Reason: usually you do something out of love or respect for someone’s or something’s “sake.” E.g. “They stayed together for the children’s sake.” Yes, they loved children, so even though the married couple hated each other, they toughed it out for the children’s sake.
Even something that is probably sacrilege to believers, e.g. “For Christ’s sake!” implies that for the sake of Christ, you ought to do something or not do it. It would not be right to do (or not) something because Christ would not be served or pleased or something.
So “For fuck’s sake” seems to imply that we ought to revere, respect, protect, or otherwise declare some Geneva convention on “fuck.” For the sake of fuck, I’m begging you! Like someone would back away, ashamed, and STOP!
I’ve recently decided to resurrect one of my dad’s favorites. When someone would suggest that something highly improbable might happen, my dad would often reply, “…and a big green frog might jump out of your ass too!” I just remembered that one the other day and decided to add it to my rotation.
I also like “for fuck’s sake” quite a bit. My favorite at the moment, though, is probably “cluster fuck”. In my workplace, I get to use it disturbingly often.
I’m currently making much use out of “asshat”. It’s a surprisingly flexible word, especially when you expand it to make new words like “asshattery” or “asshat-eration”.
Other (less common, but no less loved) expressions of frustration include “Fuck me gently with a rusty crowbar”… but that’s saved for really really special occasions.
Matt, I’m borrowing your expression. It’s pure genius. As per creative commons, you will get full credit.
I use this one a lot, too. Or the second-person version.
“Cluster fuck” gets used a lot at work.
We use “flying monkeys” rather than a big green frog for the rectal reference.
I often run to the complicated and bizarre. “Fuck you in the eye with a bicycle and a sharp, pointy stick” used to be one of my faves, although I haven’t used it in a while.
For some reason, I’ve been saying “Excellent” a lot lately whenever something goes right. I’m trying to avoid picking up “Really?” from a friend, though.
I have several stock phrases with which I purposely annoy my kids, they include:
-“You’re leaving that? - That’s the best bit!” (legitimately in reference to crusts, bacon rinds, broccoli stalks, but I also use it whenever they set anything else aside - melon rinds, chocolate wrappers, etc).
-“You’re not meant to eat that bit!” (whenever they accidentally bite their tongues, cheeks, fingers)
-“Never mind - you’ll soon grow a new one!” (In response to any minor injury - i.e. “I bumped my head!/ Never mind - you’ll soon grow a new one!”)
I do mess around like this rather a lot with them - for example:
Kid: Dad! Shut the door, there’s a draught coming through
Me: Don’t be silly - a giraffe would never fit through that door
Kid: I said there’s a DRAUGHT!
Me: I know, but I think you must be confusing it with some other, smaller animal, perhaps a gazelle? …
Kid: Just shut the door!
Me: <by now practising studied ignorance> … I mean, I know we have quite a tall house, but keeping a giraffe in here would be just cruel…
(and so on)
Second vote for “Cluster Fuck”
I’m also fond of “Fuckity-fuck-fuck shit fucking poop”, “Fuck beans”, and “Nuck futs” (when decorum is called for).
Then there are situational favorites such as, “I wouldn’t fuck her with a stolen dick,” when talking about a girl one cannot stand; or “Too drunk to jerk-off” when describing one’s state after a long night of partying.
I don’t get to say “By Grabthar’s Hammer!” (from GalaxyQuest) nearly enough, although I’d like to.
My sister says I went through a phase when I began every other sentence with “Be that as it may…,” but I’ve since recovered.
I’m still partial to:
“As if!”
“Care to make it interesting?”
“Splunge!”
“I got better.”
“Not bloody likely.”
“Duly noted.”
“This is not a democracy; this is a benign dictatorship.” (to my kids)
“I grow… fatigued.”
One of my favorites in response to poor communication is: “Could you be more vague?” said sweetly and genuinely.
Only one person has ever gotten the answer right*, and I’ll love him until the day I die, although our relationship ended in fiery turmoil back in college.
From Ghostbusters: “Mother pus bucket!” Great for when you want to swear but you are surrounded by young people with a knack for repeating the worst things you say.
We don’t just have clusterfucks, we have Mongolian Clusterfucks ™. Actually, it seems like we have a lot of them at work.
And when things are not going my way, I tend to say, “Well, fuck me with a rock, sideways.” Don’t know where it came from but I find that it properly conveys my displeasure.
I see I’m in good company, a lot of my favorites are already listed.
When we were kids, we weren’t allowed to listen to George Carlin, but overheard just enough to mess up the Words You Can’t Say list. So for random screw-ups, like when I drop the phone into the sink full of dishes, it’s “Shit!Fuck!Piss!Damn!Hell!” all ran together. Oddly, the noun curses aren’t included.
I’ve replaced “yada yada” and “and so on” with a rather festive “Whoop de doo” that I picked up from a coworker. Fr’ex: There I was at the bank and the teller says she needs 18 forms of ID for an out of state check and there’s going to be a five-week hold and whoop de doo, thought I’d never get out of there.
From Firefly, to describe positive events or moods: shiny.
