Original artwork, not a still
Sweetie, we dragged these people screaming into the 20th Century. We gave them all the mod-cons, darling. We gave them the non-squat toilet... toilet , darling. I mean, how do you think they used to wipe their bottoms before we came along?
— Absolutely Fabulous ‧ 1992
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The speaker boasts that outsiders supplied modern conveniences and uses toilets to justify a patronising view of progress. The colonial generalisation is the character’s claim, not an endorsed history of another people.
Context reviewed
