Miss Me? - Listen Bitch! No Cap

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver answer your questions about slang.Next week, we want to hear your questions about JUSTICE. Please send us a voice note on WhatsApp: [phone]. Or, if you like, send us an email: [e-mail] episode contains very strong language and adult themes. Credits: Producer: Flossie Barratt Technical Producer: Will Gibson Smith Assistant Producer: Caillin McDaid Production Coordinator: Rose Wilcox Executive Producer: Ellie Clifford Assistant Commissioner for BBC: Lorraine Okuefuna Commissioning Editor for BBC: Dylan Haskins Miss Me? is a Persephonica production for BBC Sounds

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BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. This episode of Miss Me contains very strong language, adult themes and a lot of slang. A lot of slang. Welcome to listen, bitch, where we will speak. We're going to dissect slang today. Beautiful, wonderful slang. Slang makes me feel good. Makes me feel like I'm at home

when I hear really good London slang. Never really got into all the cockney rhyming slang. But Lily knows it all off by heart. So let's delve into that today. I don't. Not at all. Yeah, you do. Apples and fucking pears.

That's one. That's the one I know. That's the one we know. So we're in for a good show. So let's have our first question, please. Hi, Lily, and Mikita. This is Raymond or Hamon from Brazil, but right now live in Sydney.

Australia lived a listener down under. And I must say that I love the theme for this week's episode. I love slings. And I find it way more interesting the way they use slangs in English language, that the ones that we have in Brazilian Portuguese. And also, I feel like slang is, inherently in British culture.

Like, it's just in you. And my question for you guys is, what are these slings that you think that you don't see yourself without, like without using it in your daily convos? And also the ones brought by the new generation that you have adopted for your daily conversations. I caught myself using quite a lot of the,

it's giving followed by some random words, or it's like oh gag so yeah tell me I'm a bit tipsy because of the wine that I'm sipping right now

but I think I made myself clear don't know tell me love you girls love the podcast bye yeah yeah not really

that wasn't that clear actually thank you for your question about slang we are going to need a bit of clarification from our producer Flossi

what was the question news slang yeah I try not to to adopt there are things I tried to say dope for the other day

I don't say that naturally but Namer says it really well she's like oh that's dove and I'm like you say that

well but I think it's because her mother's American so she has that like New Yorkie trickle down

so I can't say dope so I stick with the ones that we learned in childhood and I really like Chief

I love calling someone a chief Oh, Chief. Oh, Chief. I don't think there's anything that cusses out anyone in the same way that Chief does. If you're like, he's a fucking chief. Wasteman is quite good. It's an absolute classic waste man.

You know, they are, the slang is quite derogatory. And I think when you use it well, I think it takes a smart person to use slang well. Weapon. Did you ever use weapon? Oh, my God, they are such a weapon. No, we don't say that ever, really. I used to say weapon. About a boy.

being fit? No, no, no. A weapon is like, you know, like a tool. No. Like, that person's a tool. So it's an involvement of, oh, he's a tool to, he's a weapon. It might be. I don't know the etymology of it, but I would, I've certainly used it in that way.

Like, oh my God, there's such a weapon. See, I think weapon means fit girl. No. But actually, I asked my 21-year-old nephew Flynn, name a son, and he said that it's very much about Leng now. Hondo P, Hondo P Hondo P Leng is the new fit

Would you say Leng little Like he's Leng No what are the kids using Leng again Leng's back hugely Leng's back Yeah Gracie says Leng Gracie says Leng Sometimes if I'll send her a picture

And I'm not actually like wear this She'll be like Lengers I'm like What we would say When I was younger I would quite like to be Leng though If someone called me Leng I'd be like thanks thank you very much and also baddie is big with the kids right now baddie she's a baddie

this is again Flynn and Walt play they were like this party man it's just full of baddies I was like oh what's it now so I feel like there's some things coming back what about sleigh sleigh sleigh bit American for me sleigh no I like sleigh oh sleigh You quite like, yes, queen. Is that slang? Yes, queen. That's definitely, um, yes, queen. Some cultural appropriation. I'm sure that was started by black women. Yes, I'm going to go more into the cultural appropriation of slang. I've got it in my back pocket. Let's have another question, see if it comes out.

