Americans Are Just Now Finding Out How Brits REALLY Wash Their Dishes, And The Reactions Are Killing Me

There’s something weird happening on the internet (redundant, I know).

It’s yet another discovery about how things are done over in the UK, and this time it’s about doing the dishes (or, as it’s called there, “washing up”).

The origins of the current wave of outrage are hard to pin down, but the debate has gone on for years. Let me explain: It seems that some (but not all) in the UK don’t rinse the leftover soap off their dishes once they’re done scrubbing.

The method is as follows:

1. Put a bowl in the sink.

2. Fill your “washing up bowl” in the sink with water and washing up liquid — dish soap for you Americans, but we’ll get to that.

3. Wash your dishes with a sponge or cloth.

4. Place them to dry on the drying rack, or dry them with a “tea towel.”

That’s right…no rinse included. Brits assert that the remaining dish soap just falls off the dish if you let it air dry on the rack, or that, if you choose to dry the dishes by hand, it comes off on the tea towel.

Paul Johnston-Naylor, aka @gooniedad, made a video last month that detailed his washing up process. It’s amassed over 4M views, and has worked the internet into some serious suds:

“I don’t understand what it is about our washing up that we do so wrong,” Paul says in the video. He’s a born Brit and lives in Guildford, England.

“Basically, I put the water in the washing up bowl with the washing up liquid, and then I wash up: a plate, a saucepan, nice forks. And then I just pop it on there to dry,” Paul says, gesturing to his draining board. “What’s wrong with that?”

Commenters on the video were seriously heated, incredulous about how someone could not rinse their dishes as the final step in the washing process.

Paul told BuzzFeed that a friend of his, Atlanta-based creator Anthony Jenette (@ajslambino), messaged him that he was going to make a video about what’s different in a UK kitchen versus in the US — and that “Americans are freaking out about how we wash up.” Paul stitched AJ’s video to make his, and it took off.

The two often make videos about the differences between living in the US and UK, calling themselves the “Pond Bros.”

At first, Paul didn’t even know what Americans were thinking was off about how Brits washed dishes: “I made a reaction post explaining how [we do it] and I was convinced it was that we use washing up bowls; never did I think it was that I don’t rinse.”

The soap in question is something called “washing up liquid,” which, as far as I can tell, is the same as what we would call dishwashing liquid or dish soap here in the US.

Content creator Jason Riley, @jaseinamerica on TikTok and one half of @joshandjase, is from Nottingham, England — he also made a video about how he washes up and sparked similar debate for leaving out the same step. He starts the same way:

He puts the washing up liquid and water in a bowl, scrubs his dishes with a sponge and…

…straight on the drying rack.

Some people in other parts of the world (namely Australia and Canada) don’t rinse either, and some in the UK do.

“Most people are just in shock that I don’t rinse, but I’ve found that people from the UK, Australia, and Canada are with me on not rinsing,” Paul said.

A LOT of people from around the world are VERY pro rinse:

As are many in the UK after all:

Some people, though, definitely DO follow the no-rinse method (so we’re not being trolled, as some commenters in this debate have questioned).

Americans have weighed in on this particular method in utter disbelief. Roxan McDonald (@spiritual_af on TikTok), asked someone from the UK to “show the steps that you take to take a dish from dirty to clean.” Her video racked up 1.2M likes, 18.4M views, and a whole lot of freaked out comments.

“I truly hope I didn’t see what I think I saw,” she captioned the video.

The internet is a weird place, yes, but an oh so funny one.

I can’t say I’ll be changing my dishwashing methods anytime…this may just be another thing the American mind simply cannot comprehend. What’s your take on the “washing up” debacle? Let me know in the comments.