We're just normal men, we're just innocent men (Lauren and Hacker: full clip)

Lauren and Hacker T. Dog's timeless exchange from the BBC's CBBC HQ, at 3.59pm on Tuesday 1 November 2016.
Subtitles available (in Latin) via CC button.
------
"I don't know why we're doing this, Lauren."
"Because the Ice Stars [the documentary about children ice skaters, of which a trailer had appeared] did it earlier. Smile!"
"Yeh but we're not ice stars, Lauren. We're just -"
"What?"
"...we're just normal men."
...
"What do you mean 'normal men'?"
"We're just innocent men."
...
"We're playing 'From H to Q' a little bit later on, so if you'd like to play 'H to Q', email [e-mail]."
"D-d-d...oh you do it.... Do get permission and leave your phone number because, by jingo, it'll be worse than this if you don't. Oh here's Just Kidding [the TV prank show]: you'll love this."
--------
Audio enhanced from this clip: • CBBC - Lauren and Hack...
If anyone happens to be the proud owner of Ice Stars Season 2 Episode 4 "Make or Break", that presumably has the ice hockey face-off that inspired this whole affair...
In the meantime, here is the puppeteer Phil Fletcher confirming that there is no wider context to the clip: • Week 62 - Spray Social...
And, as he told Vice magazine in 2022, "I just made it up on the day, just to make Lauren laugh. It was years ago, so I can’t really remember what happened, but I think there was a trailer on beforehand where someone was being interrogated close. So I said to the sound man a few seconds before, “Don’t play the grams”, which is the underlying music. So we came back on live, silently. I said to Lauren, get your head right next to Hacker, and I just said, “We’re just normal men.” Her reaction was genuine because she didn’t know what I was gonna say, nor did I, really. It just threw her over the edge, because what does that even mean? Why would you say that on kids telly? Then the music came in. The silence was funnier, and there’s no reason why it’s funnier, it’s just nonsense!"
And here's how the magic happens: • Behind the scenes on h... and • Here’s an in-depth loo...
If perchance you fancy more on Latin and the world it came from, please do visit antigonejournal.com/ or AntigoneJournal

[@dk240996]

Don't think this gets said enough, but props to whoever decided to play the "jingle" at the exact time they did cause it absolutely added to the hilarity.

[@cordeliamaintenance6418]

that jingle needs to be released as a single

[@KieronQuinn]

According to the puppeteer (Phil Fletcher), he asked the sound team to not play the music at the start, which prompted this random remark (which has no context, he made it up on the spot). Presumably the team then played the music once they cracked up, adding to the joke. It's perfection.

[@totalbro]

@@KieronQuinngive them the Oscar

[@Bram25]

You make the joke. The tune indicates it was the end of the jokes. Like the "badum tssss" drum in some short comedy routines. "And than his sister said:"BUT NOT WITHOUT MY TROMBONE!" *Baduum tssss Family Guy does the same thing after each skit. Either the theme or a variant.

[@kakadellagoness]

Yo whats the song name

[@thomaswenglinski]

i know this version is only a few seconds longer (on the front end) than all the others, but it still feels like uncovering a secret room in an ancient pyramid

[@robinwsc]

i love this comment. it's so well expressed. thank you lol

[@anotherlemontree]

Exactly. Exactly.

[@mateuszparus]

I don't even hear what they are saying in the beginning, can you write it down

[@fuzzluvver69]

​@@mateuszparus The transcript is in the video's description.

[@skatersirian]

It's like viewing a few second before the Big Bang.

[@melissalutherpendragon]

The more I've watched this, the more I've come to understand just how foundational Lauren's "Whaddya mean normal men?" is to the whole bit. 💖

[@educateme8455]

I never not laugh to this Dear God.