Hey, Lily McKeese. My name's Chloe. I'm originally from Manchester, but I've been living in Sydney, Australia for the past year or so. My question about slang is, what do you think is a very British slang that if you moved here from another country, you'd pick up straight away. Because when I moved to Australia, the amount of slang that they have in their language, it is crazy. So, for example, they call the afternoon the Arvo. They call sandwiches, sangas. You're a vehicle registration. They call you rego. And they call sweets lollies as well, which. is strange um but i think the one that sticks out the most is that they if you're saying to someone hey how you doing they would say hey how are you going which took me a while to get my head around

but i do hear myself saying it sometimes now which is strange so yeah my question is um what would you say maybe is the british equivalent of that that only british people say thank you Okay, I have, I have, I have communicated with chat GPT because I was like asking it for some stuff and it was not giving me very good ones and then I just gave it a prompt because I was like, okay, can you give me some stuff more from the Leng Peng Arena, please?

Guess what it's come out with? You're going to love this. Leng Peng, Wasteman, peak. Oh yeah, Pee! Peak! Peak! I love peak LOW it

LOW it I don't like that it knows this How the fuck do you know I know LOW it You've got to actually go through things To be able to say

Bare There was bare People in the rave That's what it says here It says a lot, very Mandem Obviously Yeah

Don't waste them all Okay what about this Tapped Oh yeah Someone said today Who said that today Someone was like, yeah, but she's tapped in it. And I was like, does that still mean crazy bitch?

Is that what tap means? Yeah. Yeah. She's tapped. Fuck off. One of my favourites is washed. She's washed. I see that about myself quite a lot on Twitter.

Lily Allen's so washed. Thank you guys. Thank you. I am washed. What does that mean? Like washed up, like dry it dried up. Oh my God. Moving mad.

She's moving mad. Oh, she's moving mad. Yeah, no, I love moving. Mad. Moving mad. Let's go back to Peek because this is why I fucking 8 chat GBT. Because Peak is like you've got to remember the reasons you said in. It's, you know, you've got to be in a peak situation to be able to go. This is peak. I forgot about Peak. I'm going to bring some of these back big time. I'm going to use them in a sentence. CREPS. CREPS. Sure. That will be trainers, people, everybody. I do say kicks for trainers sometimes with no hint of

irony which is embarrassing but we can't just do this for the whole street no but lily it does make you happy doesn't it why does it make you so happy because it makes me happy too what is that um because it reminds me of a time when i used language without thinking about it and it and i didn't care and it conveyed something and i don't feel i feel like a lot of these words although you know they are you know people would say you know that i was like being like mockney or like, you know, expressing myself outside of my social, whatever it is that I exist in now. And I feel like, and I feel like I'm conscious of that and I adhere to those rules now pretty much. But, you know, when I, when I didn't know that I was doing something wrong

at the time, it felt good and it made me feel like I was a part of something. It was a way that we all communicated and with each other. Definitely part of something. It's something that. It's something that brought us together, not something that, um, set us all apart. You're so right. It was unifying, wasn't it? And also, we had particular friends who like really knew how to, well, like, that sounds weird saying, really knew how to speak slang. I've talked, this is just the way they spoke. Like, Charlie Crockett's very good with derogatory slang. And then, like, sci-fi. I guess, sorry, I think the question was, like, what's something that you would say is, like, very English. Waguan, which, you've gone.

derives from patois and there's a lot of that in British culture as Lily was saying earlier which has now trickled down to places like made in Chelsea like they're literally like

yes bravo and it's like excuse me escowice me Jamie Lang we're just going to meet at the slug and lettuce in the ends

okay exactly I feel like you just can't say ends if you're talking about Fulham it just doesn't make sense it doesn't work Right. You got to just, I feel like you've got to have lived a bit of what you're saying,

if that makes sense. You can't just say it. And at the time, yes, you were saying in like Danny and Judy, your godparents fat house on Talbot Road, but you were also with us and our friends all the time who were. I was moving mad, as they say. You were moving. You were moving fucking back. I was extremely gassed at that time.

