Only Fools and Horses - Cultural Impact

Cultural Impact

Despite its mainstream popularity, Only Fools and Horses has also developed a cult following, The Only Fools and Horses Appreciation Society, established in 1993, has a membership of around 6,000, publishes a quarterly newsletter, Hookie Street, and organises annual conventions of fans, usually attended by cast members. The Society has also organised an Only Fools and Horses museum, containing props from the series, including Del's camel-hair coat and the Trotters' Ford Capri. It was named one of the top 20 cult television programmes of all-time by TV critic Jeff Evans. Evans spoke of:

Only Fools and Horses – and consequently John Sullivan – is credited with the popularisation in Britain of several words and phrases used by Del Boy regularly, particularly "Plonker", meaning a fool or an idiot, and two expressions of delight or approval: "Cushty" and "Lovely jubbly". The latter was borrowed from an advertising slogan for an obscure 1960s orange juice drink, called Jubbly, which was packaged in a pyramid shaped, waxed paper carton. Sullivan remembered it and thought it was an expression Del Boy would use; in 2003, the phrase was incorporated into the new Oxford English Dictionary. Other British slang words commonly used and popularised in the series include "dipstick", "wally" and "twonk", all mild ways of calling someone an idiot.

Owing to its exposure on Only Fools and Horses, the Reliant Regal van is now often linked with the show in the British media. The one used by the Trotters has attained cult status and is currently on display at the Cars of the Stars exhibition at the National Motor Museum, alongside many other vehicles from British and American television and movies, such as the Batmobile and the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Boxer Ricky Hatton, a fan of the show, purchased one of the original vans in 2004. Another of the vans used in the series was sold at auction in the UK for £44,000 in February 2007.

During the media frenzy surrounding The Independent's revelations that the new bottled water Dasani, marketed by Coca-Cola, was in fact just purified tap water from Sidcup, mocking parallels were made with the Only Fools and Horses episode, "Mother Nature's Son", in which Del sells tap water as "Peckham Spring". In the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, the Trotters' yellow Reliant van appeared on stage, along with two characters dressed as Batman and Robin, a reference to the Only Fools and Horses episode "Heroes and Villains".