A story narrated by a repulsive man:
“So we all sat down. I broke open some beers, lunged towards my friends menacingly and then out of my mouth leapt a fatal error, a serious faux pas. ‘Cheese!’ I proclaimed enthusiastically. Reminded of my mistake by a certain obnoxious and displeasing character, I then refused to give them the pleasure of my recognition of the goof. ‘Cheese!” is what we say in Swindon I proffered: “it’s a referent for mocking those we consider to be of intellectual inferiority. Those who constantly say ‘cheers mate this’ and ‘cheers mate that’, it really is quite irritating.” What a cheesehead!
A reflection by an amiable gentleman:
Can the word cheers be an indicator of one’s intellectual capacity? Or is the narrator just a middle class idiot? My opinion tends to waver on the former. ‘Cheers’ is a word that is creeping into conversational commonality on a parallel to the usage of the word ‘cheese’. We cannot bite into ‘cheers’ but the word itself bites into us. ‘Cheers mate’ is one of the warmest responses we can garner from one another; it takes away the formality of a curt ‘thank you’ and instead infuses plenty of familiarity and comfort.
Cheese is nice also; it can give as much emotional warmth as a nice cheers can, let alone a strong aftertaste. Both can be uttered intimately among friends and lovers. Here is a delightful little example: “Cheers, (whilst smashing glasses) it’s good to be in the company of such good cheeses/a good cheese”. So why can’t one say “cheese” instead of “cheers”, I think the connotations of both are generally positive, one is shouted when you’re getting lathered with alcohol, the other when your posing in that reluctant photograph.
So lets have three cheers for cheers and cheese. Hip hip hooray.