bumblebee]

The thumbs up came from the same source. The english used to cut off the thumbs of the losing bow men

[MEANGREENER]

Kool......now splain to us about the SHORT BUS

ya know.....1 in the front, 4 in the Rear

hehe

[Alawicious]

[Electrical_Tech]

I like the one about the duck .. it made me