# Favorite fictional swear words? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126 "2003-03-05T00:47:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/121 "2005-01-19T13:20:33Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Also, in ‘Firefly’ didn’t the characters often just slip into chinese to swear a blue streak? (Without the fox censors being able to do much about it LOL.) When the show was broadcast here in Israel, the people who did the subtitles just went on and ntranslated the Mandarin alongside the English, witout making any note of the language shifts. It made _Firefly_ a VERY profane show. ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/122 "2005-01-19T13:36:46Z")
> [@GSV Consolation of Dreams](#): > > The Goon show: Moriarty used to exclaim, _saCRIStee yahayahaha-oon_ or something like that anyway. That’s **Sapristi** , followed by various rubbish, Bompet being about the only one I can transcribe. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/123 "2005-01-19T14:09:43Z")
My favorite of all time is in the Bugs Bunny / Yosemite Sam cartoon, “From Hare To Heir”. Bugs is authorized to give Sam a million dollars, but deducts an amount every time Sam loses his temper. So the whole story is about Bugs making him lose his temper. The faux swearing makes me laugh so hard I can barely breathe, even after 40 years. It’s a terrible shame that there is no footage of Mel Blanc doing his cartoon voices. Seeing him do that cartoon would have been worth the price of living. STOP THAT MUSIC, YA CRAZY RACKIN’ FRACKIN’ VARMINT RABBIT!!! ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/124 "2005-01-19T14:20:12Z")
Another Niven-ism (Larry Niven, that is): “Futz” (from his Hanville Svetz time travel stories). Much more satisfying than “Tanj”. Not exactly fictional, but Dave Barry’s columns occasionally uses “Very Bad Word” to substitute for profanity. As in a stewardess telling the pilot “The Very Bad Word Engine is _GONE_”. Came in useful when I was undergoing a caesarian section with my daughter’s birth… and about 5 minutes into the procedure we found out the epidural didn’t quite work… Yes, I was lying on the table screaming “BAD WORD!!!”. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/125 "2005-01-19T16:10:39Z")
> [@Hazel](#): > > Potter Stewart was, I think, a Supreme Court Judge. Unsure why Wilson chose his name for “fuck” but presumably, he must have written a desision about “bad language”? “I have reached the conclusion… [that] criminal laws in this area are constitutionally limited to hard-core pornography. I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.” [_Jacobellis v. Ohio_](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=378&invol=184), 378 U.S. 184, 197 (1964) (Potter, J., concurring). –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![longat24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f17d59/32.png) [@longat24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longat24)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2005, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/126 "2005-01-19T16:31:59Z")
I think it was Heinlein who said that the work “blank” or “bleep” would become a swear word – maybe he was saying something about society. ---
**Author:** ![Anyanka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@Anyanka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anyanka)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/127 "2005-01-20T03:37:53Z")
From a tv dubbed dialogue “Gosh darn melon farmers” Although my favorite is Frell. From a book called “The Rainbow Cadenza” by J. Neil Schulman. “cloneraper”, “scat”, and “go ick yourself” Frell the idiots at the SciFi channel! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/128 "2005-01-20T04:02:15Z")
> [@FisherQueen](#): > > Harry Harrison uses “bowb” throughout the “Bill, the Galactic Hero” series. Almost made it with this one, but you beat me to it. It also shows up in his more serious book **Captive Universe**. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/129 "2005-01-20T10:16:17Z")
A couple of 2000AD ones have been mentioned already, but my favourite was “Snut!” from **Robohunter** : the writers were made to pull it because it sounded too much like a _real_ swearword. I read an interesting fanzine interview with John Wagner once, where he recalled that there used to be an editorial ban in British comics on calling characters Clint, Flick, or Slick: the reason was that the paper quality was often so grotty that the ink would run together in the speech balloons, causing unintentional hilarity for schoolboys whenever someone shouted {caps are essential here} “CLINT! SLICK!” ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/130 "2005-01-20T10:35:09Z")
> [@Zonyx](#): > > And I just remembered. Possibly the most potent swear word I’ve ever come across. Hard to spell though. Nyee!!! As in the knights who say nyee. Isn’t that just “Ni!” As in “Ni! Ni! Ni!!” 😃 And my favourite fictional swearwords have already been mentioned – “I’ll be mogadored” and “-ing”. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/131 "2005-01-20T10:55:47Z")
