Britain: Invents the word ‘soccer’
US: Also adopts the word ‘soccer’
Britain: Switches back to ‘football’ and starts making fun of the US for using the word ‘soccer’
Anakin Skywalker voice: It’s outrageous, it’s unfair! (Well, actually, Obi-Wan is the one giving the lecture here, and the Jedi are big on historical accuracy — the problem is they never taught this history in the Temple.)
The best part of this meme is that it’s genuinely true, and the truth makes it funnier. ‘Soccer’ is a British invention — a late 19th-century Oxford slang shortening of ‘association football’ (assoc → socca → soccer), the way ‘rugger’ was short for rugby. The British upper classes and their boarding schools were using ‘soccer’ before Americans had ever heard of it. America just kept using the word the British gave them, like a good colonial product, while Britain quietly dropped it and pretended they’d always said ‘football.’
It’s the etymological equivalent of Britain giving America a hand-me-down, watching America wear it for a century, and then mocking the Americans for still wearing it. The Americans are literally using the British word — the British abandoned it and now act like it’s an Americanism. It would be like Rome inventing Latin and then laughing at Italians for speaking it.
Appreciation:
– ‘Soccer’ was Oxford slang in the 1880s. ‘Rugger’ (rugby) is the same pattern. So the poshest voices in England are the true origin of the ‘American’ word — the joke is that an Etonian invented it and a Texan got blamed.
– The US adopted soccer when it was just a name; Britain adopted football when it was already a century of tradition. Both are right, both are wrong, and both will never admit it.
– Football (association) was codified in London in 1863 — 62 years before FIFA’s first World Cup. The word ‘soccer’ was born in England; the word ‘football’ was born everywhere else. The only true winners in this meme are the Scots, who invented ‘fitba’ and never once asked anyone’s opinion.
– And yes: the Anakin/Obi-Wan ‘from my point of view the Jedi are evil’ scene is about a man who switches sides and blames the other guy for the same thing he did. Which is EXACTLY this meme. Perfect casting.
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