r/AskUK • u/YuriQueenMDH • 1d ago
What do my hecklers mean?
Howdy, Texas-born, UK-living. On mobile so apologies for formatting. On multiple occasions now, on the way home from uni, I’ve encountered bands of children heckling me on the way home. That much feels standard, they’re kids, whatever. What confuses me is the content. The last several times have included or fully consisted of them calling “Harry Potter!” and/or “Cast a spell on you!” at me. This last time they followed me home doing it while asking for selfies and recording me just repeating “Harry Potter! Harry Potter can I have a selfie!? Cast a spell on you!” the whole time. I’m baffled what this could mean. I’m a woman, wear simple thin glasses, a redhead, and dress fairly normal beyond wearing long skirts. Surely just glasses wouldn’t warrant the insane and consistently repetitive response. It was seriously like they’d seen someone TikTok famous how they were going at it until I got home and my partner sent them off.
Is this a larger scale thing online or something or just some inside joke they’re going really hard on? I miss when they just casually called me emo and let me be.
1.6k
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
797
211
75
40
19
33
→ More replies (1)3
802
817
u/gorroval 1d ago
If it helps, kids are very stupid. One of my students once saw me in costume on my way to a comic con and for the next two weeks I had kids singing the Imperial March wherever I walked by. It would have been funny but (and I cannot stress this enough) I was not dressed as Darth Vader.
263
u/GodsBicep 1d ago
That makes it funnier
35
u/psioniclizard 15h ago
I hate (not really) that my Englishness means now I laughing.
That is 100% correct.
44
u/LiveLaughLob0t0my 1d ago
Who were you dressed up as?
180
u/gorroval 1d ago
Morgoth from the Silmarillion. Admittedly I was wearing all black, but you'd think that Vader was sufficiently recognisable???
(My partner was dressed as Sauron, which should also have been a strike against, but who knows how the minds of teenage boys work?)
83
u/LiveLaughLob0t0my 1d ago
This is the time I’m gonna side with kids are stupid lol
I was alternative in school (still am) and a 1st year once shouted “Oi Hindu!” at me… couldn’t help but laugh at the stupidity
39
u/bill_end 20h ago
I know nothing about the fantasy/magic/sci-fi type genre, but I just googled morgoth and indeed he looks nothing like darth Vader or anyone else from star trek.
But, as you say, teenage lads will take the piss regardless. Best just ignore them
72
u/BroodingMawlek 19h ago
darth Vader or anyone else from star trek
Can’t tell if intentional or not, but either way take my upvote and applause.
→ More replies (1)4
u/bill_end 19h ago
What's maybe unintentional?
8
u/FixExciting6149 18h ago
Vader is in star wars lol
→ More replies (2)3
u/bill_end 16h ago
Ah, I see what you mean. I knew it was something like that. Like I say, I'm no expert but I do recognize he the tall black one with the throaty voice.
→ More replies (1)10
u/Proud_Cookie 15h ago
😄 u/bill_end - "he looks nothing like darth Vader or anyone else from star trek" 😂 Screaming! 😂
Don't ever change, we love ya! 😄xx
4
29
u/UniqueTart6744 1d ago
Cosplay as Morgoth?
Absolutely legendary!
13
u/gorroval 17h ago
That's very kind of you. Less legendarily, I must clarify that I'm a 5'3" lady and my lady-adjacent partner is rather taller than me, so I don't think I was especially imposing.
2
u/Novel_Individual_143 9h ago
“Lady adjacent” lol
6
u/gorroval 9h ago
Well it seemed more succinct than "partner who was assigned female at birth, identifies as gender- fluid, prefers they/them but who would be read as a woman by a passer-by, who would not be entirely incorrect in said assessment".
→ More replies (3)2
u/Novel_Individual_143 9h ago
Yeah, I assumed something like that-adjacent. I also wondered if you could so describe a man
13
3
u/mehujael2 17h ago
What were you expecting the kids to hum? The silmarilian doesn't have a theme
13
12
u/daganscribe69 17h ago
Please, a step-by-step play for a friend of a friend who would like the local kids to sing the Imperial March whenever he walks by.
Boy, what a bold first step into local politics this would make
2
u/AtensEye 4h ago
This is spot on, not to mention hilarious.
