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As I understand it the British homophobic slur is "fairy".

Does anyone in the UK still actually use Cockney Rhyming Slang, or is it just a novelty?

^ I lived in London for over a quarter of a century (1980-2007), and can't recall hearing any rhyming slang at all.

A fairy is an effeminate homosexual in the United States. Mostly derogatory.

I'm not a cockney but here are a few phrases I use , there are more but I can't .

I'm going to have a butchers or give us a butchers ( butchers hook = look )
Me barnet is all messed up. ( Barnet Fair = hair )
I need a gypsy's ( Gyspy's Kiss = Piss )
I need a tom tit ( Tom tit = s**t )
Nice cup of Rosie ( Rosie Lee = Tea )
Ooh! me Farmers ( Farmer Giles = Piles )
Alright me old china ( China Plate = Mate )
That's pony ( Pony & trap = crap )
Ruby night ( Ruby Murray = Curry )
Check out that syrup ( Syrup Of Fig = wig )

Aside from the East End of London and a few rhymes that leaked out into wider British English, it always was a novelty to the vast majority Brits. That it's so well known is more down to popular caricature than anything else - on the rare occasions that you hear it, it's usually just for comical emphasis or in mockery of Londoners (no doubt doubly annoying to the majority of Londoners who aren't even Cockneys even if their accent is similar.) At best, most folks can run off a couple of canonical examples if they're asked; and they usually do this incorrectly by speaking the rhyming part when the whole point is that you're not supposed to.

When folks use the rhymes that slipped into wider British English, they very often haven't the slightest idea what their origin was - the insult "berk" being a good example, which people are now relearning on account of Jeremy "Berkshire" Hunt (to some of his opponents) being in the running for PM (I'll let you fathom for yourselves what "Berkshire Hunt" is rhymed with! ) The argot of US rap music is far more popular as slang than anything from a Mary Poppins song and dance number these days!

PS: Nor do all Yorkshire folk say "eeh, bah gum" every other sentence!

Gotta watch what you say around the erretfay — bottle & stopper ya know.

But they are all black belt in Ecky-Thump

Speak English man , me no comprende

And they're even better than that at... Ferret Legging!

Some traditional American speech, offered as a public service.

That was a great scene from "Airplane". The White lady who was fluent in "jive" is the same actress who 20 years earlier played June Cleaver in "Leave it to Beaver".

watching a documentary about the rock group Queen, freddie mercury can be heard saying "berk" which is an obscene example of cockney rhyming slang, it is shorthand for "berkeley hunt" and is an obvious rhyme to a vulgar word for a body part used to describe a disliked person.

The Goodies,loved that show.