Soup is better than Elvis

Des Lynam, Kevin Spacey, Liverpool FC, yoga and Tate Modern all have something in common - and it is not being cool or trendy.

According to style gurus they are all seriously overrated, as is Elvis, Prozac, air travel, massages and baked beans. But The Monkees, chicken soup, Glasgow, instant coffee, Princess Margaret and Teletext are underrated.

How do we know? They are in lists of the 100 most overrated and 100 most underrated things on the planet. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the exhaustive lists are in a publication aimed at men: the new issue of Esquire tells us that Pringles beat Twiglets, and Picasso is not all he was cracked up to be.

In a move sure to trigger tedious pub conversations across Britain, graphite is labelled as overrated but wood is underrated. In the debate on who is the best god, warlike Norse deity Thor crushes Greek immortal Zeus.

And New Labour has the honour of making both lists: overrated or underrated, depending on the spin you give it.