[@davedarling6512]

the whole thing revolves around her snort at 0:14

[@testtickles7392]

Apprently this is something that happend on a night out

[@raphaeltoast]

The implication that 8 year old ice skaters aren't innocent is what makes this. Thank you so much for adding the transcript. 😂

[@cargoshipgaming]

No its absurdity that makes it funny! It’s just pure absurdity nothing deeper! Rahhhhh! Just the absurdity! Absurdity! Rahhhhh!

[@erichill7560]

BY JINGO I agree

[@CooperBensonskycoop]

The subtitles being in Latin is just sublime. Monty Python would be proud 😂

[@mynameisnotjerome1803]

It's the language of rich and important people.

[@DerHerrMitR]

​@@mynameisnotjerome1803It was also the language of normal men

[@FrancisHD]

The language of innocent men!@@DerHerrMitR

[@RYMONKEY3]

I didn't expect only a seconds longer clip to make it even funnier but this had me howling even more than the other one floating around

[@jaytc3613]

Fr😂😂😂😂😂

[@wacksonjittemore4013]

It's the insinuation that the opposite of normal, innocent men is child ice skaters lol

[@krangster4420]

You can see after he says 'normal men' the dogs eyebrows slowly raise, that must have been impossible for her 😂

[@yoshi314]

that mascot's facial expressions are just something on a whole new level.

[@GurdevSeepersaud]

I'm so happy you put the transcript in the description. It makes the whole thing funnier to know it still makes so little sense even with all the words written up

[@heterosapien69]

Its in fuckin latin!!

[@MrV1604]

It took a couple of seconds then I realised the subtitles were Latin and I snorted just as much as Lauren did

[@ANLacina]

i love that you put the captions in latin. perfect for this deep lore

[@ArkayeCh]

It's even funnier that Hacker couldn't hold it in himself and went "You do it"

[@Hoovaloov]

This is the first KZbin video I’ve ever seen with subtitles in Latin. It’s also the last KZbin video I’d expect to be translated into Latin. Non potuit esse perfectius. Thankfully the English subtitles (with very helpful commentary!) are in the description. Bravo.

[@sunsetman22]

SUMUS MODO VIRI MEDIOCRES

[@TheSwji]

“*Fremitus nasi*”

[@M95Cc]

Most useful KZbin description box ever

[@Olis4897]

This extended video adds much needed context to the joke and makes it funnier 😂

[@paragonjones13]

I love the dissertation this legend provided in the description. Your research is much appreciated 💙

[@theeutecticpoint]

+

[@DisasterMillennial]

that feeling when you're not the ice stars but just normal men (innocent men)

[@benwhitworth8881]

The more you know, the less you understand.

[@k__fab]

It’s 12:30am and I’ve work in the morning. I was sleepy around midnight and was ready to put my phone away until this video came up on a yt short. I have giggled and laughed my way into a second wind of the night. This moment was so funny, it’s disruptive. I love it so much.

[@Bub383]

This is the best moment of all British TV and its not even close

[@bertberw8653]

- Smile 😃 - But we're not Ice Stars, are we? We're just... - WUT 😮

[@sunsetman22]

WOH!?

[@bertberw8653]

@@sunsetman22 That's actually more accurate, thanks

[@bobtjustice]

Its the desperation in "we're just innocent ment". that sets me off :D

[@CritHit]

The delivery is perfection.

[@1020Shane]

This clip lives rent free in my head

[@torilongstaff5591]

Love the subtitles so much

[@long-shotlouie]

this clip is such an enigma

[@Rocknoob49]

WHY ARE THE CAPTIONS IN LATIN WHAT IS HAPPENING

[@jeremysimkin9028]

This is hands down the best video on youtube

[@MrShtrudL]

Doing god's work thank you so much for the clip and the information!

[@gacerioni]

Why do I love this video so much

[@kazama6245]

Cause she is hot!

[@halfdayofthejackal9372]

An added bonus to the pure joy this brings to the world is the thoughtful and nuanced analysis in the comments 🙏

[@jordanmayren786]

Fair play to him still animating hacker while dying laughing under the desk hahaahah

[@romancandle416]

I'm just a normal man, an innocent man. But sometimes...I wish I could be an ice star.

