All the weird names each UK region has for the TV remote

The television remote control, to give it its full and proper title, is an essential fixture in most homes in the UK.

It’s also often the main cause of arguments among families and friends who just can’t decide what to watch on an evening – Coronation Street or football, the great debate rages on.

But what do you call it in your house? Well, it turns out there’s an incredibly diverse range of names for the humble remote, and some of them are just bizarre.

espensorvik / Flickr

Absolute Radio DJs Andy Bush and Richie Firth asked Twitter what they call a TV remote in their local area, and collated the answers into a handy map of the UK.

First up, the way the different regions are broken up looks a bit off, so bear with me – their version of the North East seems to take in North Yorkshire and Cumbria for some reason.

According to the map, the North West – minus Cumbria – calls it a ‘presser’, which is news to me but okay, while the North East – plus Cumbria and North Yorkshire – calls it a ‘zapper’.

In West/South Yorkshire it’s a ‘clicker’, in Humberside/Lincolnshire a ‘doofer’, in the West Midlands it’s a ‘hopper’, while in the East Midlands apparently people call it a ‘blobber’!?

It’s all a bit boring in East Anglia, the South East and part of the South West, but when you get down to Devon and Cornwall it’s a ‘jobby’, which I always thought meant a shit?

As for the other UK nations, in Northern Ireland apparently it’s a ‘plunker’, in Scotland ‘the doo dar’ and in Wales a ‘wadger’ – there’s no way anyone calls it that, is there?

How accurate is this map do you reckon? What do you call the remote round your gaff?