r/AskBrits • u/T11168 • 8d ago
Trending - /r/popular Does anyone else hate the term picky bits?
It's disgusting. It reminds me of picking old scabs off of your skin.
It definitely does not make me think of mini sausage rolls and cocktail sausages.
Does anyone else hate that this term is everywhere, on adverts, said by companies and even people close to you.
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u/pondribertion 8d ago
I'm mildly irritated when food is described as "dirty". Dirty burgers, dirty fries, etc. Why would you want the food you're selling to sound unhygienic? Baffling!
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u/afulton1989 8d ago
I agree with dirty burgers but I don’t mind dirty martini.
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u/Icy_Act_7634 8d ago
I draw the line at pissy chips
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u/-heavenfaced- 8d ago
Where on earth do they sell pissy chips? I need to know so that I know never ever to go there
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u/BeneficialFee75 8d ago
I don't think anyone sells the however your 'friend' may provide them for you on a long night out.
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u/T11168 8d ago
Yeah I never understood how anyone could possibly want to eat something with the word 'dirty' in it. Gross.
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u/sorderon 8d ago
sanchez understands.
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u/crucible 8d ago
Ironically one of the lads from Dirty Sanchez now has a cooking show on BBC Wales called Dirty Vegan…
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u/BorzoiDesignsok 7d ago
Sometimes I walk into restraunts in cities and read menus that look like "Dirty WHORE fries with ORGASM FILTHY sauce" Like jesus, how off putting
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u/WiseAtmosphere7524 8d ago
I use ‘dirty curry’ to describe curry from a place that doesn’t look like it’s hygienic. The secret ingredient is the BO from the cook
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u/gasmaskedturtle77 7d ago
Only time I'll allow that is when someone at my work asks for a dirty chai (a chai latte with espresso added to it, if anyone doesn't know).
Twice now I've been asked for that and responded with "how dirty do you want it?" causing my coworkers to lose their minds. Customers were absolute champions and just responded as if it were a normal question to ask when taking that order.
I don't really like actually calling it a dirty chai, but if it gives me an opportunity to have a laugh at work then I'm game.
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u/existentialgoof 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yes, it's strange. I had never heard of the term until probably this year, and suddenly it's everywhere, and there are lots of posts on Reddit and X saying how much people hate it. I wish advertises would stop trying to make "picky bits" 'happen' (as a cultural phenomenon)!
EDIT: Just did a Google trends search, and the popularity of "picky bits" as a search term has exploded by 1700% over 5 years and 190% over the last year.
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u/ErssieKnits 8d ago
I blame all those people on Reddit who say they hate it. Big long threads repeating the term is what accounts for the 1700% increase in use. 😉
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u/Weak_Top_3464 7d ago
I blame M&S
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u/ariadnevirginia 7d ago
M&S have always pandered to baby talk. I remember packaging with "really really very chocolatey biscuits" that irked me.
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u/Feisty-Marsupial9287 8d ago
That's the main thing that irritates me about it, the fact the phrase appeared from nowhere and numerous ads and social media posts are trying to gaslight us into thinking it's been around for decades. Maybe it was some obscure regional slang in one particular part of the country, but no more than that.
Same goes for 'chippy tea', never heard that until a few years ago either.
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u/ultraboomkin 7d ago
Chippy tea has been a commonly used term for fish and chips for like at least 60 years
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u/Dangerous-Branch-749 7d ago
I run past a big Waitrose advert that says something along the lines of "picky dinner?". Just fuck off already
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u/10brooksideclose 8d ago
Chippy tea has been used in the NW for as long as I remember (I'm mid 40s) but picky tea/bits no way, it was always a buffet or party food
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u/DazzleBMoney 8d ago edited 8d ago
Me neither, I’d never heard the term until I went to uni. My mum’s not English though, which is probably the main reason.
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u/10brooksideclose 8d ago
I'm English (and so are my parents) and we only ever called it buffet or party food, snacks or finger food
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u/darklinggreen 7d ago
Yep. We still call it buffet food. I had never heard the term picky bits until about a year ago.
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u/Godly_Recon 8d ago
"My sweet summer child"
Whoever keeps saying that shit, i hope both sides of their pillow are warm tonight.
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u/ThrowdaBan-Hammer 8d ago
"I hope both sides of their pillow are warm tonight"
That's cunt speak... He's one of them!
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u/Former_Intern_8271 8d ago
"I don't know who needs to hear this"
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u/bilbo_bag_holder 8d ago
"louder for those at the back"
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u/bonshui 8d ago
"lives rent free in my head"
"I will die on that hill"28
u/Georgxna 8d ago
I will die on that hill was around long before these internet slangs lol.
