The British-English phrase am I bovvered? is used rhetorically to express indifference to, or a lack of concern about, something.
The word bovver represents a nonstandard pronunciation of bother.—Cf. bovver boy.
Originally, am I bovvered? was a catchline used by Lauren, a teenage girl interpreted by the British comedian and author Catherine Tate (Catherine Ford – born 1969) in The Catherine Tate Show, a British television comedy series written by Catherine Tate and the British comedian and author Derren Litten (born 1970); this comedy series was broadcast in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2015.
Lauren’s catchline first occurred in the first episode (broadcast on Monday 16th February 2004) of the first series of The Catherine Tate Show—as transcribed in Am I Bovvered? The Catherine Tate Show Scripts (London: Fourth Estate, 2006):
LAUREN BING BING
LAUREN AND HER FRIENDS ARE ON A TRAIN.LAUREN Did you see Beyoncé last night on the television?
RYAN Yeah, man. She is well fit.
LAUREN That’s a well nice song.
RYAN Yeah, she’s fit as well.
LIESE She’s better now she’s left Destiny’s, don’t you think?
RYAN Much better. But the other two were fit, man.
LIESE Yeah, I love that tune.
LAUREN Yeah right, she’s well bing bing.
RYAN What?
LAUREN I said Beyoncé is well bing bing.
LIESE What is she, mate?
LAUREN She’s bing bing.
RYAN It’s bling bling, mate, bling bling.
LAUREN What?
LIESE Bling bling.
RYAN Bing bing! That is bad.
LAUREN Am I bovvered?
RYAN That is funny, man.
LAUREN Am I bovvered though?
RYAN Take the shame, man.
LAUREN No, ‘cos I ain’t bovvered.
RYAN You’ve shown yourself up there though, innit?
LAUREN No I ain’t because I ain’t bovvered.
In the following from the Daily Star (London, England) of Friday 12th August 2005, Catherine Tate explained why she became a comedian:
Ginger’s defence
Telly comic Catherine Tate says she started telling jokes to stop being bullied about her red hair at school.
Catherine, 36, whose most famous comedy creation is schoolgirl Lauren, who repeats: “Am I bovvered?”, claims her gags would stop the bullies.
She said: “I made people laugh to stop them looking at me. I definitely preferred being called funny to being called Ginger.”
These are the earliest occurrences that I have found of the phrase am I bovvered? used without explicit reference to the character created by Catherine Tate:
1-: From an interview of the British jewellery designer Solange Azagury-Partridge, by Cat Callender, published in The Independent (London, England) of Thursday 24th November 2005:
“There is something a bit naff about the jewellery business. Most jewellery is a bit Escada or Max-Mara. It’s not called the jewellery business for nothing. It’s a business that’s largely run by men who don’t look at the emotional aspect of what jewellery means to women. That’s the difference between a woman who is making jewellery and a man who is setting up a business. I think it shows that it’s not coming from the heart. Anyway,” she says, suddenly changing tack, “Whatevarr—am I bovvered?”
2-: From When did teenagers start dressing like this?, by Rowan Pelling, published in The Independent (London, England) of Sunday 8th January 2006:
I recently bought myself a pair of black, knee-length breeches from Oasis’s vintage-look range that clung like a second skin. The fabric and cut were classy, but what really persuaded me was that, two years shy of 40, I could squeeze into such a scrap of cloth in the first place. Even so, as I preened in front of the changing-room mirror, a snide little voice inside my head whispered, “Just because Madonna can, doesn’t mean you should.” “But I must and will have them,” I hissed back at the little voice. “They’ll look bitching with my gold stack-heeled disco sandals and sequinned cape.” “Yeah, for all those occasions for when you and Beyoncé go clubbing,” sneered the voice. “Am I bovvered?” I replied, and went to seek more constructive advice.
3-: From the following photograph illustrating The official Celebrity Big Brother 1 paper, published in the Daily Star (London, England) of Wednesday 18th January 2006—shouting at each other are two contestants, Michael Barrymore 2 and Pete Burns 3:
… Am I bovvered?
WHEN BITCHES ATTACK: Michael Barrymore and Pete Burns larking about yesterday
1 Celebrity Big Brother was a British-television reality game show, broadcast from 2001 to 2018.
2 Michael Barrymore (Michael Ciaran Parker – born 1952) is a British comedian and television presenter.
3 Peter Jozzeppi Burns (1959-2016) was a British musician, singer and songwriter.
4-: From the Daily Star (London, England) of Sunday 12th February 2006:
Jude “Woopsie” Law 4 looked more than a little camp during his latest night out at London’s Groucho club. Maybe it was the 32-year-old’s way of publicly declaring: “Am I bovvered though?” that former fiancée Sienna Miller 5, 24, is about to get cosy with a room full of single men.
4 Jude Law (born 1972) is a British actor.
5 Sienna Miller (born 1981) is a British actress.
The phrase am I bovvered? occurs in much more serious contexts—and with explicit reference to the character created by Catherine Tate:
1-: In the account by Mark Reynolds of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology conference held in Bournemouth on Thursday 5th January 2006, published in the Daily Express (London, England) of Friday 6th January 2006:
Teachers were told last night to tackle classroom violence by praising disruptive pupils rather than telling them off.
[…]
[…] Psychologists Dr Jeremy Swinson and Professor Alex Harrop […] argue that the key to controlling riotous behaviour is the giving of gentle compliments, which they claim can transform yobbish pupils into polite, well-ordered students.
Disciplining an unruly child in front of the whole class was the worst thing a teacher could do, the researchers said.
Dr Swinson said such a tactic only provoked difficult pupils into the kind of “am I bovvered?” response coined by TV comic Catherine Tate.
2-: In the account of a debate on social exclusion, which took place in the House of Commons on Thursday 11th January 2007—source Hansard:
Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for Washington and Sunderland West:
I want to take this opportunity to inform the House of just a few examples of the work being done in my constituency. I recently had the privilege of accompanying the Gateshead young women’s outreach project to the Philip Lawrence awards. The girls had set up a project entitled “Am I bovvered?”, a phrase made famous by one of Catherine Tate’s characters. The project is all about safe drinking, acknowledging that young women want to drink and will drink, so it is no good just saying, “Don’t drink. You’re too young, it’s bad for you.” The young women decided to encourage sensible and safe drinking by setting sensible limits and giving sensible tips such as “Don’t drink on an empty stomach”. That seems obvious to us, but young people who have never drunk before do not always realise that it is important. They are also advised not to mix their drinks, and to drink soft drinks in between the alcoholic ones. They are also given tips on staying safe, including keeping an eye on their drink and looking out for each other.
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