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The egregious Jim Hacker

More fun uses of words.

In the British comedy series Yes Minister, the minister, Jim Hacker, constantly battles with his Permanent Secretary, Humphrey Appleby. Though not stupid, the minister is not always up with the play, as witnessed in this exchange where the minister is reading a newspaper article about himself:

Minister: …was none other than the egregious Jim Hacker. (Pause) What does egregious mean?
Humphrey: Uh..it means outstanding…
Minister: Oh.
Humphrey: In one way or another.

adjective:  1. extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant

You can hear the exchange in this YouTube clip (unfortunately, there's no video until later in the episode.)

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