Calamity Jen - S1-E2
Question: In this episode, there's a commercial about "999" being changed to a ridiculous long number. While I get why it would be funny, was there some basis for joke itself? Like, was there talk about the UK changing the emergency number or something? Or is it just completely random. And when Roy says "how hard is it to remember 911, I mean 999", is this just a joke for American viewers to understand what 999 is? Or do British people say or use "911" too?
Question: In a second-season episode Roy wears a cool shirt that simply says 'meh' on it. Has anyone else on another TV show worn this shirt? I've seen it somewhere before but I've never seen the IT Crowd so it's not by Roy. Thanks.
Answer: The shirt is available from www.ThinkGeek.com and is fairly popular in the nerd culture, so it's possible you've seen it in real life or online.
Answer: It's a joke on the "118" numbers in the UK. 118 numbers were used for directory enquiries and adverts for them on TV always tried to give a way to easily remember one for a particular company. The fake ad in the show takes it to the extreme. People in the UK do not use "911", the point of the joke was that Roy had forgotten "999" while saying it was easy to remember.