익명 20:42

Random Latin in Interview with "Count" Binface [closed]

Random Latin in Interview with "Count" Binface [closed]

In a recent news clip out of the UK, there's a line that's puzzled me as, superficially, it sounds like random Latin interspersed with normal dialogue. It comes from an interview with a comedian in the persona of Count Binface, who, under that name, ran as a joke candidate in the Makerfield by-election.

For full context, here is the exchange:

Interviewer: Do you live in the constituency [Makerfield]?
Count Binface: I do tonight.
I: Well, it sounds like you don't.
CB: What, do you?
I: No, of course not, I don't live here, no!
CB: So why should I?
I: A lot of candidates like to boast that they're local. You're obviously not too concerned about that.
CB: Well, I'm looking at the putative prime minister, Nigel Farage. He spends more time in America than he does in Clacton [the constituency which Farage represents].
I: You don't think Mr. Burnham [the winner of the by-election] is the putative prime minister, then?
CB: Well they both like— puto, putare, putavi, putatis— that they would be the next PM!

(If you're curious: it occurs in this video at 2:24.)

I don't know what to make of it. It reads like more than just nonsense for humor's sake given it interrupts an otherwise coherent line of speech. It's likely a reference I'm not getting. It sounds as though it's just conjugations of the verb "puto," meaning think, believe, or suppose, the sort of thing one might memorize when learning Latin.



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