There was a sketch show in the UK in the early 80s (Not The 9 O’Clock News, for those that care), which featured a song entitled ‘cunnilingus’. Funnily enough, they were told not to show it. So they showed it, introduced as “Kinda Lingers”, but otherwise unchanged.
Something nobody’s mentioned is that having Willie say “shite” in that context wasn’t all that funny.
Usually they use has accent for a pun of some kind. Like when Bart asked if he had his dog, he said, “Yeah, I 'ate 'im!” (i.e. he hates him, not he ate him). Or in the Halloween ‘The Shining’ parody, "You got the shinnin’ ", “You mean Shi-”, “Shhh, ya want to get sued!”.
Unless there’s some double meaning to “The new tractors are all shite” that I’m not getting…
Heh…I watched Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life” on Bravo some years back. While they edited out most of the coarse language, they missed the part where Mr. Creosote says, “Fuck off, I’m full.”
Granted, the line sounds more like “Fugk ofthbt, Igh’m fthull.”
OK, I’m officially thoroughly confused as to what point Tengu is trying to make about WtB. When Spike was introduced in season two “William the Bloody” was presnted as nothing more than an alternate name. In “Fool For Love” we learn that the nickname pre-dated his vampirism and is a reference to his poetry. FWIW and IIRC it’s a female character who has the line explaining it.
No. Arse, maybe (since they’ve said ‘ass’ before), but not arsehole. Too severe. Yes, you could say ‘why did they get away with shite, then?’ but I bet they wouldn’t do it.
As IMDB notes, “In the U.S., “shag” is far less offensive than in other English-speaking countries. Singapore briefly forced a title change to “The Spy Who Shioked Me.” (“Shioked” means “treated nicely.”)”
When Katie Couric interviewed J.K. Rowling on American television just before the release of the most recent Harry Potter book, they discussed how Harry was beginning to act like a teenager.
Couric: “Any snogging with Hermione?”
Rowling: “Harry and Hermione! Do you think so?”
Couric: “No, I’m kidding. We should probably explain that snogging means kissing.”
Rowling: “Yeah.”
Couric: “Lest people think they were shagging!”
(I almost fell over! Rowling managed to control her expression, but continued to say…)
Rowling: “Lest people think you’re talking about something completely inappropriate.”
Not necessarily. I can remember one of the writer’s for the original Batman TV series saying that he used obscene words in foreign languages for characters names. It didn’t take too long for folks to write in and complain. He claimed that the producers made him then submit every name to them before the script could be approved. One time they decided that a character’s name was obscene, this ticked the writer off to no end as it wasn’t an obscene name, so he subbed the most obscene word he knew in any language for it. The producers said, “Looks fine.” The episode aired, and they got all kinds of letters in response, telling them that the character’s name was obscene. At this point, the producers left the writer alone.
My point was that there’s nothing odd about Spike using ‘bloody’ or other foul language - he started using it, and the working class accent, when he became SPIKE, rather than William. Spike isn’t a ‘Victorian gentleman of William’s class’ - he’s a low-class tough - or, rather, someone who wants to project the image of a low-class tough.
I will (again) grant that I may have misread Nonsuch’s point, which may have been about the people who gave him the nickname, in which case I’ll just hush. But talking about someone using the word casually tends to suggest Spike’s using it every other word rather than a one-off insult, and specifically mentioning William…well, it suggests William, rather than the people insulting him.
Homer came as close as one can on American network TV to saying “asshole” in the episode where he is elected garbage commissioner. Near the end, as Marge is watching garbage trucks from all over the nation dumping their trash in Springfield, she mentions that Springfield is becoming America’s trash-hole. Homer responds, in Pig Latin: “Ixnay on the ashhole-tray.” 
Nope, that’s still a bad word here too.
Damn, it figures the one time they have a GOOD episode is when I skip The Simpsons, thinking it will be another sucky one! :smack:
Don’t forget, Willie also “'ate the mess he left on the floor!”
Umm, just how vulgar is the term shagging in the King’s English? Cause to us Yanks, even knowing what it means, it sounds childishly comical, like saying ‘doing it’ or ‘getting it on’.
But is it more like us saying ‘banging’ (which is too vulgar for American TV).
Of course, to you guys that means sausages or something, right?
My head hurts…
From what I understand, it’s more like saying “fucking.”
I can’t believe this thread has gone to two pages now without anyone (myself included) pointing out that the censors didn’t know “Shite” from “Shinola.”
It’s pretty much like that.
Yeah but there’s no way we’d work “wee” into a curse…so I thought they could do “wecunt” and nobody’d notice 
Except for Sipowicz who actually said “asshole” about, oh, a million times.
Or at least, something that is done with sausages. <rimshot>
I was surprised to learn, a while back, that “pounding your pudding” was a euphemism for male masturbation. Over here in America, “pudding” means a specific kind of dessert, usually made by the Jell-O company, that’s either used as a soft sweet pie filling or eaten directly by kids. I’ve heard “pudding” used as an American euphemism for the female genitalia, due to its velvety texture, but never as a euphemism for anything associated with a man. Apparently, the “pudding” referred to in “pounding your pudding” is one of the many kinds of baked dishes that the British call “pudding” – in this case, one that looks like a large sausage.
I’ll bet that what we Americans call pudding, the British call a biscuit or something.
This is still going on?
Yes, I was referring to the people who gave mousy little William the nickname “William the Bloody,” not to William himself. I was simply making the point that, however awful William’s poetry was (and it sounded pretty damn awful), people of William’s class would regard “bloody” as gutter language and certainly wouldn’t have made it into a sort of nickname. I further agree that the creators of Buffy might’ve realized this and simply sacrificed verisimilitude for the sake of the joke. But it’s a pet peeve of mine anyway.
Well hey!
I’d like to welcome you all to the longest thread I have ever started. Having a thread reach a second page isn’t all that impressive, but you never forget your first time.
I’ve always heard it as “pounding your pud.” (pronounced as pudd, not rhyming with wood)
I can see how pud could derive from pudding, but growing up in Chicago, pudding was something Mom made for dessert.
Topped with Dad’s fresh whipped cream!