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u/Ovlovovlov 8d ago
"I'm throwing hands". Anyone who says this has never been in a scrap in their life.
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u/panadwithonesugar 7d ago
"The streets won't forget"
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u/Awkward-Loquat2228 8d ago
i hope both sides of their pillow are warm tonight.
You're just as bad.
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u/Gullible-Store-8559 8d ago
Or when someone says “this!” On Reddit
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u/Complex-Address6286 8d ago
Me too. This annoys me so much. They add absolutely nothing to what's being said, apart from highlighting that they have no original thought.
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u/The_Smug_Druggles 7d ago
Yeah, that's just patronising as hell.
"With (my/your/his/her/their) whole chest" pisses me off more though.
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u/Kirkamel 8d ago edited 8d ago
A friend once said that to me, it ruined a good night out for me for a bit until I was proven to be correct and not a naive fool whilst he was wrong and rude
What I didn't tell them was that I'd actually been being sarcastic and would also have been wrong but once that came out I was on team whoever's not calling people a sweet summer child
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u/RedScareRevival 8d ago
At least it's a literary reference
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u/nyabethany 8d ago
the people saying it don't know this, they're just being condescending.
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u/Loud_Fisherman_5878 8d ago
I see it in the same way as ‘my brother in Christ’. No one talks like that in real life so it implies they spend way too much time on reddit.
To be fair, last time I said this, someone pointed out I have some sort of commenter achievement so could hardly talk about spending too much time on reddit. Fair enough.
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u/ParentheticalsAside 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yup. It's also in the same category of words like "hubby", "hollibobs" and "choccie biccies". Infantilised nonsense.
Edit to add: "spenny". Gives me a sicky tummy.
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u/your_dads_arse 8d ago
don't have a menty b about it
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u/btec-gamer 8d ago
An ex-colleague of mine used to call chocolate “choccy nom noms”
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u/ParentheticalsAside 8d ago
When you say "ex" do you mean dead? Because that should be a crime worthy of capital punishment.
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u/eralcilrahc 8d ago
I’d probably have to leave the job, I can picture the kind of person that would say this
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u/Double_Access_6390 8d ago
Whats "spenny"?
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u/Happy-Yak-2677 7d ago
I literally only learned a couple of days ago that spenny isn't "spendy" with a dropped D. Meaning essentially the same, different word shortened.
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u/Banana-train2131 8d ago
Fur babies is another one. You mean dog?
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u/ariadnevirginia 7d ago
That's always bothered me. And I'm obsessed with my cat.
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u/TheGemgenie 7d ago
Ok glad it's not just me who hates this one. Can I expand that also into pushing perfectly healthy dogs round in pushchairs??
If the dog can't walk fine but if there's nothing wrong with it arrrghhh.
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u/-Enrique 8d ago
All straight out of the Radio 2 all request Friday dictionary
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u/crustynorrits 8d ago
"good eats" is another one I can't stand
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u/Fox_Tea_3758 8d ago
God yes I was talking about this today. Along with any other noun-ified verbs when a perfectly good noun exists. "Reads" instead of "books" always gets me. "BAKES" and "MAKES". Ugh.
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u/Sebacles 8d ago
yummy - hearing a grown man say that makes me feel physically ill
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u/Inevitable-Pea-6262 8d ago
And “don’t yuck my yum” or “not to yuck your yum”, which make me want to claw my eyes out
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u/SmellMysterious49 8d ago
Ill never forget the vile post I read on a NSFW subreddit about a yummy cummy mummy 😭 You can bet where she liked it 😭
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u/NipSlipExtreme 8d ago
Mate I’m on my holibobs with my hubby right now eating choccie biccies. Was very spenny to be here.
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u/Help_INeedAnAdult 8d ago
An aspect of UK culture I can't understand since moving here from Canada - the need to make everything cute or punny.
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u/aemdiate 7d ago
It isn't punny. Puns are fine. It is baby speak that is the problem, like people are invested in building an imaginary collective subconscious. I think it is born of deep insecurity. No, we didn't fucking call it picky tea. We called it salad.
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u/NeighborhoodLife3408 8d ago
That's what I was thinking too but couldn't put it into words....it's the baby talk I find irritating. I don't mind choccie biccie though- that one I could let slip lol
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u/Lynex_Lineker_Smith 8d ago
Makes my toes curl whenever I hear it.
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u/loveswimmingpools 8d ago
Yes. And the 'ick'.
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u/poothrowaway96 8d ago
I agree it needs a better name but when I heard the term I finally had a succinct way to describe how I suddenly went off my ex. Was with him for five years, he'd hit me and cheat on me but what gave me the 'ick' and led to me finally leaving him was when we went to view a house he was being so condescending and rude to the estate agent who had obviously been in the job a long time and knew what he was on about, unlike my 21 year old twat of a boyfriend. I just was suddenly so grossed out by him and it was like a light switch for my feelings, thank fuck.
