Going for an English

"Going for an English" is a famous satirical comedy sketch from the BBC television program *Goodness Gracious Me*. The show, which aired in the late 1990s, featured a cast of British-Indian actors including Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal. It became one of the show's most iconic and widely recognized routines.

The sketch brilliantly reverses the traditional behavior of drunken British patrons visiting a curry house. Instead, it shows a group of Indian friends getting drunk and visiting a traditional English restaurant. They proceed to insult the waiter, mispronounce English food names, and ask for the blandest dishes possible.

One of the most famous running gags involves the characters mispronouncing English names and foods, such as loudly ordering "chipsteak" and demanding the "blandest thing on the menu." Another memorable moment is when they ask the waiter to "wash down" the cutlery. They also attempt to order "greatest English wine," only to be told it is German.

The sketch was written by the core ensemble cast of *Goodness Gracious Me*, which included Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, Kulvinder Ghir, and Nina Wadia. The writing brilliantly captured the nuances of British Asian culture by flipping racial stereotypes. It first aired in 1998 during the show's run on BBC Two.