The Phrase 'Rape and Pillage' | David Mitchell's SoapBox

Really appreciate that he acknowledges that vikings didn't wear horned helmets

This could just be the human response of being unable to cry about some thing forever and to progress to making light of it. I say this as a person who looks more Aryan than a German (at least that is what my German girlfriend thinks) but only has UK heritage. It makes me wonder how much Viking wenching went on in my genetic past?

when was 'Rape and Pillage' funny ? you are a sick lot to find that funny

Spot on 14 years later

It's happening in the present day too and just as bad if not worse than the Vikings. It's 2024 and hundreds of barbarians are entering the UK every day.

So elected scumbags would rape, pillage for the term 😮

This explains why my solicitor wanted me to wear a moose cap with antlers.

Just imagining what those unsuspecting monks at lindisfarme went through.

"You can't make a joke about rape." "No such thing as a funny rape joke." Yet here is David...

David is really so intelligent and a genius in making atrocities sound funny but make you think about them.

Why do you say 'maybe in 500 years time'? If you simply said 'maybe in 500 years', would that confuse everyone? 500 years? What could he mean by that?

This is the most comprehensive explanation of "too soon". It took twenty years before Hogan's Heroes was acceptable. Couldn't have made that in the 40s! Probably! But then if you think about it, a comedy show about a Nazi POW camp is a lot less offensive than the actual atrocities which occurred. Hell, people were cracking wise about Nazis and their "shenanigans" before and during the war. The 2090s are a long way off. And with modern medicine it's possible we'll still have Holocaust survivors, if not actual Nazis, with us still. By the way, Hogan's Heroes in German exists, complete with the armbands and uniforms unredacted. It's true! I watched it on TV in a penzion in Berlin. Schultz was even funnier auf Deutsch! Nazis suck by the way. Just want to make that clear. They aren't actually funny.

I am impressed how he rants about the usage of a word, and then purposefully missuses another

I noticed this in the Blackadder series. In the earlier (medieval, Elizabethan and Georgian) eras, Blackadder literally murdered people on several occasions, arranges for people to be killed by others, has innocent people imprisoned, etc. By the time the WW1 series rolls around, though, his antics are mostly limited to avoiding dangerous duties, as the earlier approach would have been rejected by the audience in such a recent setting.

i would have loved to have been a viking running around Europe doing lots and lots of R&P, so there!!

I think British humour and my Mum's anxiety inducing stories are the reason why I'm numb to the word "rape". Only with social media self censorship like "grape" or "SA" and a conversation with new friends in a restaurant did I realise it might be a sensitive word. This lady was of a slightly older generation. She would say the "r word" in her story because she wouldn't want to trigger anyone who might overhear and would have had a bad experience. Fair enough but she would happily say the actual word that was slur for mentally handicapped that began with r. She explained she didn't mind doing this because her generation and culture, it was ok to say that word and not be emotionally charged (Dublin ladnculture). I told her for me it was the other way around. Rape was a Dumbledore approach to Voldemort scenario, not saying the word created fear of the thing itself. It's awful, but it has more power has a hushed up topic. Slurs on the other hand are just used to make people feel like nothing, and make non-those-people, apathetic. Its like the f word for gay people or the n word for black people, not saying it shows respect for them. And as someone who's autistic and has had that word used against me, if I see you using it I won't have any reason to assume you were no different from them. So I can appreciate David Mitchell's dry logic humour making rape not so faux pas to talk about, even if this video has nothing to do with slurs.

That’s what I say about Hitler, he’s awful yes, but only seems to be the worst human ever because it has happened so recently.

And yes people who are from different continents, cultures, centuries, they don’t matter that much for what’s worth.

Pretty sure the "rape" of the phrase alludes to the figurative rape of the raided settlements i.e. "pillaging".

Eh' as an American/German descent I would say 2143 is when ww2 will be funny your forgot to take in account both sides still exist and 2043 is when germans are allowed to gather and celebrate in mass agin so long as both arms are either up or down at the same time at no time can a german have one hand up whist the other is down, they raise both hands to answer questions in class.

