Is Momus a likeable prat?

Momus is deplorable, as are The Divine Comedy for the same reasons (not that you asked). Pretentious. Smug. A Bore.

A Momus thread was inevitable, I suspect.

I think he's likeable, but not a prat. I don't like that many of his records but I think he's got a lot of interesting things to say. He's not afraid to play around with ideas and contradict himself, which is good. He's obsessed with the idea that the UK press is anti- intellectual, and I think he's got a good point, but his bee in the bonnet about the NME can be tiring. Otherwise, fine by me.

Well I think Momus is likeable because he's so enthusiastic and his interests and energy touch so many areas. But he's a pseud, bantering around 6th form theories which are ultimately second hand intellectual cliche. Hence "prat".

For instance his "ideas" about Post Modernism consist of ponderous name dropping of, and straight quotations from, writers whose work has long since passed into groaning academic cliche (e.g. Baudrillard, Lyotard) to prop up some dubious line of argument that does little more than place his work (surprise surprise) at the apex of all that is Important in music. And this gets dressed as "new" in some way.

Following on from the Merrit thread, I just think if you want to be an ideas man / woman then at least read up properly on what you cite.

I agree with him on the UK press, though, if not on his tantrums about the "Brutish". Some of it is obviously just bitterness that he doesn't sell as many records as Primal Scream.

I like him a lot because he's bitter, shows it, but doesn't always exude it. This point of view regarding the world I have a lot of time and empathy for. ;-)

He's also an entertaining interview and puts on a good show, not to mention having had some fine albums out like _Tender Pervert_. Viva!

I like him because he's rather eccentric. I don't really like a lot of his music, but I can appreciate his MO.

"Pretentious. Smug." isn't anyone who botheres to make anything out of their creativity then smug just because they consider their thoughts worth of making something solid of? anyway. momus tends to cirle somewhere between likeable and inspirational, though musch of the latest album i find overloads and repeats the theme to often it becomes weary. it works best when he's working by implication as on 'appalachia'. as far as prat, he's a bit eccentric and stubbournly individual, and everyone knows someone like that who annoys the hell out of them. i just' likes the cut of momus' jib.

Bogus is a pretentious half talent but worth a look at his website every month...

I know the word, but this American needs to know EXACTLY what a prat is? I've discussed these slang terms with English friends before, but even they have disagreed. So if anyone can explain this British slang I've become familiar with through British music and magazines (another thread might be necessary), I'd appreciate it. Some I think I know or can guess, but meanings change with the times. So: Prat. Boffin. Wide boy. Git. Sod. Bollocks. Wanker. Ponce. Poof. Boy- o. Bleeder.

Other Americans please add more. Then maybe we can know exactly what you mean when you insult us!

Prat: may sometimes be smart (unless a "total prat"), but exhibits utter unawareness of when behaving like an idiot in the world's eyes. Generally fond.

Boffin: brainbox with considerable technological-theoretical abilities: the latter a mystery, possibly an exasperation, to who maes the judgment. Techno is boffin music ne plus ultra, obviously. Fond.

Wide boy: formerly meant hooligan/hard-man, now more likely to mean someone with dodgy entrepreneurial skills, and a somewhat strained relation with the law. Probably a charmer, probably a dresser. Violence somewhere in there, but not kneejerk and not central. Probably more fond than not, these days. (But I live in the East End, world capital of the wide-boy... )

Git: see prat, but without the fondness. Unclear if the edge of nastiness is more present in the judgment or the behavour judged.

Sod: From sodomite, but long ago lost its pervert connection. Usu.just a noun intensifier. cf: "I'm a lazy sod" = "I am worthless and therefore somehow marvellous in my laziness"

Bollocks: rubbish, robustly stated. Used to be a swearword — the Sex Pistols went to court to prove it was just good old anglo-saxon, and cd grace a shop-display of record sleeves

Wank: self-indulgence to the point of audience abuse

Wanker: related to the above, though generally directed at the socially insensitive/thoughtless rather than the artistically demanding. Degree of fondness varies with context.

Ponce: used to mean "a man who lives on the immoral earnings of a woman", and as a verb still means e.g. to bum a freebie ("Can I ponce a ciggie?" etc.) "Poncey" I take to mean "is flimsy yet has ideas above its station". One of half a dozen probably accurately observed words that crops up in eg LockStock&..., which crims and cops fling at one another: you ponce, you tart, you scrote, you fucking muppet... They (ie real-life crims and cops) get it all from TV.

Poof: used to be the main anti-gay epiphet, now long drifted down to mean "weak, fey, feeble, useless". My sister and her girlfriends use it of one another, fondly, which actually I find kind of adorable.

Boy-o. Welsh equivalent to lad? cf also bootboy and yob: but very much depends on who's using it. Aggressive self-affirmation or hostile snobby put-down...?

Bleeder. cf Sod. Rarely used on its own: lucky bleeder, silly bleeder. Deriv. Bleeding as an adjectival intensifier, which probably goes back to (a) By our Lady (hence bloody) (b) the Eounds Suffered on the Cross by He Who Died For Us All...

And any aggro over this, you mincing toe-rags, and I'll 'ave you so fast you won't know your arse from the Avon Lady...

You forgot to add that putting 'the' in front of 'bollocks' means something of high quality.

Thanks for the amazing glossary of British insults and terms of endearment! You've come a long way since Shakespeare's day (I won't say in which direction.) At least now I'll know how to respond to my detractors when I visit London later this summer. I hope I'm not too much of a "dodgy" "git" for admiring Momus.

I've made pretentiousness a hobby of mine, so it doesn't bother me in anything else.

Thank you for the slang terms...I'm a little disappointed to hear what wanker means in Britain, though. And sod. In America, they still have strong sexual connotations, which makes them more amusing.

Doesn't *everything* have stronger sexual connotations in puritan America?

Hold on, didn't you forget to mention that Bollocks are testicles? And that Wank is a euphemism for masturbate? Never mind the Guy Ritchieisms, let's start with the literals!

eyepatch

I saw MOMUS live at The Mercury Lounge during the Little Red Songbook tour with TOOG and Kahimi Karie. I wrote a review.. He's brilliant!

http://www.geocities.com/sscwon/momusliv.html

One more definition needed, if you will ..... "spiv" and/or "spivy". Thanks from a Yank.

greasy blackmarketeer, cad, unreliable sort

likeable? yes
prat? no

Don't ask me, I don't even know who Momus is, mate.