Bingo is a game strongly influenced by the British tradition, a good portion of which is related to the many rhymes and cultural or historically related references that have, over the ages, affiliated themselves to each of those grand numbers from 1 to 90 in the bingo game.
Changing times have seen some of the slightly more aged references pushed to the sidelines – it’s not often now you’ll hear the likes of the silent-era western star Tom Mix (6) mentioned, or popular drag artiste Danny La Rue (72). And whilst ‘jump and jive’ (35) may still pop up from time to time, it’s unlikely that those more used to the world of free no deposit bingo will know that it relates to a popular dance step from yesteryear.
In 2003, UK holiday resorts attempted to make modern changes to the slang used in the game by creating some relevant rhymes and references. ‘J-Lo’s bum’ replaced a decidedly-less cheeky ‘bang the drum’ for 71, and ‘buckle my shoe’ was swapped in some circles for the Sex and the City girls’ favourite shoe designer ‘Jimmy Choo’. People playing bingo online use some of these game slang phrases as well.
Some changes introduced at the time, like Gareth Gates for the number eight and Ali G for the number 30, are already somwhat out of date and are generally not used anymore by many – if any at all – bingo callers.
With that said, some terms have managed to outlive change, and can be viewed as old as the game itself. It’s hard to imagine the game of bingo without the cry of ‘legs 11’ (a reference to the resemblance of the digits to a pair of legs) or ‘two little ducks’ for 22 (owing to their resemblance…oh you get the idea!).
In these politically-correct ages, those who call bingo in the UK might blush a bit when calling ‘two fat ladies’ in a bingo hall, while the bingo call of ‘sweet 16 – never been kissed’ may sound rather unlikely to others. However, tradition often trumps change, so that while the inhabitants of Downing Street will be swapped once and a while, a person’s ‘den’ will generally be reference whenever the number ten comes out!
At a time when the free online bingo game in the UK has taken terrific steps forward, welcoming millions of new players eager to take advantage of online offers such as free no deposit bingo all the time, it says much about the longevity of the game itself that callers around the country are still using the ever-popular calls made famous over the decades. They have become as much of a portion of the wonderful game itself as they numbers themselves are.
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