/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/67180175/1599px_Magnum_ice_cream_bar_held_up_to_sun.0.jpg)
Pollster YouGov has finally admitted, after two long years, that its taxonomy of ice lollies is fundamentally wrong. In a new poll this weekend, it asked the country whether it thought Magnums, Feasts, and other ice creams on sticks were ice lollies, which they are not, because they are ice creams on sticks.
Proving that it can get some era-defining votes right, the country said no. Somehow, the Feast was still 50-47 in favour, despite clearly being an ice cream, while some more strange questions were asked. Was there every any doubt about Cornettos, ice creams with cones, not being an ice lolly? Can a Calippo, the Frube of the ice lolly world, be a lolly without a stick? And WTF is a Funny Feet, one lolly but named for two, acceptable in the 80s, acceptable at the time? Soleros and Twisters, marginal ice lollies at best, were overwhelmingly named as lollies, so there is clearly still a way to go in reaching lolly consensus. As a reminder from 2019:
A Magnum is not an ice lolly and lumping all the Magnums into one MegaMagnum is heresy. A Feast is not an ice lolly. A Solero has a layer of sorbet-ish coating, but is not an ice lolly, owing to the predominance of ice cream. A Twister has an ice lolly centre, but is not an ice lolly, for the same reason.
These things are all on sticks, so they could taxonomically be classed as lollies, but is a hot dog a sandwich is a frozen hot dog on a stick an ice lolly? It is not.
Interestingly, there is some significant generational discord. 18-24 year olds are firm believers that Magnums are not ice lollies, while boomers believe, marginally, that dairy ice cream wrapped in chocolate is an icy treat. While the new poll is the opinion of the polled and not that of YouGov, running such a poll is a tacit admission of grave misadventure in the freezer department.