band aid 30, a collaboration of pop & rock stars from britain,ireland & africa recorded a new version of do they know it’s christmas? that was released this holiday season to mark the thirty year anniversary of the original band aid recording and to collect money to help fight the ebola epidemic in western africa.
reaction has been mixed and it’s the subject of my latest youtube vid.
the video contains a lot of vocabulary that may be new to u…
egg nog (cloverstorenetta.com, thepulsemag.com)
egg nog is a traditional american drink at christmas time. though it is an icon of the season, a lot of people don’t like it.
ebola survivor will pooley described the video as cringeworthy, a word that is a combination of cringe (pull away physically,be embarrassed or feel awkward or uncomfortable) and worthy (deserving). there are several examples of cringes in the video.
a cringe
i.e. (an abbreviation of the latin expression id est) means in other words. it is often confused with e.g. (exempli gratia) which means for example.
the shit is perhaps the most confusing of the shit expressions that we have in english. the natural tendency is to understand shit as something negative, however the shit is something impressive or excellent.
sinead’s dancing in “the emperor’s new clothes” video is the shit
there is another shit example in the video that is not negative:
sinead o’connor is in this shit!
shit in this scenario means thing and refers to band aid 30’s video, i.e. when i first saw it, i was surprised to see sinead o’connor. i am a fan.
fun english practice 
richyrocks english on youtube
nevertheless, while sinead has publicly told critics of the record to “shut the fuck up“, i believe singer-songwriter lily allen is correct that the video makes the artists look smug (overly satisfied with their efforts) and even more than that, detached & superficial.
what do u think? do u like the band aid song? do u support their efforts to help africa or is it smug and cringeworthy? post your feelings under leave a reply and any additional vocabulary queries u may have.
