The Ultimate List of Top 20 Things the British Gave the World

by Drima on January 31, 2008

The Bad Stuff:

1. The Spice Girls
2. Colonialism
3. Mad Cow disease
4. David Beckham
5. America
6. George Galloway
7. Colonialism
8. Tony Blair
9. J.K. Rowling
10. Colonialism

The Good Stuff:

1. Ali G
2. The English Premiere League (as in football, not “soccer”)
3. Dido
4. Colonialism
5. The Beatles
6. America
7. Princess Diana
8. Mr. Bean
9. America
10. The English language

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Arima 01.31.08 at 11:21 am

lol! This list could be so interchangeable…personally there are alot of things I agree with you on but also alot of things I would swap around!

2 Andrew Brehm 01.31.08 at 11:53 am

Ah, well.

I always liked British colonialism. I also like Tony Blair.

I would replace “Mr. Bean” with “Blackadder” since that is really Atkinson’s key character. (Mr. Bean was probably an invention for foreigners who don’t get good humour. Even the Germans like Mr. Bean.)

Not sure how much Lady Di really did for the world…

Love the Beatles.

(It’s interesting that is a Jew in each list.)

Don’t forget the abolition of slavery, rule of law, equality before the law, and free speech. Those we also given to the world mostly by the British.

And then there was beating up the Nazis, also kudos to the British (and Americans, obviously).

Is any country in the world really doing worse now because it was colonised by the British? Are many countries doing better now than when they were British colonies?

3 Precious 01.31.08 at 12:06 pm

You must be kidding me about J.K.Rowling! C’mon!!!

4 Craig 01.31.08 at 12:20 pm

America belongs under “colonialism” :P

5 Dalu 01.31.08 at 2:04 pm

Your list is sooo messed up.

How dare you put David Beckham under bad stuff. And JK Rowling? Come the fuck on.

Ali G is good? Are you serious?
DIDO?!!!!!!

I don’t like you anymore. :P

6 Drima 01.31.08 at 5:45 pm

Well it’s *MY* list. Make your own if you don’t like it.

Muahahahaha! :P

“Don’t forget the abolition of slavery, rule of law, equality before the law, and free speech. Those we also given to the world mostly by the British.”

That’s why I put colonialism once under “Good Stuff”.

Precious and Dalu, I HATE Harry Potter. And yeah, you’re not the only ones who want to smack me. So do some of my friends too. I was forced to read a few H.P. books by one of them. I couldn’t get past the first 10 pages. *Yawn*.

Oh and David Beckham is waaaay to overrated!

As for Dido, she’s the BEST recent musical export of the UK. I LOVE her! Corinne Bailey Rae is wonderful too.

Last but not least Ali G (aka Borat) is unbeatable! :D

7 Khalid 02.01.08 at 12:33 am

I think the worst thing British people introduced into the world was ‘reality tv’ … i remember when it first started here in britain and soon all of america, europe and the arab world were making their own version of reality tv…

The best thing has to be shakespeare and all the great 19th century books by authers such as Jane Eyre, the Bronte Sisters, Charles Dickens… and yes Harry Potter too :P

8 DeTamble 02.01.08 at 1:10 am

I can understand why HP is in the bad list. Even though I do like it but yeh it can be a tad irritating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You forgot to put Doctor Who in the good list Drima.

9 Drima 02.01.08 at 3:40 am

Dr Whoooo?

And damn, I should have put Shakespear under good stuff.

10 Andrew Brehm 02.01.08 at 9:38 am

‘reality tv’

I thought that was Dutch?

11 DeTamble 02.01.08 at 11:50 am

Shakespeare sucked anyway he was a total rip off artist, all his plays are folk tales from other countries!!

12 Dalu 02.01.08 at 4:37 pm

Honestly, I don’t know why I love harry potter it always annoyed the hell out of me when I read them. But it was like crack and I couldn’t stop. :’( The stories are not very original and I have for sure read better stories before.

13 ito 02.01.08 at 11:28 pm

The Premiership definitely. Just watch them shoot the ball and not bore you to death for 90 minutes like some La Liga teams. I think Spice Girls and Beckham should be a package deal. As much as I like Borat I wouldn’t want his tan lines.

14 ron 02.03.08 at 1:17 pm

Ali G belongs in the bad section, Princess Di belongs nowhere, and there are actually a ton of British bands better than The Beatles.

15 Andrew Brehm 02.03.08 at 1:26 pm

Ron,

Have you seen “Talladega Nights”?

Ali G. definitely belongs in the good section!

16 Nominally Challenged 02.07.08 at 7:49 am

The English language deserves to be much higher than Ali G. And “Mr. Bean” should definitely be replaced by “Blackadder” - if you don’t know what that is, go and watch it immediately!

Also, where’s Monty Python? I think that they can replace at least one of the Americas and certainly could replace Princess Di.

17 Bikal Dhungel 02.16.09 at 4:09 pm

The best thing British gave to the world is probably BBC , Beatles, Monarchy, Premier League, Cricket etc
The worst thing the British gave is the independence to India. India war far better under Britain. see now, forced prostitution, dirty politics, 32 million street people ( they also sent satellite to the moon) .

18 bollywood songs 11.16.09 at 9:23 am

interesting list of 20 things.

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