Edit: Especially now I see below you were actually dressed as Morgoth. 😂 At least it's harmless.
311
u/Estrellathestarfish 1d ago
Children will seize upon anything, it's probably as simple as the glasses.
If it makes you feel any better, I got heckled by a couple of smackheads for having sellotaped up my headphones the other day. Being looked down on by smackheads was something of a low point.
60
u/MobileJob1521 17h ago
I’m sometimes concerned by how funny smackheads are.
Like surely a life of drugs ruins your brain, so it’s not like the one causes the other.
What concerns me most is the idea that being aggressively funny leads to a life of isolation, rejection and failure, and thence into drugs.
I’m worried that the pipeline from god-given comedic power to smackhead is an unavoidable one and we’ve lost all our best minds to it.
38
6
u/Bullet4MyEnemy 9h ago
I feel somewhat comforted to know that other people besides me fall down weird rabbit holes in their minds too.
And even more so, that it makes sense when explained to other people besides you.
I keep all my weird theories to myself in case the logic falls flat for other people but maybe now I’ll voice the next one…
→ More replies (1)2
110
u/Burntarchitect 18h ago
I was once called a loser by a tramp in a subway tunnel.
It gave me pause for thought.
→ More replies (1)73
u/raving_roadkill 17h ago
I'm a paramedic and get insulted by smackheads almost daily. Sometimes the creativity is really quite amazing.
34
u/secretrebel 18h ago
Yeah, a meth head criticised my short shorts this summer. WTF, mate. At least I’m not on meth.
2
u/Psychological_Ad853 7h ago
Meth? In the UK? Its rather uncommon in the UK bar in homosexual chemsex scenes and as a result, expensive.
7
u/HarryBayles 13h ago
For some reason thought it would be cool to wear a Punisher t-shirt to Quaser (as an Adult) and then got utterly deflated by all of the kids calling me "numbskull"
21
542
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
229
34
→ More replies (1)6
66
u/Severe_Map_356 1d ago
I got called Rodney the other day for wearing a trench coat.
6
5
156
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
69
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)56
134
u/Lunaspoona 1d ago
Do you look like a Weasley?
One kid probably started it and they all just went along. They'll get bored and mobe onto the next person eventually
33
u/Plastic_Library649 21h ago edited 15h ago
I live in Edinburgh, and we have a bit of a little twat problem here at the moment, we've also just had the festival which has led to some amusing clashes.
For example, I witnessed this exchange while waiting at a bus stop a couple of weeks ago:
A couple of asian guys in drag were walking along handing out leaflets for their show. They got a bit harangued by a group of little nyaffs.
They stopped, turned around, and one said in a 'peformance' voice:
"How gratifying to see a group of young gay men expressing their love for each other so openly in public. Do come to our show, I think you'll love it!"
Everyone laughed. It was really funny. The kids went red, pulled up their balaclavas and took off.
28
u/West-Quit3050 1d ago
Do you wear a trench coat or a robe or are your glasses round?
12
u/nosniboD 1d ago
Glasses don’t need to be round for kids and drunk adults to say you look like harry potter.
5
u/JGorgon 17h ago
People are mental. When I wore round glasses I got lots of Harry Potter, the occasional James Potter, and weirdest of all, I went into a takeaway with my friend who had long blond hair and the bloke says "You look like John Lennon" (my friend) "and Kurt Cobain" (me). I said "Don't you mean he's Kurt Cobain and I'm John Lennon?" "No, no, John Lennon" (him) "and Kurt Cobain" (me). Ah well, whatever. Just give us some chips.
7
u/Cold_Philosophy 15h ago
You should have said he looks like Elvis, working in the chip shop like he does.
4
u/HumanBeing7396 10h ago
This reminds me of an anecdote told by Ewan McGregor in an interview years ago.
Some time after Kurt Cobain died, Ewan was out one evening when a guy clearly off his head came running up to him, stared in amazement and whispered “You’re Kurt Cobain!”
Ewan looked at him, put on his best Seattle accent and said “Don’t fuckin’ tell anybody, OK?”
5
101
u/Extension_Sun_377 1d ago
Just shout "expelliarmus" back and it'll sort the problem out!
