# Did Mr Burns say W\*nker in Simpsons

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-mr-burns-say-w-nker-in-simpsons/137077>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 16, 2002, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-mr-burns-say-w-nker-in-simpsons/137077 "2002-11-16T23:04:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-mr-burns-say-w-nker-in-simpsons/137077/21 "2002-11-18T17:22:26Z")

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I once had the reason to call a friend of mine a _wanker_ (because of something extremely silly he had said (as a joke)). A Glaswegian who heard this then asked “Why do you call him a wanker? He’s not from the East coast of Scotland.” :rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2002, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-mr-burns-say-w-nker-in-simpsons/137077/22 "2002-11-18T23:11:56Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Walloon \*  
> \*\*_Wank_ is British slang for “masturbate”, so a _wanker_ is literally a masturbator. In America, we’d say _jerk_ or _jerkoff_. \*\*

Which illustrates that there’s more to swear words than their literal meaning, because “jerk”, and to a lesser extent “jerk-off”, have now been adopted in the UK, but are considered much milder than “wanker”. I imagine that in addition to adopting these words, we’ve also adopted their perceived mildness. Or perhaps most British people don’t actually know what they mean, as with “wanker” in the US.

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