No more berks or plonkers: Gen Z left confused by British insults

Del Boy will have to call his brother Rodney something other than a plonker if Only Fools and Horses gets a Gen Z reboot

Traditional British insults such as nitwit, berk, pillock and plonker are in danger of dying out within a generation, a new survey suggests.

The terms are “no longer a fashionable way” to insult someone, according to the research.

Gen Z respondents, those born from 1997 to 2011, view the insults as more severe and likely to cause offence, preferring to use jibes such as “Karen”, “basic” or “boomer”.

But half of those over the age of 40 believe insults were gentler in the past, with 60 per cent feeling they were more jovial than modern day put-downs.

Overall, just one in five people said they would be offended if they were called a “pillock” or “plonker”, the polling of 2,000 Britons by Perspectus Global showed.

Overall, 72 per cent of people agreed that people in the UK have a unique way of insulting each other, while 81 per cent felt it was a very British trait to insult your loved ones.

However, terms such as “cad”, “prat”, “nitwit” and “plonker”, Del Boy’s favourite barb for Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, are now entirely unrecognised by a large proportion of society, the research found.

Almost half of people under the age of 28 who were polled had never heard of the insult “cad”: an unreliable character and particularly a man who behaves dishonestly toward women.

Six in 10 of the Gen Z demographic had not heard the insult “berk”, which refers to someone who is stupid, silly or annoying.

Regional insults fared even worse, with 62 per cent of young people and a majority of people overall having never heard the term “lummox”, an East Anglian term for a clumsy oaf which was deemed the most likely to die out.

“Bampot”, a Scots insult meaning an eccentric or mad person, drew a blank with six in 10 Gen Z respondents. Even in Scotland, 20 per cent of people were unsure of its meaning, according to the survey.

The term is thought to refer to a barmpot, a vessel used for storing yeast.

In total, 54 per cent of young people had not heard of “blighter”, used to describe a contemptible individual, while a quarter said they had not encountered the even more common British insults “prat”, “nitwit” and “plonker”.

Despite the fading prevalence of some of the country’s favourite slights, 68 per cent of people were convinced that Britain still has the best insults of any country in the world.

‘Language moves on’

Harriett Scott, the chief executive of research agency Perspectus Global, which carried out the survey, said: “Language changes, evolves and moves on. Our research shows that calling someone a plonker or a prat is no longer a fashionable way to insult them.

“Interestingly, the research highlights the extent to which Brits feel some of the more traditional jibes feel softer and less severe than some of today’s more controversial ones.”

She added that thousands of old insults had been studied as part of the research, including “mooncalf”, which used to mean fool, and “cozener”, a term dating back to Shakespearean England meaning trickster.

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