I always try to mimic James Marsters’ accent from BtVS.
Ahhh the devil farts in my face one more time
Blackadder
Speaking of barnacles, the “blistering” variety were often invoked by Captain Haddock of Tintin fame. I believe he used quite a variety of other minced oaths too. If I could only remember exactly what they were I would start using them myself…
My favorite.
Is there something particularly British about that? If I say “I noticed”, I’m referring to one particular instance. “I have noticed” implies “on occasion”.
Perhaps “I notice” (present tense) is more American. I don’t know.
Hmm. That might not be a Briticism, perhaps simply a more formal usage. But “I’ve noticed” simply feels British to me, intuitively. Which is not to say my intuition is correct, of course.
In the video game Everquest, there is a god named:
Brell Serilis: The Duke of Below, Duke of Underfoot
I don’t play anymore but I still use “What the Brell” as an exclamation or question
When I read or hear total bullshit: “That’s the biggest load of crap since Paul Bunyan’s ox took his last dump!”
Not just blistering. Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles, when he was excited.
“Great Caesar’s Ghost”, Perry White’s exclamation in the TV show Superman from the 1950s (and, I think, from there retrofitted into the comic books) actually has a long history. Mark Twain has his master, Horace Bixby, using it in Life on the Mississippi. I don’t know if Bixby really did use it, or Twain was using it as euphemism. He puts it in the mouths of characters in his fiction, too.
It seems pretty clear to me that, like “Judas Priest” and “Cheese and Rice” and even “Jiminy Crickets”, the mild oath is used because of its assonance to “Jesus Christ!” (“Jiminy Crickets” – note the initials – actually has a slightly more convoluted history, I think.)
I like “What a pisser!” from Airplane! My English accent doesn’t do it justice, but the memory of its delivery always tickles me.
I grew up using bloody as both an adjective and an expletive, and bloody hell when I was really annoyed, but we were stationed in the UK when I was 4-8 years old, so that’s understandable. I picked up buggerit from Pterry and Bugger that for a game of soldiers from Tom Holt, both British authors whose books I’ve enjoyed. I’m not sure where I picked up ye gods and little fishes, but I’m pretty certain is was from something I read.
I say “Oedipus Rex!”, from the classic play, when young’uns are around, or refer to something as “oedipal”.
I used to use “Tarim!” from the Cerebus comic.
I use “Golly” from the “I speak jive” sub-titles in the movie “Airplane!”
Sometimes I like to say “shut the… fuck up!”, like Frank Booth said to Dorothy Valance in the hallway.
I really like this one and feel all SDMB members/guests should use this frequently until it’s well established.
An episode of Monk was about his favorite show as a child. It’s basically the Brady Bunch. A catch phrase on that show is a kid saying “Shucky Darn”. That is used all the time here.
Joe Pesci says something similar in Home Alone. I tend to use it whenever I stub my toe, bump my head, etc.
Ah, that reminds me: “Egads!” and “Great Honk!” from The Music Man.
I like “what in the name of pluperfect Hell…”, which I first saw in one of the Stan and Jan Berenstein paperbacks*
- (not a Berenstein Bears book, obviously. Although would have been interesting.)
That’s Berenstain Bears, unless you’re from a parallel universe. In which case, welcome! Guess what-- Mandela survived prison in this reality, and eventually became the President of South Africa!