Time to Retire "Two Fat Ladies" bingo call?

It is still the most iconic bingo call out there, but is it too politically incorrect to still use for the two curvy figures of 88? Thankfully, Paddy Power has done the important scientific research to get to the bottom of this serious cultural question!

The legendary Irish bookmaking brand has conducted an online poll of around 2,000 Brits and asked whether the term was offensive and should be scrapped. The results are fairly surprising…

Even though the ever subtle Daily Express led with the clickbait headline, “Woke Brits want to ban classic bingo call as they say it’s ‘outdated’ and ‘offensive’,” the poll actually found nothing of the sort.

Paddy Power found that less than a quarter of Brits (24% to be precise) believed the bingo call was offensive and should be scrapped. That’s not even a plurality, let alone a majority. Seems to us like Brits are pretty much perfectly content to keep using the two fat ladies call. Heck, there’s even a Dragonfish online bingo site still called Two Fat Ladies!

What does the Data say?

However, the crosstabs do show quite a lot of varying opinions depending on who has been polled. Here are the main takeaways:

• Unsurprisingly, Generation Z (18-24 year olds) are the group most likely to think the call is offensive and should be banned. Yet, it’s only 37% of them! We’re surprised they don’t want it replaced with “Avocado plate, number 88.”
• 24% of Millennials think it should be scrapped, 19% of Gen X’ers and 16% of Baby Boomers. Again, a predictable trend but not an earth shattering variance.
• Perhaps more stark are the Geographical splits. One in three Londoners want it gone, but only one in ten Geordies up in Newcastle.
• Turns out Cardiff is the second most woke city after London. We wouldn’t necessarily have predicted that!

A spokesperson from Paddy Power was quoted as saying:

“Gen Zers feel quite strongly the phrase is past its sell-by date but that opinion is shared to a lesser extent across the generations and geographically.”

Unfortunately, we don’t have all the data, but we’d be interested to see how many people responded “Don’t know, don’t care.” We’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the question of the future of “two fat ladies” is not occupying the minds of too many Brits in the current environment…

An Alternative Call?

To play devil’s advocate, there’s no doubt the phrase sounds like it originates in a different era. Our resident bingo call expert Dale explored many of these phrases in more detail under our fantastic 1-90 Bingo Caller. He explored even filthier alternatives to classic calls and potential safer ones to the very call for number 88.

You can see he almost threw up a little in his mouth when describing the sanitised alternative “two body positive ladies,” but did find a popular call that circumvents the entire gender and weight discussion entirely. How about “Wills and Kate, number 88”? It ticks the British box and it rhymes (which two fat ladies never has, to be fair).

So what do you think? Should we retire the iconic “two fat ladies” bingo call? Is this all a fuss about nothing? Is there even a fuss?

What are some new alternatives that doesn’t make the stomach churn?

The comments section is open below to all your brilliant ideas.