Carling, football and Jeremy Clarkson: The quintessential British 'lad' laid bare by YouGov

The British ‘lad’ has been laid bare in all his Carling-drinking, football-watching, Astra-driving glory, by market research firm Yougov.

Often vilified as lairy and leery, the lad is in fact a cultural phenomenon not to be sniffed at with news that TheLadBible.com – the movement’s self-appointed handbook – is now the 12th most visited website in the UK.

Inspired by the news, Yougov yesterday released a detailed breakdown of what goes into a quintessential lad. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer is lager, football and ‘banter’.

“Sports are his defining interest,” the demographic profile reveals. “He prefers dogs by far; and his food tastes are as manly as they come: chips, burgers, bacon sandwiches and fried chicken are the most strongly correlated with British lads.”

“It’s the attraction to a certain kind of humour, however, that makes the profile ring true. Often accused of passing off offensive jokes as “banter”, the quintessential lad “finds toilet humour quite funny” and describes himself as "funny" and “barmy”.”

The Inbetweeners and Match of the Day are required viewing – when he’s not in the pub – and Eminem and David Guetta are to be found on his stereo. Jeremy Clarkson, Gordon Ramsay and Simon Cowell are amongst the lad’s favourite celebrities.

The findings come from analysis of the profiles of 3,307 of Yougov’s survey respondents who described themselves as ‘laddish’.

Freddie Sayers, spokesman for the company, said that in compiling a series of profiles of typical British demographics, its researchers aimed to test preconceived ideas. “But some of the stereotypes in this case do turn out to be true,” he said.

This lack of novelty has far from detracted from the label’s success. “What’s interesting is that people describe themselves as laddish,” Sayers added. “It’s almost like it has a certain cache. The success of websites like the Lad Bible confirms that it’s a brand people are happy to sign up to.”

LadBible.com, the most common Facebook page liked by the demographic, has been a runaway success since its launch in 2012. As with all the best tech success stories, the website – which generates annual revenue of £1m - comes with a CEO barely out of short trousers: 24-year-old Alex Solomou.

A LADbible spokeswoman yesterday put its success down to the highly shareable nature of its content.

“The content is quick, often very funny but sometimes uplifting, sometimes quirky and sometimes very serious,” she said.

The homepage yesterday featured pictures from a multimillionaire’s party, a profile of a woman who quit her job as a Wall Street banker to work in the adult entertainment industry and a video of an elephant purportedly copulating with a car.