[@nezumi6554]

Shoutout to whoever made Latin subtitles for this

[@axiom2472]

I come here when i am sad

[@Cheyne_TetraMFG]

I almost always have captions on and for some reason the captions here translate to Latin , so I’m now imagining Brutus saying to Caesar “Sumus modo viri insontes” 😅

[@zero_given]

Happy Monday guys!

[@remo687]

this one and "BOK BOK BOK! I'M JUST A LITTLE KNEE-CHICK" absolutely send me 😂😂😂

[@76highjinks]

There's more context here , they are about to segue to the next kids show ,a documentary about young ice skaters called Ice Stars ,hence "We're not Ice Stars Lauren we're just normal men ".

[@NoBSTravelChannel]

I don't get the men part tho? 😂

[@Qarth56]

@@NoBSTravelChannel That's why the puppeteer starts to crack up. He realises as he says it how absurd it is given none of them are men.

[@neilwhitaker6284]

@@NoBSTravelChannel I read there was an inside joke at the studio about "we're just innocent men". Two of the crew after an office night out or Christmas party were stopped by the police cause they were bladdered. Policeman asks them a question and one of them responds "we're just innocent men". The story was recounted at work and they were laughing about it. edit: I think the police ask them a question and he panics and says "we're just normal men" policeman says "what?" and he responds we're just innocent men. Anyway this is what I read once, I don't know for sure.

[@sophiehobley828]

​@neilwhitaker6284 this has been told to be wrong by the puppeteer if you look in the description

[@METALFREAK03]

@@Qarth56 It's lauren who cracks up not Phil. Phil (aka Hacker, the puppet) just always wanted the presenter (in this case Lauren) to crack live. (aka laugh). Hence why you have this shennigan.

[@0ldar]

NEED a higher quality version of this

[@Bram25]

You can place a depressing piano under it and something like " a dog. Tormented by war, stricken by guilt!" and it is a BAFTA winning dramatic war movie.

[@Mousy677]

THEY'RE JUST NORMAL MEN

[@ayshanevolskova9273]

First time I find use for my latin skills in my whole life

[@chadpitcher9342]

That puppeteer is on point!

[@yovayova660]

And now I know what the Latin for ‘by jingo’ is.

[@orionred2489]

How did OP record this? Off a BBC VCR? I'd love to fix the sound.

[@carlharris3107]

Does anyone know the name of the theme song they use?

[@kevinkevinholt]

The Latin is absolutely brilliant

[@Tea8chSea]

great move on the subtitles sides in orbit

[@Draykidsbuthol]

why are the captions in latin?

[@letter_o_hyphen_letter_o]

we're just normal men

[@kitharrison8799]

Hacker was absolutely merciless here. Lauren is as cute as a button.

[@andromedope]

I *need* to know what possessed him to say that

[@JimboDoomface]

What do you mean? It's because they're just normal men.

[@Bleats_Sinodai]

WHY ARE THE CAPTIONS IN *LATIN*?!?

[@FrancisHD]

When I read "latin to spanish" in the subtitles I expected some neutral spanish, not freaking latin lmao, gg

[@neonrhyme]

why are the subtitles in LATIN? Help???

[@SandroCostaRomero]

*risus effusi*

[@Yuiiski-]

It gets funnier when you imagine it from her POV.

[@joeldrawsit]

Why is the transcript in latin?

[@criesinvariable2493]

I remember watching this as a child its a british tv show that played between cartoons

[@karimhussein3610]

Same, always used it as a toilet break lmao

[@leGUIGUI]

Someone can explain to me what the heck is going on with the caption? Why does it say it's in English, but Latin (???) and why, when I use auto-translate to English it become a sudden complete mess(?!??), why?

