John Sullivan, the creator of the long-running sitcom Only Fools and Horses, has died. The series had some great lines, and some of the characters' catchphrases have become classics, eg 'what a plonker'.
The phrase 'lovely jubbly' (meaning "great, fantastic") was coined by Sullivan as one of Del Boy's favourite sayings. It is now in the OED, which says that it derived from a 1950s advertising slogan for a soft drink called Jubbly (that slogan was actually 'lubbly jubbly').
Such is the power of the phrase that it has spawned new senses of the word. The original sense was a response to success or anticipated success, and on Only Fools and Horses Del Boy frequently rubbed his hands together in delight, or anticipated delight, as he uttered it. The OED says of this sense:
The phrase is freq. used to suggest typically English (esp. London) attitudes and behaviour, or questionable business dealings like those of the South Londoner, Del Boy Trotter.
Soon after 'lovely jubbly' started appearing regularly in episodes, it gained another meaning, namely 'money': the Bloomsbury Dictionary of Slang has the phrase 'lots of lovely jubbly'. Having started as an interjection, it then became an adjective.
Lovely jubbly has various spellings, some of which aim to reproduce the South (Sarf) London accent, eg laaverly jubberly.
Here's a BBC article about some of Sullivan's other well-known catchphrases, both from Only Fools and Horses and also from Citizen Smith, which he also wrote.
Only Fools and Horses is now showing in Australia at 6:30 every evening on Fox Classics. It may be 4:30 in the eastern states, check your local guides, as they say. The shows are from the mid 80’s but still hilarious.
http://www.oztvreviews.com/2011/04/farewell-john-sullivan-rip/
Posted by: MaxP | June 09, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Lovely Jubbly is certainly a phrase which has been derived from Only Fools and Horses. What an iconic programme which has certinaly made the way in which we talk and use language funny.
Posted by: English Translator | September 04, 2011 at 02:04 PM
Only fools and horses has to be congratulated for giving us phrases like lovely jubbly, you plonker, git and words that the rest of England did not know existed out of London. Brilliant show!
Posted by: Grace | October 29, 2011 at 11:32 AM
Thanks for all your comments.
Posted by: Virtual Linguist | October 31, 2011 at 09:42 AM