patterning it someone my son might say she was fucking gassed someone used gas wrong the other day a young person and I wondered if it had moved on but I think they were just using it incorrectly gassed means

a little too excited look at how gas yeah a little bit excited right well let's have a break from all this slang chat how do we say let's go to a break in a slangy way Lil

let's link up after the break Yeah, but you've got to say it like Yeah, yeah, we'll link back up after the break It's actually about tone as well as language Isn't it just? Welcome back to Listen Bitch, welcome back to the summer of Listen Bitch. This week's listen, bitch. The theme is slang. Hi, Lily and Mikita. My name is Riza. I'm Brazilian, but I live in Essex, and I'm a social linguist.

So this topic really tickles my fancy. So my question is, is there any slang that you hear and you find very over the top or perhaps too snobbish? I mentioned this because I have an Instagram account where I share English tips. And one day I taught the slang word called Swallop and a British guy commented, oh, only posh, see you next Tuesday, say this. And I was like, huh, did I know that? So, yeah, that's my question for you guys. Love to show. Bye. I suppose there is a slang within an upper class,

which is the absolute codswallop. My God, yeah. It's quite PG-Woodhouse, that kind of slang, that kind of use of language. I wish I knew more of like toffee slang, but that wasn't really... You know what we're doing right now? We're having a good old chin wag.

Oh, yeah, we are. Do you know what? Do you know what? This is a good time. to bring up the word banter. Poor old banter. It's been dragged around the houses and turned into something so despicable.

And I started talking about it with Phoebe and Silliman the other day and they were like, what is it your problem with banter? And I was like, I think it, they used to be this idea of like connection, chemistry and great conversation with someone.

And now, if someone's just being a dickhead, they can just say it's bans. I also hate abbreviation. So I hate that even banter has now had to become bants. But banter, it's been bastardized into this kind of like cover for not having any chat or having shit chat. I don't want to have bans with anyone ever.

No, come to me with your fucking bans. Especially when you've just been particularly boring or, I don't know, aggressive or derogatory. And then you're like, well, it's just bans. Like, no, fuck off. It's actually not. So that's my issue with banter and I will never engage in it. Bance is for me giving very like provincial stagnate kind of vibe. That's what, that is, do you know what I mean?

It's quite a bant's evening. Going out with the lads and having some bans. Like, okay, count me out. Count me out of your bans. I think it puts a lot of pressure on a certain demographic and the way they interact with each other that you've got. like being playful and being witty and smart and quick, yes, all for it. But having to like fight, like be back, like have bans, I think is actually taking away

from good conversation and minimising it. Please, you know, there's great language out there. There's so much to use. It's not really about that. But I think it's the nature of the word itself because it, you know, or the meaning of the word itself is like, you know, having something to say or being able to say something in a certain with sort of style

and I feel like I actually don't mind it so much if it's used by women but when it's used by men about other men it's something grotesque about it because it's like oh yeah yeah

my man's got he's got bant it's like you mean that like you can hide behind him do you know what I mean it's like he's the one that's got our back he can fill the awkward silences because none of us have got anything to say it's like okay exactly but this one's like a joker he's got bare bans fuck off i bet he doesn't

i bet you he doesn't it is the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks see that sounds like a good time for me and this is their sentence there was much good-natured banter that feels like somewhere a little bit more substantial old bean old bean oh old bean's good old sport um chap to be fair we do we do have a group of friends who would use more of these. Louis. Yes. We say a group, we mean one person.

This is like Louis Waymuth's playbook. And I do love the way he uses kind of old toffee, um, slag. Oh, it's absolute poppy, oh, well, one a load of poppycock. What a load of poppycock. Poppycock. There was a right, Ballyhoo. That's a fastle commotion. Can we have another question, please?

Gobbledy gook. Biddle faddle, bunkum. Can we please? Have another question. Rapscallion! That's a goody, isn't it? Lily and the internet could do this for days. Let's do another question.

Let's have another question. Allow it. Allow it, bro. Hondo P. Let's move on. Bye, Felicia. Hello, Lily and Makita. I am leaving this voice note from New Zealand.