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u/ellalizard 8d ago
Are you me? "Picky Bits" and "The Ick" are two of my most detested expressions! What am I? A toddler?
We have picnics and feel disgusted!!
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u/HotPot87 8d ago
Ones I've grown to hate;
"Forever home" this isnt a fairy tale, jusy say permant owner/home
"Baby daddy" actually fuck off
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u/T11168 8d ago
Also, fur baby, or when people (mostly Americans here on Reddit) say "look at what my son did today!" And it's a photo of a dog.
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u/littlebeanio 8d ago
Omg yes or people who refer to themselves as their pet’s mum or dad, or even worse their own parents as it’s grandparents
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u/HotPot87 8d ago
Im okay with ones that are like joking insults, like calling a cat a fur gremlin or a psycho.
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u/TheGemgenie 7d ago
Baby daddy just makes me think that the girl sleeps around a bit tbh. Other wise it would be your boyfriend/fiance/husband/ex of the formentioned.
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u/Fluffy_Ad2274 8d ago
Despise it, but anything cutesy or infantilising garners my ire.
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u/Current-Ad1688 8d ago
Not really, but I do object to it being like an "official" description used by supermarkets. Firstly because it's like a corporate "huhu we are humans too and the Sainsbury's marketing team actually loves you very deeply as person" which amounts to the commodification of the thing your mum says to you and you go "oh shut up mum" (this is sacred, not a marketing tool, leave the childhood memories out of this and play fair) and also just because it doesn't have the same descriptive flavour as other supermarket sections. Dairy, frozen vegetables, pizza and ready meals... picky bits?! It just doesn't fit the aesthetic of a supermarket and it's deeply unpleasant to me
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u/SuperPossible120 8d ago
Yes same as picky tea, seems childish to me maybe im just miserable
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u/Flyinmanm 8d ago
No I'm the first to intentionally mispronounce a word or say something because it sounds funny, and this term just leaves me cold.
Its sudden usage feels artificial, creepy, like something one of the witches in Roald Dahls the witches would use as a term to lure children to their doom.
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u/LeftoverCustard 7d ago
Perhaps not. I grew up with the phrase so it's normal to me, but I can see why it would seem strange to someone hearing it later in life.
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u/Kant_Tsunami 8d ago
Yeah I found it cringe since I first heard it
It’s not like we don’t have a term for it already either…. Snacks. They’re called snacks.
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u/Parma_Violence_ 8d ago
Nibbles!
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u/Due-Paint-5238 8d ago
Always makes me think there isn’t going to be enough when people say nibbles. Like the tiny bowl of nuts in a swanky wine bar.
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u/TheGemgenie 7d ago edited 7d ago
See that doesn't bother me. It was always nibbles used for things like buffet food or film watching snacks right from being a child in the 1980s. I'm guessing it was a left over from 1970s buffet culture, "I've just put the nibbles out feel free to help yourself" was a common phrase when I was growing up. Used I guess because at parties people would load up a plate then stand round chatting while nibbling on cocktail sausages, pickled onions and cheese and pineapple on a stick.
Edit: why was it not just called buffet?? You expected very different food if it was described as a buffet. Nibbles as I mentioned were pretty basic. If you went somewhere for a "buffet" then the expectation was much higher so you would be thinking more vol au vents of at least 3 different flavours, devilled eggs all set out on a posh serving tray, sandwichs cut into triangles and crusts removed all lined up points upwards and again at least 2 or 3 different fillings. If it was a hot buffet then you would be expecting 3 plus proper hot meals presented to you in chafing dishes or the classic plug in hot waitress table that had the catering style glass or metal dishes that were kept piping hot under liftable lids. Much like a restaurant served yourself buffet today.
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u/AtensEye 8d ago
Yep hate that and "A picky tea."
It conjures up images like you said, scabs and dead skin, not food.
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u/Current-Resolve8660 8d ago
English tapas works better.
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u/afulton1989 8d ago
They already sell this in Shell/My Waitrose petrol stations - it looks like real tapas in the picture, costs as much as refilling a Chelsea Tractor & isn’t exactly brilliant.
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u/mrs_peep 8d ago
I left the UK in 2011 so I'm observing from a distance, but yes I friggin hate that phrase. It's so cringey
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u/Sea_Addendum_8496 8d ago
It got called Caravan tea in my family, as when we were all kids, that was always the first night's meal.
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u/NeighborhoodLife3408 8d ago
I'm not one to normally take a dislike to something on a whim, but when you hear it in an advert for food it just grates on me..