More _Hitchhikers Guide_ (Radio Series): **Joojooflop** , **swut** and **turlingdrome** & my favorite **Holy Zarquon’s singing fish!** ---
**Author:** ![kath94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@kath94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kath94)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/132 "2005-01-20T21:19:58Z")
[SpongeBob SquarePants] \*\* BARNACLES! \*\* [SpongeBob SquarePants] ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/133 "2005-01-20T22:03:32Z")
> [@Steve Wright](#): > > Let’s not blame Smith, or even Stephen Goldin, for “Mrifk”. It’s the favourite oath of Grignr the Ecordian, in “The Eye of Argon”. It’s the sort of thing you would say if you were suddenly surprised by a giant, many-fauceted scarlet emerald. You got far enough into THAT to know what mrifk means? I usually gave up less than a chapter in. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/134 "2005-01-20T22:24:44Z")
> [@Hazel](#): > > In several Larry Niven stories, people use “blank” and “bleep” and suchlike as curses. Only very old (or, presumably, very erudite) people know that these were once substitues for actual cures. I always liked that: bleep and such evolving into real cures. In at least one of the Known Space stories, any word spoken by an alien which the translator unit has not yet acquired enough information to handle is rendered as _scree._ That was never used as a curse word, but it would make a good one! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/135 "2005-01-20T22:24:49Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > GREAT KRYPTON!! GREAT CAESAR’S GHOST!! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/136 "2005-01-20T22:30:45Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Robert A. Wilson’s _Schroedinger’s Cat Trilogy_ contains a number of alternate-universe swear words, usually using people’s names. a Steinem was a blow job, while Bryanting (from anti-homosexual crusader Anita Bryant) was anal sex. I’ve meant to start a GQ thread to find out who Potter Stewart (fuck) was. He was a Supreme Court justice, 1958-81. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter\_Stewart:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Stewart:) > [@](#): > > To the lay public, Stewart may be best known for a quotation, or a fragment thereof, from his opinion in the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964). Stewart wrote in his short concurrence that obscenity was hard to define, but that “I know it when I see it[.]” Usually dropped from the quote is the remainder of that sentence, “and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.” It’s awesome to read passages from _Schrodinger’s Cat_ – you run across gems like “Please Lourde my Rehnquist!” None of those coinages have caught on, unfortunately. But, the gay community has honored Senator Rick Santorum by giving his name to “the frothy mix of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex.” See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorum](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorum). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/137 "2005-01-20T22:33:09Z")
The lower castes in _Dune_ used the word “floggin’,” as in “That sandworm got all our floggin’ spice!” ---
**Author:** ![SusanStoHelit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@SusanStoHelit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SusanStoHelit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/138 "2005-01-20T22:33:17Z")
> [@Mama Zappa](#): > > Another Niven-ism (Larry Niven, that is): “Futz” (from his Hanville Svetz time travel stories). Much more satisfying than “Tanj”. > > Not exactly fictional, but Dave Barry’s columns occasionally uses “Very Bad Word” to substitute for profanity. As in a stewardess telling the pilot “The Very Bad Word Engine is _GONE_”. Came in useful when I was undergoing a caesarian section with my daughter’s birth… and about 5 minutes into the procedure we found out the epidural didn’t quite work… Yes, I was lying on the table screaming “BAD WORD!!!”. I use that all the time, especially when I stub my toe. I also use “bleep,” but I got it from **The X-Files** episode _Jose Chung’s It Came From Outer Space_. “Yep, that’s a dead bleeping alien.” My favorite TV substitute swearword is from _Good Will Hunting_: “forget you, you MonkeyFunners!” I use it whenever possible. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/139 "2005-01-20T22:43:49Z")
First of all: Damn you, **Steve Wright** , for making me think of the _Eye of Argon_ while I’m eating. Second of all: I’ve taken to using “I don’t give two tugs of a dead dog’s cock” and “dump the size of a birthday cake” from Transmetropolitan. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126/140 "2005-01-20T23:09:50Z")
During the Watergate hearings, Garry Trudeau’s _Doonesbury_ had lots of fun with the “expletive deleted” that popped up so frequently in the White House tape transcripts. For instance: M: That (expletive deleted) Sirica wants 250 MORE tapes! P: What? H: Chief, there’s a damn (expletive included) U-Haul pulling out up front! P: (Incredibly gross and offensive expletive deleted) Really? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-fictional-swear-words/159126.md?page=8)