Surely the true Hoffnung parallel is with "Have you tried the famous echo in the British Museum Reading Room?". The object here is to make fun of ourselves - that should get John going.
How about a phrase book for Edinburghers stuck in Glasgow - or vice versa? Cornishmen in the metropolis of Plymouth - or really far out, Exeter! Or Etonians in pasty shops? Or teucthers (gaels from the Hebrides) in Edinburgh (Billy Connoly's already done them in Glasgow)? Or Americans almost anywhere among us since they have the special handicap of believing they don't need a phrase book!
The possibilities are almost limitless - and what's interesting about the woeful '50s examples is what they say, despite lots of continuing insularity, about the ignorant and isolated attitudes of that era. We remain a pretty limited people in terms of openness to the ideas and mores of the rest of the planet - but my goodness we've come a long way since then.
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