My ladyfriend had some comedic moments during her trip.

One was when we were looking at the online Chinese takeaway menu. I said, "They actually charge for bags. I've never seen that before." So she said, "Ask them not to use any bags." It was a funny visual. The delivery guy juggling all of these takeaway containers.

Another time was when we were watching Good Times. The theme song has lyrics that have been the subject of much debate but apparently are "hanging and a jiving". My ladyfriend had no idea what "jiving" meant. "I know about the dance...jiving...but no, I don't know what it means."

Apparently, "jive" was indeed a dance popular with African Americans in the 1930s. So I'm surprised that she knew that.

But no. I'm talking about jive. The black slang that was popular in 1970s America. It means "dishonest" or...a number of things, really. "Jive turkey" is the stereotpyical usage.

Even after explaining all of this, she had no idea what I was talking about. "It must be an American thing."

Let's assume that "jive" wasn't used in the UK, which is quite popular. It was in a Simpsons episode. "I see kids today with 'jive' written across their shirt. Now I can tell you how you're supposed to say 'jive'"

It was in Airplane. "Excuse me stewardess, I speak jive."

It was probably in loads of 1970s television and film. It was effectively George Jefferson's catchphrase on The Jeffersons, "You jive turkey".

Anyway, it just blew me away. She never heard of "jive". Would I be just as surprised if a white British person didn't know what "jive" was? I think so. So it's not a race thing.

Then she was watching Real Housewives of Atlanta. I was watching this obviously scripted *dialogue* where one person talks then another person talks and it's quite erudite and well-reasoned conversation, all the more surprising given the likely low intellect of the speakers. So I said, "How can you watch this? Don't you realise that it's all scripted?"

She said, "I know it's not 100% real but I don't think it's scripted."

So I said, "How real would you say it is? I'd say it's 5% real"

Her estimate was 70% real.

So I start telling her about how they're obviously staging "drama" and they do re-takes and all of the women have their own producers telling them what to do, et cetera. Then I send her a link confirming all of this. She still insists that it's real, or at least 70% real.

It's mind-boggling. But it's like telling a kid that Santa Claus doesn't exist. So if she wants to believe it, fine. Although, the show is god awful and we watched it for three hours before I had to excuse myself and go to bed. She watched it for another hour.