h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Great Entry.

Even better for non mentioning that terrible "Dueling Banjos" record.

From my memory when they first set out The Eagles included a banjo (Bernie Leadon) though I'd hardly call them eclectic now.

You did overlook Egg Banjos though which is a pity because I'd like to know why an egg banjo is so called.

From Distant Shores

Thanks!

The Eagles with a banjo. Maybe they were just following in the footsteps of Jerry Garcia.

To be perfectly honest, I omitted the egg banjo because until you made this post, I had no idea there was such a thing. I'm sure there are plenty of banjo types that I missed--the banjo, after all, is so easy to construct that people have made them in all shapes and sizes, and from all kinds of material. Maybe I'll poke around and see if I can find anything about it (or maybe I'll just go to work...)

-Dr. F.

Imagine a long roll with a fried egg stuck inside - this is an egg banjo. It is impossible to get the egg evenly along the lenght of the roll, so you can imagine some drunken reveller looking at his badly made fried egg rolll and thinking thta it looked like a banjo sort of shape.

I haven't heard the phrase egg banjo outside the Royal Navy; it was a popular phrase in the Far East at one time, and has probably passed into the local language around Singapore.

Well, don't I feel like a big moron. Here I was thinking it was a... oh, never mind, it's not really worth getting into.

How does an egg banjo taste? And why the preference for the term in the Royal Navy and the Far East?

Can't vouch for the taste myself. Egg Banjos are sold here in Malaysia at burger stalls. They also have a variation known as Roti John which has hamburger meat and onions in addition to the fried egg.

Heaven knows why its called Roti John (Roti is the word for bread of any shape, size and variety).

My father talked of Egg Banjos but I never saw him eat one. During the war he served in the army, his only connection with the Navy being when they took him on a cruise to the Nile and the Ganges.

As for musical banjos, I'm no expert but used to enjoy listening to Dillard & Clark and The Dillards, one of whom, probably Dougals, was a great exponent of the banjo.

(-:

From Distant Shores

Ps Sorry about being a bit tongue in cheek.

Dr. Funk, did you think an Egg Banjo was an actual playable banjo made from eggs?

Well... not exactly. My thought was that it was maybe some sort of banjo made from a gourd or other egg-shaped object, and that the name came from the shape, not the material. And given the objects that banjo can be made from (I have actually seen banjos made from bedpans), it didn't seen out of the realm of possibility that one could be made from an egg-shaped object and then given the name "egg banjo" to differentiate it from the flatter banjos folks usually use. None of this, of course, makes my response above any less foolish. What do you expect--I'm just a big, dumb American. I'll just take my French fries and go home now.

Didn't mean to insult you or anything, I just wanted to know.

See, that's the problem with being an American - every other country gets so much American stuff (especially TV programs) that they know American culture pretty well, but USA tends to be a bit - um - Americentric, to coin a term. So Americans can get caught out by regional terms, like "Egg Banjo".

Nothing wrong with that. Just the way it is.

Me personally, I only knew what an Egg Banjo was because I saw an episode of "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" (a British TV series) where the term was used.

No offense taken.

I don't know how much American TV shows tell you about American culture. Most of them tell you a little something about white, middle-class suburban American culture, but I think it's safe to say that, say, life in the American South is not adequately represented--just as, I'm sure, not all of British culture is represented by British TV. I do know that a friend from Australian came to visit and found many of the words we use for things to be a little bewildering, despite having watched plenty of American TV and movies. You'll be embarrassed to know that many Americans' conceptions of Britain come from Monty Python and Benny Hill.

I'll plead guilty to Americans not knowing a hell of a lot about the world outside of America. But be careful...

I'd also like to say that "It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" seems like a weird name for a TV show. I must be missing something. Is it an expression? What does it mean?

"It Ain't Half Hot, Mum" is a TV show about a British Army Concert Party (ie. a troupe of travelling performers who travel between army bases and perform shows to raise morale) who are posted to India in the 2nd World War.
One of the performers is writing a letter home to his mother, and wants to write "It's really awful here", but he knows the letter will be censored, so he writes "It ain't half hot, Mum".
Don't ask me to recall the Egg Banjo episode, though, because I can hardly remember. (It is a really OLD television show.)

Fair comment about TV shows not being representative, though.
And as for different words being bewildering, I'd like to point out the old joke about 'pants and suspenders' meaning very different things in USA and UK...