Mini Hungarian language lesson: where's Vali?

When I first arrived in the UK, I could already speak the language pretty well.

Yet when I sat down to watch a panel show or standup comedy, I was faced with how little that mattered: I mean, who the hell is Kerry Katona?

Unrelated aside: "Katona" is one of those names that is a dead giveaway of a Hungarian ancestry, the word itself meaning "soldier".

As a small nation, we tend to take ownership of anyone who has any ancestral connection to Hungary (apart from Louis C.K and András Pándy).

And given the multiple waves of exodus that happened over the centuries, "spot the Magyar" has become a kind of parlour game.

And it has levels too: Michael McIntyre or Tim Howard for example are expert level targets, there's no way you can guess it from their name.

Intermediate level are Les Murray or Anton du Beke, whose names offer a not too obvious hint. Stephen Fry is here too, not for his name but cos he never bloody stops talking about it.

So as you can imagine, Kerry Katona is an absolute gimme. At least in the context of this game.

Anyway, this is totally not what I wanted this thread to be about but here we are.

The detour was so long that we might as well decide to make a journey of it.