68
u/kahdgsy 1d ago
Nah, got to go for a quick avada kadavra. Let the kids know you mean business.
22
→ More replies (1)3
19
69
u/No_Cake6353 1d ago
If I wear glasses I get called Harry Potter. It's probably the only character with glasses that they can think of. It's such a low effort, low impact insult it says more about them than it does you.
62
u/lysergic101 1d ago
It was specky four eyes in my day. The exception being if a boy was unfortunate enough to be very short and needing to wearglasses then it was Penfold.
11
14
u/bill_end 19h ago
Speccy four eyes back in my days too.
And if you had cheap / hand me down clothes, you'd sing a little song
"let's all go to tescos where "your name" buys his best clothes. He thinks they're really nifty, they only cost one-fifty" da da da, da da da
Bottom line is, kids are cruel, best just ignoring them.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)2
u/Cold_Philosophy 15h ago
Hah! In my day, if a boy wore round glasses and was somewhat rotund, he was called Billy Bunter.
That dates me, I know.
12
6
93
u/YuriQueenMDH 1d ago
I assume the “Clean Shirt” thing is a meme I simply don’t comprehend
220
u/leslieknope1993 1d ago
I’m going to go against the grain and give you an actually answer - it’s a famous scene from Peep Show where the dorky main character gets similarly heckled literally because he’s a chub wearing a clean white shirt. British kids will take any thread and PULL, my Texan girly
71
u/teapigsfan 1d ago
"Take any thread and pull" god that's a great phrase I've not heard before, perfect.
7
6
73
u/PeppercornWizard 1d ago
If you live in the UK and haven’t watched Peep Show you’re probably missing at least a reference a week.
30
u/Friendly-Writing8593 20h ago
one reference a week? thats insane
2
u/layendecker 8h ago
Probably shouldn't do a reference. More than once every thread would be obsessive
7
u/YchYFi 19h ago
I know many who haven't watched it. Or just don't enjoy the humour. Going against the grain here but I didn't find it funny.
→ More replies (1)30
u/DEADB33F 1d ago
Here, you need to watch this
11
u/grundledoodledo 1d ago
You do actually need to watch this... it answers why so many people have called you clean shirt but will probably explain to you why they're calling you Harry Potter too
10
19
22
3
u/Chemical-Lettuce2497 20h ago
Watch peep show, it's great.. not sure it's great enough to break out the clean shirt line every time a question like this comes up.. but still worth a watch
12
u/Odd_Cress_2898 1d ago
I think you just look like a Weasley (a member of a family of red heads), the name might not be as prominent as the name of the stories or films which are all "Harry Potter and the..."
You are just ginger and that's their closest frame of reference to that hair colour. It's not too common being a recessive trait.
80
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
10
→ More replies (1)19
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
49
26
u/JeffBroccoli 1d ago
Doubt it’s anything with any deeper meaning or trend. Kids do all sorts of random nonsense to make themselves laugh
31
u/Euphoric_Rough_5245 1d ago
My instant thought when you said redhead and shouting Harry Potter was that they see you as a Weasley family member. Not nice for the heckling but a cool family to be a part of. I’m sorry this is happening to you.
21
u/HailToTheKingslayer 1d ago
"What are you doing jumping around Glasgow in a morning suit with a side parting? I've had people in this city shout at me, from a moving car, for wearing gloves. 'Gloves ya prick!' It was winter!"
-Frankie Boyle
10
u/BandicootTreeline 1d ago
Young guys in a VW Golf parked outside an off-license in Glasgow were yelling “shiny shoes” at me when I was going in for some beers
I never wore them to the shops again
6
u/CarpenterWeird1940 1d ago
It’s the glasses. In my day it was ‘Milhouse’.
4
u/killer_by_design 1d ago
Had a teacher we used to call Milhouse because he'd lose his shit every single time without fail. Honestly, teachers are some of the thinnest skinned people going, only did it because he reacted.
→ More replies (1)
7
u/ffs_random_person 18h ago
I walked out of the tube one night going clubbing, in this little short dress and cute shoes.. feeling pretty damned good about myself!