My name's Joe. I am from the UK originally, but I did leave in 2007. When I left, everyone was saying, like, instead of saying very, Everyone was saying well, so it'd be like that's well nice or he's well fit and also words like minging. So I'm just wondering what words is everyone back in the UK still saying? Or am I completely out of touch because I do sometimes find myself saying the word minging to my kids. No one in New Zealand uses the word minging, not that I've met yet anyway. And I'm wondering if no one in the UK does as well.

really curious as to know what slang has stuck around and do 40 year olds even use slang anymore or is that just for the young people? Not that we're not young. Thank you so much for the podcast. It's the highlight of my week. I would say that that well evolved into bear. Definitely. Firstly, I think Init is a classic. In It will always, I think In it was one of the first like I say in it a lot actually what am I talking about and I never know no babe that is gone that is gone I like in it I'm not going to leave in it

in it makes me feel like I'm home now let me ask you this how do you spell it because when I write it on a text I always write in it I and N-N-I-T and then someone did it back to me the other day like yeah in it and it was like oh dear oh god I'm back like how would you write it

um in it or in it I just can't see a world in which I would write it I would say it but I don't think I would write it now Okay, all right, mine's very much Cap No cap No cap I would never write it, no cap

No cap I never do a capital letter Do you know about cap and no cap Oh I thought we were talking about capital letters No cap and no cap is slang Oh God No cap means like

like for real or like I'm not lying like no no cap no cap mom I'll be home at 5.530 no cap

or cap is like you know I'm making spaghetti bolognese and Ethel will be like cap for real for realsies

no because no because cat means lie so she and she doesn't like spaghetti alone she should be like cap like

you're not lying like yeah you wouldn't do that to me you know i don't want that god it's a fucking minefield they've got so much now these kids riz i don't know this ris oh riz is like charisma so it's if um you know have they got riz have they got good riz bans it's like bans have they got good bans have they got good riz yeah that's what i don't like it she's got no ris she's fit but she's got no riz hmm the word charisma is such a beautiful pretty word charisma and it looks great and it's great to say i don't like when slang uh replaces a beautiful word that was always better bastardizes it riz is not an up on charisma

oh yes suss is good suss is good i'm happy the younger generation is still using suss he's fucking suss and uh i've used it a lot and it's good because it's so short so to the point sweet and says everything you need to say about someone being totally fucking dodgy and up to some weird shit. Suss. There's the whole like Skibbidi, Ohio stuff. Do you know about all that?

No, Lily, you're scaring me now. I feel like I don't know anything. Wait, let me get a Skibbidi, Ohio. Skibbidi still sounds like a jungle emcee to me. Skibbidi, the origin is from Skibbidi Toilet, a completely absurd YouTube, TikTok animated series. Eek, no, done. Not interested.

Do you know I love Bop? And a Bop is a way of life. Yeah, Bob's not just a word and it's not just a walk. It's a way of life. No cat. Okay. Okay. Let's have another question before Lily says that fucking cat thing again.

Hi, Lily and McKita. It's horror here from Hull. So the topic of slang, as you can imagine, a lot of places have familiar slang words and Hull is one of them. A few of the familiar ones I've been brought up with. it's mafding Maffting means you're hot there's also

ratched you're a bit raged you may be a bit mental maybe not the best way to use it in that context right now but you know and also riving quite a whole way of saying it my mum used to say it all the time

to me and my siblings growing up when we was play fighting stop raving about and I'm really proud to continue using these words it makes me proud of where I come from so my question to you is

does certain where do you is make you feel proud of where you come from, proud of the place that you were born and that you grew up in? Yeah, absolutely. I think that's what we were talking about earlier. It is, I think the reason it makes us feel good is because there's, there's pride in it. And there's a kind of secrecy in it. It's a bit like, you have to have been here and live through some shit around here to say the words that come from around here. So that makes sense.

