A recurring "Dammit, PTerry" moment
Jingo is not one of my favorites, and as a result I've only read/heard it a couple of times.
I'm currently listening to all the books in sub-series order (started with the Witches, since those are my favorite, had Pyramids and Small Gods aftewards, and now I'm going through the Watch series), so I'm revisiting books I haven't read/heard in a LONG time.
Getting to Jingo, and the very much throw-away joke/reference to Paul Simon's "You can call me Al".
Colon not being able to think on his feet and just going with the most vaguely Klatchian-sounding name "Al" was funny on it's own. Nobby having to dress in drag, and being called Beti, was great. The fact that the entire sequence is both a satirical pastiche of various comedy tropes ("men in drag invariably become attractive to other men" (despite the trope failing because it's Nobby), "the Trio of Fat, Thin, and Small", "Heroes have to dress up to blend in"), and a ridicule of all the stereotypes that Colon has, showing that he has been utterly wrong about Klatchians, makes this one reference a sleeper hit for me.
Unlike some of the other "Dammit, PTerry" moments I've had, this one isn't put int he spotlight the same way (I'm looking at you "Felonious Monk" pun from Soul Music).
I wasn't until I started describing the context of the joke for my wife, that I realised: I had this exact same reaction the first time I read the book!
In other words, I've been mad at a blatant reference to "You can call me Al" in the form of Nobby being "Beti" and Colon being "Al" before. I'm mad because it's such a great reference, and I think it might just be even better specifically because it's both glaring and overt, but never alluded to. It's just dumped there for anyone who might find it funny.
The only equivalent I can think of, off of the top of my head, is in Soul Music, if the "We're on a mission from Glod" (the "mission from God" line in Blues Brothers) line was never acknowledged afterwards. However, in Soul Music, a little after that line, the character who says it, mentions it again and wonders why he said it.
Anyway, enough ranting from me.
I wanted to share that I had a "Dammit, PTerry" moment, followed almost immediately by a "Dammit, AGAIN" moment.