Five Idioms That Only Fleabag 2 Watchers Would Get

If you get this reference, you are true fan

Do you get these Fleabag references?

(Photo: Amazon prime/Altered By TheQuint)

Just like everyone else with a functioning heart and a Prime subscription, I too recently finished watching Fleabag Season 2 and just like everyone else with a uterus, mine has also been utterly destroyed by the Hot Priest.

Fleabag, created by English actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge who also plays the titular character, has won the trifecta of popular adulation, critical acclaim, and Intense Emotional Investment of and Outpourings from the Extremely Online™.

The series, described as a “comedy-drama that follow the adventures of a dry-witted woman with no filters as she navigates life and love in London while trying to cope with tragedy,” has catapulted PWB (more like Phoebe Baller-Bridge amiright, sorry) to international fame; as I write this, she is currently polishing the script of the next Bond film helmed by director Cary Fukunaga.

Photo: Giphy

The cultural imprint of her show is already quite impressive. It has birthed a thousand pieces that range from general exclamations of thirst to thorough post-mortems of the ending and what the fox at the end really signifies to where to acquire one (1) truly amazing jumpsuit.

The truest test of any artistic endeavour’s legacy is, of course, time, but we thought that we’d nudge Fleabag into posterity with perhaps the greatest tribute of all: idioms inspired by the show’s second season.

Here are just a few examples of the many ways in which characters, plot events, and motifs in season two lend themselves to easy assimilation into everyday speech.

1. Making an Anthony Out of One

Meet Anthony(Photo: YouTube/Fleabag)

With reference to the put-upon hairdresser from the show, this phrase refers to scapegoating someone so you don’t have to feel too bad about your own impulsive, self-destructive decisions.

Eg. “My colleague tried pinning the blame for an unfinished report on me when it was clearly her task which she left incomplete because she went out drinking. I refuse to be made an Anthony though, so I set the record straight.”

2. Two Claires in a Conference Room

Claire can be a handfulPhoto: YouTube screenshot

Painfully evident sexual tension between two colleagues in a workplace or work-adjacent setting that might or might not translate into an ill-advised romance.

Eg. “I really like the new doctoral candidate in our department but I want to avoid a two Claires in a conference room situation so I will wait until my upcoming submission to ask him out.”

3. A Fox a Day Keeps the Hot Priest Away

A hot priest, anyone?(Photo: YouTube/Fleabag)

Obviously inspired by the aphorism “An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away,” this phrase can be used to refer to when a chance event drives something extremely desirable away or keeps something deeply longed for from happening.

Eg. “You know that extremely hot priest I was into who had that weird thing with foxes? Yeah, I was about to tell him how I felt when he saw a fox and scarpered. Real case of a fox a day keeping the hot priest away, eh?”

4. To Look Well at One’s Mother’s Funeral

The Fleabag(Photo: Amazon Prime/Fleabag)

This refers to when one’s conduct or appearance is completely at odds with a given situation in a manner that invites the commentary, even censure, of all and sundry.

Eg. “Why would you turn up to an office meeting in those pyjama-seeming pants? Are you trying to look well at your mother’s funeral?

5. The Guinea Pig of the Plot

(Photo: Amazon prime/Fleabag)

A seemingly small detail that is deeply meaningful to one, likely due to a complicated personal narrative that needs to unfold over many episodes.

Eg. “I know you think this scarf is ugly and raggedy and old but I won’t throw it away because the two of us have been through many misadventures together. You could say it’s the guinea pig of my plot.”

If you have some of your own, please share with us in the comments section.

(Neha Yadav is currently pursuing a PhD in literature. When not engaged in narrative nit-picking in her professional capacity, she can be found doing it for the sheer pleasure of it.)