[@VintemTraducoes]

It was manually added: as (I guess) there is no option to caption a youtube video in Latin, it was classified as english instead. Most translators are not built to translate Latin. There are however some reasonable places to search for translations from Latin texts, such as some online dictionaries, Perseus and even Wiktionary.

[@LowCountryMatt]

If you try to translate a sentence from Latin to English, it's most likely going to look backwsrds till you do a lot of fixing.

[@METALFREAK03]

@@VintemTraducoes if they're British, and more precisely English, they would have learnt Latin at school.

[@giddycadet]

why are the captions exclusively in latin

[@kg7219]

Wouldn’t you love to kno

[@khalilswrld8969]

WOT? 😦

[@Eidlones]

I wish this version wasn't recorded off a screen... it would be perfect otherwise

[@coalvarner1813]

This video is so British 😂😂

[@gyorkshire257]

pro iupitter!

[@CatFashions]

Quid dicis "viri mediocres"?

[@ryanisstuckin93]

Lauren is so cute.

[@m0nk3y73]

What was he referring to tho??? Innocent men in what context??? 😅😅😂😂

[@etxkevin7452]

Explain??? I don't get it.

[@DEadSpaCE211]

We're just normal men

[@patrickmccarthy5462]

We're just innocent men

[@SandroLimaj]

*fremitus nasi*

[@ThatOneToucan]

I'm glad you put the context in the description because everybody still thinks is from a "night out" when it really wasn't People are stupid

[@VaderforprezAZ09]

nothing about this makes sense

[@Stubbino]

You've never seen a puppet having an existential crisis before?

[@sean4265]

They’re just innocent men

[@pedatoore]

Its because you are a barrel of monkeys, youre not normal men

[@smokejc]

*risus impotentes*

[@myfaceismyshield5963]

I had Latin subtitles.. what the fuck

[@dale4039]

Lauren is painfully gorgeous

[@DHU11]

You’re very impressed she’s just alright. Monica bellucci in the 90s in painfully gorgeous, Lauren is just ok

[@jaydee3216]

I get it. I think it's the snort and the explosion of laughter. Its the under lying sub text that yes She is gorgeous but I bet she is filthy too that elevates her.

[@Kjk172]

I dont get it but its still funny

[@dale4039]

i think it was because the guy who does the voice for Hacker had been arrested round about that time, he'd been falsely accused of something so that's where the "innocent" part of the joke comes in

[@djco5782]

​@@dale4039He's debunked that. It was just an ad-lib, referring to her trying to get Hacker to imitate the Ice Stars from the documentary of the same name, who do a kind of stare-off thing. I think Lauren was set off by him saying, "We're not Ice Stars, we're just normal men", when neither of them are men, then the deadpan Oscar-worthy follow-up of "We're just innocent men!" was a total absurd non sequitur that made her corpse.

[@skatersirian]

​@@dale4039oh look, someone used Google and found the Reddit link to this bs theory.

[@Aernath]

Alright, what bugs me most about this is puppetteer's official "confirmation" telling a different story than the actual recording. He literally told some other thing, but it turns out he was actually replying about a request to smile from Lauren and ad-libbed that reply in the process. It's funny either way, why not tell it as it is? One wonders...

[@expendableindigo9639]

He forgot.

[@alextrivunovic644]

Could someone explain for us non-Brits?

[@craigturner6661]

They're just innocent men

[@oskahuxley6322]

They are just normal men. Maybe it's a British thing but this is funny as fuck for me. It's such an earnestly said unnecessary thing to say.

[@jusstsophi]

What is this? 😂😅

[@fascistpride21]

Didn't understand the joke, pls explain

[@jimbobcheezeburger2020]

they're just normal men

[@fascistpride21]

What do you mean normal men?