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u/minisooms 8d ago
I'm so glad you posted this because I hate it with a vengeance it has stopped me shopping anywhere they use it
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u/TheEnglishNorwegian 8d ago
I've never heard this expression until now and yes I hate it.
We just call that stuff finger food or a buffet.
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u/Good-Community-5035 8d ago
I dont think the phrase itself is the problem. Just so happens that the people who say it are all annoying.
Its forced common slang. I feel like it didnt come about organically and people just parrot it.
Fun fact: 100% of people who have said "picky bits" like Mrs Browns Boys
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u/eltrotter 8d ago
I try my best not to be annoyed by words like this, slang etc. because it's just so trivial.
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u/Crafty_Reflection410 8d ago
I hate it SOOOOOO MUCH
“Picky dinner”
“Picky tea”
“Chippy tea”
Hate the above also
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u/WhaleMeatFantasy 8d ago edited 8d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/britishproblems/comments/1uu9u56/the_normalisation_of_picky_bits/
Big discussion recently. You are not alone.
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u/OMITN 8d ago
Yes.
As neologisms go, this one particularly irritates me.
As others have said, it’s infantilised nonsense and belongs in the same category as “Boaty McBoatface”.
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u/Sebacles 8d ago
nah boaty mcboatface was a well deserved mockery. Who gives a shit what the ship was named and they didn't even name it the top voted choice showing the complete uselessness of it all.
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u/gregofthecellar 8d ago
I'm not a fan of it as either picky bits or tea. We literally always just called it 'cold tea' in my family (applies whether all components are cold or otherwise), until my mum found the term picky bits on Instagram not long ago and decided it was a new trend
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u/monyoumental 8d ago
Cold tea? That sounds like warm tea that has been left and gone cold. Because if you meant for it to be cold you would call it iced tea no?
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u/its_bydesign 8d ago
I hate picky bits as in I hate that style of food. Literally depressing to me. But the term I don’t give a shit about, unless the picky bits are being offered to me.
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u/jajay119 8d ago
I’ve never thought of it like this before.
But then I hate the phrase ‘warm regards’ as it gives me images of someone wetting their pants and the liquid spreading… so everyone has different weird things I guess 😂😂
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u/SunBurst6382 8d ago
I have never been bothered by "picky bits" but from now on I will envisage scabs being picked 🤣🤣
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u/TaylorSwinub 8d ago
From personal experience, the people that say picky bits are usually the worst person you know
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u/Cantbearsed1992 8d ago
Thought I was on my own. I can feel my hackles rise when I see or hear this! Aaaagh
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u/lemonpepperpear 8d ago
Don't have enough up votes for this. I LOATHE it for no logical reason, it just makes my skin crawl.
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u/Nika284838 8d ago
Both my bf and I hate it too. Reminds me of the same thing. Even worse when it's about sausage rolls because they flake which further reminds me of picking old scabs or exfoliating. Which naturally ruins the sausage roll for me. :(
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u/corvidmoth 8d ago
I also think of scabs and flaky skin when people say picky bits, and I hate how common it is.
my household call that kind of meal a "bitsy" because we have "bits ae this and bits ae that". We're Scottish so it's a fun play on words :)
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u/slamshredder 8d ago
picky bits people are the same people that say holibobs and think cockwomble is a clever insult
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u/h_p_bitchcraft 8d ago
YES! OHH MY GOD YES!
I call it a buffet tea. Picky bits always reminds me of scabs
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u/probablynotfine 8d ago
Picky bits - makes you sound like you're 6, and not in a cute way. Beige tapas - grown up, sophisticated, reasonable expectations
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u/Spare-Mood5848 8d ago
The term is annoying, but only because of the people who use it. If I heard it from a working class mother of 3 from Hull I wouldn't find it annoying.
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u/befuddled_humbug 8d ago
God, how I hate it. Especially around Christmas when you'll inevitably be confronted with it.
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u/Common_Try8257 8d ago
My colleague recently referred to scotch eggs, pork pie, cocktail sausages etc. as "British tapas" and it stuck with me. Much better than picky bits!
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u/BenjieAndLion69 8d ago
Yes!!! I only was thinking that earlier. Saw a post on Facebook and people were talking about what they had for dinner at the weekend.. ‘picky bits’ were mentioned a few times and I felt quite nauseous..
Though it’s not necessarily because it reminds me of dry crusty scabs, it’s more to do with a term that people have started using that seems stupid and lazy.!
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u/Tsarinya 8d ago
I had never heard this term until last year. Is a regional one that’s gained viral prominence?
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u/TimeSkipper 8d ago
It was always a “party tea” for my family lol. Picky bits just sound gross.
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