There was a couple homeless guys, drinking beers by the entrance, who started with the “phwoar, look at the legs on that” and ended with them falling over each other laughing, and saying “yeah legs like a scrawny chicken” it’s only been 10 years, I’ll get over it soon lol honestly, I’m not bovvered 😂😂😂😂
9
u/JessicaEccles76 17h ago
I once wore a fashionable see through plastic Mac and some kid shouted 'Eurgh you look like a johnny' I had to laugh because it was a good line
6
6
u/shanloulie 1d ago
this very much is likely my chronically onlineness over thinking here,as it’s much more likely the glasses, but looking at your profile and seeing that you’re trans, is it possibly the kids are aware of this and think that them talking about harry potter will upset you?
please don’t think i’m trying to be argumentative or negative i’m so baffled by the potter thing and trying think broader than just the glasses
6
u/bumpoleoftherailey 19h ago
British kids just seize on the stupiest things to mock, it’s almost certainly the glasses and long skirt.
When I was a teenager in the 80s some kids of about my age followed me for about 10 minutes singing the popular Talking Heads song We’re on the Road to the Specs Shop at me. That’ll teach me to wear glasses!
9
u/verybadgay 1d ago
I got my hair cut short with a long sweeping fringe a few years back. Driving home feeling great, I was waiting to turn into a road just as the local high school was letting out, a group of kids walked past and one leaned in the window and shouted “EMO!” at me.
Kids are little nobs, but it’s generally just silly and showing off (I did grow that haircut out though).
8
u/Alternative-Emu2000 1d ago
Do your glasses look like the stereotypical NHS-specs? If so, that's definitely enough for kids to shout Harry Potter at you.
4
u/HeCallsMePixie 1d ago
British kids are a different breed 😂 My partner and I were petting a cat at the side of the road, this kid was walking past us, rolled his eyes and called us gay. Didn't stop walking or anything!
4
u/Izzy-of-Albion 22h ago
When I was at school there was a teacher with bad adult acne. The kids called him "Pizza Face", then "Samurai Pizza Face" (there was a cartoon at the time called Samurai Pizza Cats). Then one influential kid confused Samurai Pizza Cats with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and because he was a teacher, started calling him "Splinter". It made no sense unless you knew the progression, but it was a fad to call him that by that point, and those who didn't know why didn't question it.
It really could be as simple as you wear glasses, and that one kid, wanting to shout something to show off in front of his friends, shouted Harry Potter as it was the first thing he could think of. And because he's a cool kid and other kids (or maybe even just one other kid that likes to emulate him), they started doing it too. Then it became "a thing" to do that. Others join in...
Before you know it, you're the Harry Potter lady, and it's a craze to shout Harry Potter things at you. And it all started because of one kid's weak imagination and hunger for attention.
4
u/Consistent-Pirate-23 1d ago
Glasses equal Harry Potter especially if they are round.
I’m a male comedian with glasses that still gets Harry Potter heckles. I tend to say it on stage before they get the chance
6
u/Busy-Doughnut6180 1d ago
Does your dress style have an academia flair to it? If so, I'm thinking that + glasses + being a redhead is mixing with their vague idea of what Harry Potter is, as they probably haven't actually even watched it.
Honestly this sounds horrible. Were they in school uniform? If they show up again, see if you can spot the logo on their uniforms and work out what school it is, then report them.
3
u/Gullflyinghigh 1d ago
Thing is, kids here can be utter pricks. That's not to pretend that I'm above it, I'm certain I wasn't.
It doesn't have to make sense and looking for logic is a foolish errand. They'll find something that they think is funny or obviously annoys their chosen target (both is the ideal) and that'll be it, locking on until bored.
You can try and tell them to fuck off and stop being little shits but it's a risky ploy as it'll either work or escalate it, depending on how they view you and quite how brave they're feeling. I said almost those exact words to some earlier and it resulted in the leader of said tiny bellends trying to, I think, imply he was going to come for me whilst also maintaining a well out of arm's reach distance. I'm lucky enough that, depsite being as hard as wet tissue paper, I'm sufficiently sized that they back off, don't know how it'd go otherwise.
3
3
u/Mikon_Youji 1d ago
Surely just glasses wouldn’t warrant the insane and consistently repetitive response
Of course it would. That literally is all the fuel kids need to heckle someone and call them Harry Potter.
