As you all may have figured out, I have an affection for Britishisms and peculiar colloquiaisms of British speech. Recently, I came across an inscrutable one watching the hilarious FX show Archer, and so wondered if someone knowledgeable might decipher the meaning of the phrase "God and my twin vicars" for me.
Now, something that complicates this question is that Archer is meant to be a humorous show, which means that proper interpretation requires taking into account prior context. The relevant context here, as far as I can discern, is that one speaker, Captain Reginald Thistleton, is supposed to be a parody of an upper-class officer, and the other speaker, Woodhouse, is a former Lawrence-of-Arabia type who fought in the War as Thistleton's protege, and is now an aged manservant flashing back to his exploits. I've included a brief transcript for clarity; Thistleton is just emerging from his fighter plane:
THISTLETON: I say, Woodhouse!
WOODHOUSE: Yessir?
THISTLETON: The Hun' did a fair job of stitching up the old kite this time, what.
WOODHOUSE: Thank God you're all right sir!
THISTLETON: God and my twin vicars, Woodhouse. Quart old Jerry au chandelle[??]
Old bastard went down like a quail.
THISTLETON (exclaims): You scoundrel! Is that brandy?
WOODHOUSE (beaming): Thought you'd like a pick-me-up, sir.
THISLETON: Woodhouse! You're a rose among thorns.
What does it mean? Would a native British English speaker easily recognize this reference?
Best Answer
The Vickers was a British machine gun, there were likely two mounted on Thistleton's fighter. The humour is in the confusion between the homophones Vickers and vicars in a sentence that references God.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_K_machine_gun