Focus on UK Metal Detecting: Wot Makes Britin's Tekkies Larf

What makes the artefact collectors of Britain explode with mirth? Extended bouts of flatulence seems to be one topic which is ever-popular in this milieu.

The Somerset Artifact (sic) Seekers' Xmas Greetings. 

It appears that an out-of-work emaciated jobbing gardener jiggling about as if he has ADHD and lip-synching atrociously to an imbecilic taunting song is another.

 Artefact hunter Muddy Mick however is not amused, he writes on theMLO forum that the video is (excuse the French), "One asshole singing about another". This gives the clue to the reasons behind this type of anti-social behaviour. It seems that certain artefact hunters are highly unpopular in the metal detecting community (the culprit behind this video recently was the victim of a spoof website about him made by three disgruntled members of a club that threw him out over his attitudes towards the PAS and archaeology). In their desperate attempts to gain some recognition for themselves, these outcasts try to create a position for themselves and attract attention (and followers) by conspicuously attacking an "Other" (note the end of the video after "go to Hell" the boastful taunt directed to his viewers, "would you say that?"  ). Mr "Shingle-for-Lawns" down on the south coast is another case of exactly the same phenomenon, a has-been trying to draw attention to himself by attacking anyone that might serve as an "Other", sometimes making them the butt of his crude jokes.

 These highly distasteful and unsophisticated individuals are among those that British archaeology and the British Museum in particular are proud to call its "partners". With friends like these...