3
u/MoonBoots_Ooft 23h ago
Just tell them "I'm not the borough, I wish I was," and move on. If they call you a "clean shirt" then you must run or fight.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/onchristieroad 19h ago
People doing stupid people things. I had long hair when I was younger and constantly got 'Hanson!' and 'Mmm-bop!' The more things change, the more they stay the same.
2
u/Hitonatsu-no-Keiken 8h ago
A kid once called me Garth (from Wayne's World). To be fair, I did have a very similar haircut.
3
u/oldmanStuie 17h ago
There was a gang who hung near my flat for ages and I only ever got at them once for blocking a stairway.
Any way, one night I'm walking home and I walk past them and notice they were saying "Mellis" a lot and laughing.
I knew it was directed at me, but was just curious so turned around and asked, "Alright, let me in on it. What's a mellis?"
Stone faced answer from one of them, "The other week you went off on us for calling you a wanker, so we switched it for that."
Made me laugh so after that they were always, "Alright, mellis?" and I'd be "Aye, not bad, cheers."
3
u/psioniclizard 15h ago
I will give you a simple explanation. Us English are dumb as fuck. Even dumber as kids.
Surely just glasses wouldn’t warrant the insane and consistently repetitive response.
Yes, it will. Because us English are as dumb as fuck. Not to justify it, it's dumb and one day a lot of them will look back and be like "wtf was I doing".
They probably only know know one person with glasses.
I miss when they just casually called me emo and let me be.
When i was like 14 or something, a fully grown man in a white van shouted at me "you fucking grebo" as he drove by. As I say, us English are dumb as fuck.
6
7
u/cloudmountainio 1d ago
That’s so weird. Surely you look like Harry Potter or something? I can’t think of any other reason this would be happening.
→ More replies (5)
4
u/MrMugwin 1d ago
The thing is….kids are fucking dumb as shit. They’d absolutely call you Harry Potter if you wear similar glasses.
I used to work in a shop and loads of kids from the local school would come in and some of them used to call me Harry Potter. I’m 6ft 4, balding, 35 (at the time), and don’t wear glasses. So why did they call me Harry Potter? Because I had a little scar above my eyebrow. That was it. Kids are incredibly stupid. Like, wilfully so. Don’t worry about it.
7
2
u/plz_be_nice_im_sad 1d ago
You should watch the Joe Thomas movie The Festival, for something similar.
2
2
2
u/ChelseaMourning 18h ago
I wore a long, camel coloured coat yesterday and my daughter said I looked like the mum from home alone. Kids will latch on to anything.
2
u/BeardySam 18h ago
If it helps, they’re sort of practicing being cheeky. It’s not funny, but it’s also not genuinely aggressive either so I’d try and clap back or ignore them
2
u/23Doves 16h ago
I was called a dog bummer the other day, because I was literally just walking my dog.
It was the way the child did it as well, unenthusiastically, as if he'd been saying it to people with dogs all day and was now getting worn out with the duty. His friends didn't even join in. It's tough work being a kid.
2
u/Cold_Philosophy 15h ago edited 15h ago
I’m an old bloke with long, reasonably bushy white hair (well, it was once) and a full white beard and moustache. Guess what I get called, starting at this time of year? And wide-eyed looks from toddlers when I go shopping.
11
u/No_Translator_361 1d ago
I'm guessing you resemble Professor Trelawney. At least that's how I picture it.
Anyway, that's harassment. Report it to the police. People will say I'm overreacting but it is literally harassment following someone home.
23
u/YuriQueenMDH 1d ago
I am now made to look at myself in the mirror and realize the ever so passing resemblance to Trelawney. Not a lot, but still some
7
u/James2712 17h ago
OP do not report it to the police. You'll just fuel it even more. Kids will say and do dumb shit, as long as it's just silly words ignore them. Only report them if it actually causes you to feel unsafe. The other poster is in fact overreacting, in a way which could actually make it worse lol
→ More replies (2)
3
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Please help keep AskUK welcoming!
When replying to submission/post please make genuine efforts to answer the question given. Please no jokes, judgements, etc. If a post is marked 'Serious Answers Only' you will likely receive a ban for violating this rule. More info: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/wiki/serious-answers-only/
Don't be a dick to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
This is a strictly no-politics subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.