I didn't even think, of course, there's like regional slang all over the country. When I was in Scotland with my dad, he always says, you're jest in. And there's quite a lot of slang, I suppose, in Scotland that is based on really old words. So I think maybe I would really like that, but I'm never going to be able to start speaking Scottish slang. And then also, I really like wavy when you're talking about feeling a bit like, hi, or fucked up. And our friend Alex Mack called his child Wavy. that's how wavy Alex Mack that's like how lifestyle

wavy is to Alex he named his child after the slang word for feeling like fucked up so I think that says a lot about the fact that he grew up in Labick Grove Wavy Garmes Wavy Garmes

is good and actually these are the ones that derive from old English oldie English words like garments Garmes Garment garments Let's have another

a question Hi Makita Hi Lily my name's Alana and I'm calling from a town in central Scotland called Falkirk. Being Scottish, I find it's already hard enough for people to follow what I'm saying, let alone throwing in some slang into the mix because even I can struggle with certain dialects up here and I was born here. But my question is, can you think of a time

where you've completely misunderstood someone's term of phrase due to their use of slang and accent? It didn't lead to a funny realisation once the penny dropped. This could also be something you've read online or in person. Love you guys and the podcast. Bye. Thank you. We Bonnie Lass. I can't think of an

example. Oh actually, I can I think maybe I've told this before already but there was, I did go on and it's not really slang but it was my I guess maybe from listening to like hip-hop and Nas

and Lauren Hill specifically and then both using the word reminisce in their raps. And then being on holiday in my early teens with my sister's friend Emily, who, you know, was white and middle class, but would quite often like lean into a different social demographic, shall we say. You best believe. And she once used the word reminisce in conversation.

and I had always assumed that because the only workplace that I'd heard it being used was by two black people that it was like the amalgamation of two words which were remember and this so I thought right it meant I thought it was like reminisce like remember this which oddly enough does mean the same thing exactly that is what Remenice means. But Emily said, you know, because she was like, isn't it so nice, like, reminiscing out here. And I was like, yeah, reminisce on time.

And she was like, what? Bitch. Come on, Em. And I was like, I was like, yeah, reminisce. She's like, what are you talking about? I was like, reminiscing. We're my sister's from New York City. And she was like, it's a word, you fucking moron.

I was like, oh, okay. No, but a fair mistake, we should probably preface this with Emily was best friends with Lily's older sister and we thought they were the coolest girls in the world so we were always trying to impress them and be part of their gang so Lily I get it totally get it she said reminisce and I was like cool reminisce her down no babe no no it's right because it is actually also just a word reminisce on the love we but isn't it funny that I got it wrong but it still means the same thing still means the same thing It's a great word, reminisce.

It does mean remember this, doesn't it? Yeah. How did Nars use it? Can you remember? I can't say off the top of my head, but I've been, I have listened to Nars not in the, you know, in my recent past and I've heard him use that word. And every time I hear someone use it in rap music, I'm always reminded of that stupid moment. He can say anything. He's got a great speaking voice as well.

What was I watching the other day? And he was like, the narrator. And I was like, this voice. I know this voice. And it's like, oh, of course, course. That, unfortunately, was our final question. Oh, laters. And laters.

Laiters is good. Latus. Sorry, for an earlier question. Latus, I can't stop using latus. I will use laters when I'm 75. Latus. And Garfield, my dad always says later's for goodbye. Do you remember, you know that?

He never says goodbye. My whole life of knowing him. He'll be like, okay, all right. And he always goes up. He goes, okay. All right, later's! He doesn't say goodbye. And later's is a big traditional one in our lives.

So why don't we say it now to end Listen Bitch? Later's. We are out. We are done. Next week's Listen bitch will center around the topic of... Justice. I've actually been watching quite a little courtroom drama. I might bring some of that to this.

Justice. We'll figure out what that word really means and how it's been used throughout the years and the justice that we may have found in our lives or not, as the case may be. Not talking about the French musical duo, Justice, by the way. We're talking about justice. Okay.

Do send in your voice notes. I know it's summer and I know everyone's having a summer but please send us your voice notes. Thank you for continuing to send us your voice notes on 08,0304090, 08,000. 30, 40, 90. We will see you then. Bye, Lily Allen.

Bye! Later's. I'll do it like Garfield. Okay, let's do it later! Thanks for listening to Miss Me with Lily Allen and Makita Oliver. This is a Persefonica production for BBC Sounds. Six music.

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