[@marcusp7040]

Lmao

[@manephewlenny6401]

Look at Alej big-balls over here pretending he don't get it

[@patrickbyrne5070]

@@fascistpride21going by your name you aren’t the sharpest tool in the box kiddo so sadly you will never understand… by jingo

[@liam8834]

Garmy

[@ryanobeirne1372]

They were all secretly high at the time lmfao

[@AxiOll]

My subjective interpretation of the humour is the combination of factors: -The fact that it's a children's TV show so there is a high amount of pressure is not only to stay in character but remain child friendly. -The dog voice puppeteer is ad-libbing and is breaking character by calling himself a man (who she knows and can clearly see beneath the camera) -the 'innocent' men is mocking the fact they they are both adults trying to act like they are somewhat innocent for the children's TV. "Innocent men" is almost an oxymoron. Also the fact that he's almost trying to make their faces close together into a flirty situation by adding "innocent" as a reason not to, adds to the ridiculousness of the situation. What they said can be read in the description, thanks for reading my TED talk.😁

[@mattpyro90]

I think you're looking waaaaaay too much into this. The whole bit was talking about the ice stars and how they have face-offs with each other. Lauren was trying to pull faces at Hacker and thus the puppeteer to get him to laugh, but he turned the tables on her. He began by saying they're not ice stars, but normal men (people). I think the puppeteer meant it in a sense of normal people, but the fact he said men when neither of them are in fact men made it funny to begin with and she wasn't expecting it because it was ad-libbed. Then the innocent men was again just ad-libbed and didn't make any sense, adding to the hilarity. Nothing to do with any flirtyness. The reason they had their faces together was for the face-off, nothing more. So there was no underlying non-child-friendly to any of it, no matter how much you want to look into it.

[@AxiOll]

@@mattpyro90 Fair enough.

[@Qarth56]

I think the humour mainly just comes from these things: 1. "We're just normal men" comes across as a very existential thing for a usually silly puppet to say in what is a standard children's television bit. Especially given none of them are men. 2. Lauren's surprise and genuine interest/concern as she asks "what do you mean normal men?" sells the oddness of what has been said. 2. Then "we're just innocent men" suddenly and unexpectedly escalates it to pleading innocence as though the puppet has committed some heinous crime. 3. The turn to camera followed by the upbeat jingle juxtaposes wonderfully with the previous lines. 4. All of this combined just makes for a really absurd video. Every moment just builds on the last and ramps up the surreal nonsense.

[@METALFREAK03]

Phil (the puppeteer) just likes to make Lauren "break" (or "corpsing" aka laugh) on set. (or did I should say as they don't do this nowadays.) It became a feature for Hacker (aka Phil) to do this in between segments, even leading him to have his own show. But I don't think it is still on, this is about 5/6 years ago now.

[@KatarMilak]

So apparently there's context for this. A while before this was aired, they were having a night out and a few of them got quite drunk. They were then stopped by the police and asked about some vandalism that happened elsewhere. They guy with the puppet (who was also drunk) told the police, "We're just normal men" The officer asked, "What do you mean normal men?" "We're just innocent men." Once the alcohol had worn off, they all found this hilarious, especially Lauren, and so he proceeded to remind her of it any chance he got. Don't know if it's true, but it would be great if it was.

[@holbeckghyll4997]

No, it's not true.

[@hazelmayrose]

The puppeteer Phil Fletcher has said this is a false story and there was no context, he improved it on the spot

[@simonmorley4816]

We're they just stoned or something It's not funny...

[@oedipussy]

WHY ARE THE CAPTIONS IN CLASSICAL LATIN

[@laravelisbullschitt3281]

It’s not that funny…

[@4nd2]

i dont get it. she looks at dog. then laughs. cringe af bro

[@Dengen111]

I, too, hate everything I don't understand :)

[@replicas11]

They were both in character and they had a script, the puppeteer adlibbed and caught her off guard. and she lost it. It was live tv, a lot of pressure.

[@bertberw8653]

It's not cringe, you're just dumb

[@MrDazthaman]

​@@replicas11 Pretty much nails the explanation.... Nice one.

[@pedatoore]

My kid also gets mad when he sees something he doesnt understand, its normal, comes with the age 😙