Talk:Humphrey Appleby

message: The term Sir Humphrey seems to have acquired a generic usage, in a similar fashion to Pointy-Haired Boss. Perhaps an article on the generic concept should be considered. Flagboy 22:06, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Article for "Sir Humphrey"

message: I've put these dates back in -- even though they're not mentioned on the show itself they are in the Politico's Book of the Dead 'obituary', which was written by the show's creators so I think counts as canon.  See also the discussion in Talk:James_Hacker.  Maybe there should be a clearer solution, but I don't think it should involve removing the dates. --Zeborah 20:18, 14 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birth/death dates 

message: Humphrey is not, by nature, "loquacious and verbose", which is itself a verbose way of saying "talkative".  He is a master of rhetoric who is perfectly capable of saying things laconically if and when he wants to, and in fact he normally talks very economically - he only blinds Hacker with excessive words when he wants to be confusing.  He is also neither a classic "snob" nor an "English gentleman"; these seem to me to be American perceptions of his character.  He is too much of a technocrat to be either of these things; Humphrey's ultimate master is not the English class system, but the Civil Service.  Lexo (talk) 00:14, 2 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Humphrey's verbosity 

message: I found this in "Parkinson's Second Law":
:     In 1957 Mr John Applebey remarked that those responsible for the [British] public accounts seem to confuse themselves as well as everyone else. 
—Tamfang (talk) 05:26, 3 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  possible source of name 

message: In the List of fictional Oxford colleges, this comment appears: 
Baillie College - Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, attended by successive Cabinet Secretaries, Sir Arnold Robinson and Sir Humphrey Appleby; a very thinly veiled reference to Balliol; indeed in several episodes Sir Humphrey Appleby is seen wearing a Balliol tie, and in the 2011 stage play version, the fictionalisation has been dropped entirely and Balliol College is overtly mentioned as the alma mater of the character. 
This seems rather thin grounds for claiming Baillie to be Balliol, particularly as the former is headed by a Dean rather than a Master (and anyone can buy a Balliol tie).
However, as the Dean of Baillie college describes Appleby - apparently critically - as "too clever by half" and "smug", it's unlikely that his alma mater could really be Balliol.Thomas Peardew (talk) 13:29, 18 December 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Sir Humphrey would never wear the tie of a school he hadn't attended, if there were any risk of being caught out. —Tamfang (talk) 23:46, 18 December 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Balliol College vs Baillie College 

message: I have linked this and I have no doubt it is true (and very funny, and would have made Hawthorne laugh in his grave he would have loved it) but can someone WP:RS this? I can't.It has echoes of course of Mark Twain's "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated" but it is beautifully done parody (or metaparody since appleby was himself of course a parody), very nicely done. Si Trew (talk) 13:54, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Otttawa Citizen 

message: The article states Sir Humphrey joined the department in 1964, but we know that from 1962 until 1977 it was known as the Ministry for General Assistance, presumably renamed by the other side in the interim.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.153.41.7 (talk) 09:37, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Department name 

message: :
This last sentence was ungrammatical even before the recent deletion of the bold part (which one might think is its whole point).  I'm not up to improving it right now. —Tamfang (talk) 23:40, 3 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  not only