You are the ones that made a sketch about Auschwitz so WWII may be funny now.

I never thought it was a good thing but I did use the phrase to refer to playing Dungeons and Dragons back in the 80s

Excellent point, but to be fair to the Vikings, they weren’t the only ones raping and pillaging. It seems to have been a chronic problem in medieval times.

I'm 51 years old and my uncle Jimmy who is still living says about the English! RAPE AND PILLAGE ☘️🇮🇪

Um... I don't think anyone (apart from David Mitchell) actually thinks Rape and Pillage sound like a jolly weekend jaunt.

I feel like since Me Too, nobody ever uses the “rape” in a light-hearted context anymore.

Ironic, a Brit talking about rape and pillaging

Eff off, Britain divided United India creating faux political nations like Pakistan and Bangladesh, they looted $45T from united india

Wow, thirteen years ago we still had history. Before the Cull.

Many historians question how rapey the Vikings really were considering it was Christian monks writing the history.

Well, I have the funny hat. Does anyone have a time machine I could borrow?

To all those saying rape didn't have sexual connotations back then: it doesn't matter because it does to us, and the flippancy Mitchell is decrying is ours. It's our attitude to the phrase he's questioning.

And this is why I'm proud of my English half.... even the N@zis said that the English were quite a clever bunch.

A spoon full a sugar to help the rape go down

pseudo historian.

I watched this a few times to try to wrap my head around it. Is this a "historian" speaking of vikings "raping and pillaging" while negating to mention the history of the catholic crusades? I have not watched other content, so he may call out the other parts of history in other videos. If so, my apologies. I just find this the pot calling the kettle black. The British empire decimated anyone that did not bend the knee. Hence, we still have to this day the "commonwealth". I am Canadian, no disrespect to the Queen and here family. But, I don't give a $#!+ about them, as they do not give a $#!+ about me. What have they done to deserve notoriety, minus, just being there.
Please do a video on how and why your queen has such power.

No one expects

Ah David.I know you only have a few minutes,but,'The Red Army ', did no more raping, than the troops invading from the west. I listened to a BBC documentary on the subject and they exploded the myth,that this was an exclusive and aberrant activity of the Russians,by looking at the evidence that the USAmerican troops,raped (and,no doubt,pillaged),at the same disgusting level as those godless commies. Not a single mention of the British army, but their lack of anything to suggest the Brute did not participate....well it implied,that the British documentarians, were,unlike the soldiers being a little coy.

This would be a fantastic intro to Hardcore History's Wrath of the Khans.

is this why chicks try to look cute? if all the men killed and controlled it keeps the women safe as in the "winners" are going to keep the cute ones

“A spoon full of sugar to help the rape go down”. ROTFLMAO!!!

rap·ine
/ˈrapən,ˈrapīn/
nounLITERARY
the violent seizure of someone's property.
"the fruits of violence and rapine"

"rape and pillage" is not a phrase.

And murdering is left out all together!?!

Does he not know the meaning of rape?

Since my comment was deleted for some reason, let me state again: the Red Army were not the worst when it came to wartime sexual violence. The German Army r*ped millions of women across Eastern Europe and forced women in occupied countries into sexual slavery. It is believed that up to 10 million women were r*ped by German soldiers. This has been forgotten.

"If you want to get away with an atrocity, try to commit it a millennium ago, and if at all possible, spread a rumor you were wearing a funny hat."

Soooo, catholicism?

And considering all the atrocities that Germans committed against the Soviets, the Soviet army actually showed a lot of restraint in its treatment of German civilians, believe it or not. Do not fall for Neo-Nazi propaganda.

Thor: Yeah I spent a thousand years with Loki raping and pillaging.
Jane: You did what now?

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

Rape originally meant to take by force. A smash and grab is rape, pilfering is not. It only took the modern meaning as a euphemism.