Funny Bingo Calls You May Hear in a Bingo Hall

Bingo is, without a doubt, one of the most played and loved games in the United Kingdom. While it used to be considered a game for older generations, bingo game culture has evolved in such a way that people of all ages now enjoy the game.

But aside from the game’s simple rules, there’s something else you’ll need to get your head around if you want to call yourself a true bingo aficionado. Yes, we’re talking about the bingo slang you hear in halls across the land. And more specifically, we’re looking at the funny bingo nicknames that have grown to become part of our culture and history.

What are Bingo Calls?

As you may have guessed, bingo calls are exactly what they sound like – the terms a bingo caller uses when calling out numbers. But did you know that this bingo lingo isn’t just a way to add some fun to the game? The history of bingo calls in the mid-20th century tells us a different story.

Rhyming bingo calls actually have a useful purpose. Different calls are used to ensure that people know exactly which numbers are being called out. After all, a bingo hall can be pretty noisy, and decades ago, when mics and sound systems weren’t all that clear, there was a need to make each number truly unique.

While some are rhyming slang, others are actually based on what the numbers look like. Let’s take 22 – Two Little Ducks for example. The number 2 has the rough shape of a duck and 22 is two little ducks – simple. Then you have the obvious ones like lucky number 7 or unlucky number 13.

This led to the often strange and sometimes downright funny bingo calls that we know today. And it’s not just here in the UK. While most English-speaking countries where people play bingo have the same basic popular calls, there are some differences. For example, in the UK, 32 is ‘Buckle my Shoe’ whereas in the 80-ball USA version of bingo, it’s ‘Jimmy Choo’.

Traditional bingo calls that come from the 1950s have also changed with the times. Number eight, which was once ‘Garden Gate’ or ‘One Fat Lady’, has become Gareth Gates in some bingo establishments. And 71 ‘Bang on the Drum’ has been replaced by ‘J-Lo’s Bum’. So now we know about bingo sayings and how they evolved, let’s take a look at our list of bingo calls in the UK that make bingo so much fun to play.

11 – Legs eleven

This is a simple reference to the fact that the number 11 upside down looks like two legs with little feet. Not as funny as you might think until you realise that this bingo call ‘legs eleven’ was almost always followed by the crowd wolf whistling in unison.

30 – Dirty Gertie

This comes from the rhyming military slang for the La Deliverance statue in North London commemorating the Battle of the Marne. Soldiers gave the statue the nickname Dirty Gertie or Gertie from Bizerte in a song during the Second World War, and as you may have guessed, this military term rhymes perfectly with the number 30 bingo call.

52 – Chicken Vindaloo

This was a direct replacement for the ’52 – Danny La Rue’ call that referenced a famous drag entertainer. The original call was a great one for people of a certain age, but Butlins decided to change it for one of the great British takeaways with another rhyme and the call ’52 – Chicken Vindaloo’.  And this pop culture reference has taken off in a big way.

56 – Was She Worth It?

Now this is a funny one indeed. ‘56 – Was She Worth It?’ derives from the price of a marriage licence many years ago. The licence cost five shillings and sixpence or 5/6d. The question ‘Was she worth it?’ asks if the cost of the licence was worth the marriage. The crowd then yells back “every penny” which gives it a much more wholesome feel that you first thought, right?

57 – Heinz Varieties

This one is as weird as it gets. It doesn’t rhyme and certainly doesn’t have anything to do with the shape of the number. Nope, 57 refers to the number of varieties available from the famed Heinz company. Just a pity we couldn’t have had something specifically relating to baked beans.

62 – Turn the Screw / Tickety Boo

This is an easy one as 62 rhymes with ‘Turn the Screw’, or is it that simple? Some people suggest that this was in reference to the horror story ‘The Turn of the Screw’ by Henry James, but we’re not sure. What we do know is that we absolutely love the alternative that this one number has in ‘Tickety Boo’.

80 – Gandhi’s breakfast

There’s quite a lot of confusion over this one and that’s what puts it on our list. Some say that 80 refers to ‘ate nothing’ suggesting that Gandhi ate very little. This seems a little obscure to say the least. The other interpretation suggests that if you look at the number 80 from the side, it looks like Gandhi sitting cross-legged in front of a plate.

Whatever the true origins of this bingo call, it remains one of the oddest still used today.

88 – Two fat ladies

Believe it or not, the bingo callers of many moons ago thought that the number 8 resembled a lady with a fuller figure. And that’s where the term ‘Two Fat Ladies’ came from. These days it may seem a little impolite for the crowd to shout this out after the caller calls number 88. So instead, many bingo halls now use the new bingo terms of ‘88 – Wills and Kate’ or ‘88 – Tinder Date’.

Other Funny Calls You May Hear in a Bingo Hall

With 90-ball bingo, you have lots of bingo chats to look out for, and that includes both traditional calls and modern bingo calls. These include everything from ‘53 – Here Comes Herbie’ to ‘63 – Tickle Me’. But some of our favourite bingo call nicknames not on the list are:

• Number 1 – Ned Kelly
• Number 9 – Doctor’s Orders (laxative pill given to soldiers)
• Number 10 – Downing Street
• Number 17 – Dancing Queen (Abba song)
• Number 18 – Coming of age (traditional age of adulthood)
• Number 39 – 39 Steps
• Number 67 – Stairway to Heaven
• Number 73 – Under the Tree
• Number 74 – Candy Store
• Number 81 – Fat Lady and a Walking Stick
• Number 90 – Top of the Shop

Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of all 90 bingo numbers, but they are some of the best. Bingo is not just a lotto game with balls and numbers from 1-90. It’s become much more than that.

These terms that bingo callers might use perfectly capture the sense of humour and community in British bingo halls, and yes, that includes the online bingo industry, too. So brush up on your bingo terms and get the most out of your next bingo visit or even the next time you play bingo online.