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I've been studying English, watching this TV show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. On Season 8 Episode 8, I wasn't able to understand what the following words/phrases mean in each context. It'd be appreciated if you could help me. Thanks in advance!

1. "Salad fork"

Holt: when we originally wed, we didn't know how long gay marriage would be legal, so we had a somewhat rushed ceremony. Kevin has always regretted it, so we're having a vow renewal ceremony. This time, we're pulling out all the stops. It's will be a truly extravagant affair.

Boyle: Oh, how extravagant are we talking? Champagne pyramid?

Terry: Destination wedding?

Jake: Celebrity officiant?

Holt: We got the salad forks. Can you believe it, a second fork? Who do we think we are?[laughs] Oh, no. You're shocked at how garish it is.

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    To the hoi-poloi (ignorant uncultured peasants, aka "ordinary people"), things like salad forks and fish knives are an affectation, to be mocked.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 26, 2023 at 2:48
  • Jake facetiously rants about his wife liking "numbers" more than she likes him. But as he says, fooling around with numbers can't get her pregnant (only he can do that, 'cos he's a real man! :) As to whether "Mitch" is a silly name - not so much as "user474372"!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Feb 26, 2023 at 2:56
  • One question at a time please. I've edited. (you can find the old question preserved in the edit history)
    – James K
    Commented Feb 26, 2023 at 7:48

2 Answers 2

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A salad fork is a fork for eating salad with.

But there is no special meaning in English. A salad fork is a fork for eating salad. It is not a normal part of a table setting, and that is the joke. Normally, in Western countries, the table is set with a single knife, fork and spoon (as appropriate to the meal being served) But for a "fancy" meal there might be additional items of cutlery for specific elements of the meal. There might be a special knife for the fish course, or a separate fork for the dessert.

Here Holt makes a point that there is a special fork for the salad course, emphasising how fancy the meal will be. The irony is that this is a very small detail, not a big or costly element - which is another layer of the joke.

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  • As as side remark, the use of a fork in general was the source of ridicule once upon the time. See for example Wikipedia: "Chronographers mention the astonishment that the Byzantine princess Theophanu caused to the westerners, because she was using a fork instead of her hands when she was eating (...). In addition, according to Peter Damian, the Byzantine princess Maria Argyropoulina brought some golden forks to Venice (...) in 1004. Damian condemned the fork as 'vanity'." And only some centuries later, people are even using multiple forks? ;)
    – Henning Kockerbeck
    Commented Feb 26, 2023 at 10:38
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James has the answer, but just to add a [rather extreme] visual interpretation; this is the place setting for a 13-course dinner. I've seen large place settings for formal events, but honestly nothing this extravagant.

enter image description here

Source: Wikipedia

The 'extravagance' Holt alludes to would probably look more like this…
Just a bit of fun in Photoshop.

enter image description here

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