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I saw a reference to PEACOCKING/PUA stuff in an early-80's British sitcom:

it was in the 1981 christmas special for the TV series "...
Talented Lodge Main People
  04/21/18
...
Wonderful depressive
  04/21/18
very interesting. the more things change, the more they stay...
Bateful gas station becky
  04/22/18
And then you get shitlennial journalists who simply come up ...
cobalt out-of-control clown set
  04/22/18
right. it's awful, because it just creates a GLUT of needles...
Bateful gas station becky
  04/22/18
it also got big in the 60s and 70s iirc there were corny sed...
Mustard underhanded antidepressant drug field
  04/22/18
those are valuable
Bateful gas station becky
  04/22/18
PUA stuff is like management textbooks - obvious shit that a...
cobalt out-of-control clown set
  04/22/18
watched the whole episode OP ty
Mustard underhanded antidepressant drug field
  04/22/18
it's a pretty good show for a low-budget sitcom. especially...
Talented Lodge Main People
  04/22/18
another bit of dialogue from that episode that probably woul...
Talented Lodge Main People
  04/24/18


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Date: April 21st, 2018 7:12 PM
Author: Talented Lodge Main People

it was in the 1981 christmas special for the TV series "Only Fools and Horses." it so surprised me that i took a screenshot and transcribed some dialogue for you guys. the episode is online here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6d5m7w

the show opens with one of the characters reading a book on how to attract women called "Body Language":

https://i.imgur.com/jkuC7Zo.jpg

the premise is that the brothers (the main characters) are spending christmas with their granddad so that he won't be all alone that day. he botches the christmas dinner, and the brothers head off to a club to pick up women. the younger brother ('Rodney') is cautious and anxious, while the older one ('Del') is flashy and confident.

at 21:08, there is this exchange. i've done my best to transcribe it, but i'm not a british english masterman, and i had to look a couple things up, so it might not be 100% accurate:

RODNEY: You're flashy, aren't ya? You think you know the lot, don'tcha? Everything about you is... lairy.

DEL: What do you mean 'lairy'?

RODNEY: Look at the way ya dress, to begin with, eh? I mean, ya make a Christmas tree look somber! And God knows how you got the courage to walk down dark alleys wearin' all that gold. When they see you comin', you must look like a mugger's pension scheme.

DEL: Listen - how'dya think - howd'ya think a PEACOCK attracts a lady peacock, eh? With his PLUMAGE. Right? Well, this is my plumage. You see - when I approach a bird, she doesn't see the real me - the young, good-looking man-about-town, own teeth, and all that sorta game. No, she sees... in her subconscious, a white yacht, floating on the blue waters of a Caribbean bay.

RODNEY: Is that right?

DEL: Yeah. With you, they see a winkle-barge sinkin' off the end of Southend pier.

RODNEY: No - because I don't need all the bullion and perfume 'n the white shoes, 'cause I'm natural. I'm ME, Del; I'm ME.

DEL: Yes, I know you're you, that's why you always end up with a dog.

RODNEY: I don't go out with dogs!

DEL: Leave it off, Rodney, you've had more dogs than Crufts! The other week, grandad took your suit to the cleaners, and found a muzzle in the pocket! No, Rodney, I know the secret; that's why I always blag the good ones.

Notes: "Crufts" is a major English dog show. "Lairy" is an English adjective for flashiness. "Blag" just means "to get," implying perhaps a bit of deception.

...

then at 25:21, there is another exchange:

DEL: Listen, what was that silly walk for? Your guts playing ya up again?

RODNEY: It wasn't a silly walk; it was body language! Look; I've got this book on it!

DEL: Body language? I thought you were limpin'!

RODNEY: I was talking to 'em!

DEL: Talking? You were lisping! What was you supposed to be sayin'?

RODNEY: The walk was saying... 'Pelvis'! 'Virility'! It was sayin', now, here comes a man who's got natural masculinity, and maturity.

DEL: Well, from back here it was sayin' 'Here comes a man with his truss on back to front'.

...

i was very surprised to see this stuff in a show from 1981.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35890508)



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Date: April 21st, 2018 7:40 PM
Author: Wonderful depressive



(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35890615)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:16 PM
Author: Bateful gas station becky

very interesting. the more things change, the more they stay the same.

you get this experience from time to time, where you come across some piece of 'modern' understanding, that was formulated by someone 30 or 300 or 3000 years ago.

'PUA' is really just a branch of the 'self-help' genre, which is really just a pamphlet-ized codification of things people have been teaching each other for millennia. there was probably a 'Seducer's Treatise' floating around 500 years ago advising dandies to 'Maketh as like the Peacock'.

what is also interesting is to go back and read the 'self help' or 'mind cure' books from the 1800s, and see how strikingly modern they are. people's informal understanding of human psychology has been well-developed since the dawn of man.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894399)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:20 PM
Author: cobalt out-of-control clown set

And then you get shitlennial journalists who simply come up with a new term, like ghosting, for an ancient human practice and think they're sigmund Freud

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894422)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:22 PM
Author: Bateful gas station becky

right. it's awful, because it just creates a GLUT of needless verbiage and redundancy.

this was the whole point of studying 'Classiscs.' ie. 'let's not reinvent the fucking wheel. let's all have one set of references for talking about what is the SAME thing.'

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894429)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:21 PM
Author: Mustard underhanded antidepressant drug field

it also got big in the 60s and 70s iirc there were corny seduction guides

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894425)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:22 PM
Author: Bateful gas station becky

those are valuable

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894430)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:18 PM
Author: cobalt out-of-control clown set

PUA stuff is like management textbooks - obvious shit that aware ppl already know to do

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894406)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 2:20 PM
Author: Mustard underhanded antidepressant drug field

watched the whole episode OP ty

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35894420)



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Date: April 22nd, 2018 5:11 PM
Author: Talented Lodge Main People

it's a pretty good show for a low-budget sitcom. especially once you get used to the accents and some of the slang.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35895317)



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Date: April 24th, 2018 9:44 PM
Author: Talented Lodge Main People

another bit of dialogue from that episode that probably wouldn't be aired on a modern show in today's UK:

RODNEY: We're all charging toward the cliff-edge of terminal boredom! Like a herd of... what's them things that commit suicide all the time?

DEL: Japanese?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3956068&forum_id=2#35912931)