Sources
Help build the largest human-edited directory on the web.
Submit a site - Become an editor
Wikipedia. Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Are you an expert in this subject? Join the discussion and share your knowledge at Wikipedia.org.
Black Shorts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Black Shorts are a fictional group of fascists led by amateur dictator Roderick Spode in the stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse. The group is a satire of Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, who were nicknamed the blackshirts. Spode adopted black shorts as a uniform because all coloured shirts had been taken by other fascist groups (the black shirts of Mussolini, Hitler's brown shirts , the ill-fated blue shirts of Ireland and America's own silver shirts ).
The blackshorts (or "footer bags") are ridiculed by Bertie Wooster, who apparently believes that wearing black shorts is an extreme social faux-pas. On one occasion he remarks to Spode:
"The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you're someone. You hear them shouting 'Heil, Spode!' and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: 'Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?'"
—Bertie Wooster speaking to Spode in The Code of the Woosters
 |
This article about a character in literature is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |