Everything of significance in both the poems seems to send the message that the poets are mocking hooligans. The words of the poem also are very much mocking. For example, both the poems use repetition. “Street Boy” always uses the word “man” at the end of the first sentence in every stanza, and “Nooligan” uses the same sentence at the start of every stanza: “I’m a nooligan.” This, again, goes to show just how ordinary hooligans really are. In the word “nooligan”, McGough replaces the letter “h’ in “hooligan” with the letter “n”. This mocks hooligans since once they are called “nooligans” there are no more violent or defiant connotations associated with the word. In fact, it instead makes hooligans appear silly and stupid.
Also, McGough mocks hooligans in the last line of every stanza. For every point he makes as the “nooligan”, he mocks it at the end. For example, in the first stanza he says:
In our class
I’m the boss
This is the point he makes, but then in the next line he goes on to mock hooligans by saying:
(Well, one of them)
This shows that the hooligan isn’t as big, tough and scary as we previously thought. In the second stanza, McGough says:
Step out of line
And your dead
(well, bleeding)
So at first he makes the hooligan sound extremely authoritative and violent, but then he goes on to say that you won’t be dead, maybe just bleeding a little bit. Again, this diminishes the hooligan’s stature. In stanza three, line three, he says:
I spray me name
All over town
This portrays hooligans as rebellious and they are shown to vandalise public property. But then lines four and five say:
Football’s me game
(well watchin)
So this makes us realise that what is being said is all an act. They are all just words and no actions. The hooligan says that football is his game, but he actually does not even play the game himself, or involve himself in its violent side.
In the last stanza, McGough describes the “nooligan” enjoying violence and planning to become an assassin or a hit man; but then after mentioning those plans he says “well, a soldier”. This shows us that, again, the hooligan isn’t as tough as he makes out to be, but it also introduces us to the fact that he might become cannon fodder. This is a person who joins the army simply because he has nothing else to do in life.
“Street Boy” does not obviously mock hooligans in this way, but it does clearly dramatise the hooligan’s pretensions. For example, Owen says:
Stompin’ down the street
My crombie stuffed with biceps
My boots is filled with feet
This gives us the impression of a scary, aggressive, muscular man; but we know that this is actually not true and the hooligan is probably a small, skinny, timid person in reality. All the first sentences of the rest of the stanzas are important as well. They are:
Just you look at me, man
Just you hark to me, man
Just you watch me move, man
and
Just you read my name, man
The hooligan saying such sentences shows him as having some power. But in truth, the hooligan probably doesn’t have enough authority to get even one person to look his way. Also, in the last stanza we are told the hooligan vandalises property and it is mentioned in particular that he has sprayed his name on public property. But we know in reality that the graffiti is really quite weak and that the hooligan was actually probably caught for it anyway.
Both poems do not use standard, formal English. “Nooligan” replaces all it’s “h’s” with “n’s”, such as “nard” instead of “hard” and “nassassin” instead of “assassin”. Also, McGough uses the word “me” instead of “my” twice in the poem, the word “gonna” instead of “going to” one time, “watchin” instead of “watching” and also “your” instead of “you’re”. “Street Boy” uses even more incorrect English. Owen uses the word “stompin’” instead of “stomping” one time, but it is mostly incorrect grammar that is used, such as saying “my boots is filled with feet” instead of saying “my boots are filled with feet.” This is also the case with the last two sentences of the poem:
The walls is red with stories
The streets is filled with me
He also uses the word “writ” instead of “written”. All these inaccuracies make the hooligans in both poems appear uneducated and stupid. It shows us that they are only educated enough to write the way they speak. That is why in “Street Boy” many colloquial words are used, such as “crombie” instead of “shirt” and “hark” instead of “listen.” While these colloquialisms are acceptable speech patterns, they are clearly used by both poets as markers of ridicule.
Finally, the tone of both the poems is clearly humorous. They are not serious poems and the readers are clearly aware of this due to the diction and devices used. However, they both send the reader a clear message that hooligans are, in a word, fake.