# The Brits are OK and America should lighten up **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 26, 2003, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581 "2003-05-26T15:28:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/121 "2003-05-29T13:17:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kabbes \* > \*\*Doesn’t exist, yet exemplifies the stereotype. That’s all I’m saying. > > **jr8** , in my copy it’s the most gratuitous use of the word “fuck” in a screenplay. Where has this Belgium thing come from? > > pan \*\* Change for the American press. Personally, I think it adds a slightly improved dimension to the story. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/122 "2003-05-29T13:17:38Z")
This is what my copy says: > [@](#): > > **ARTHUR: Can’t be much more unspeakable than this lot.** > > NARRATOR: In today’s modern Galaxy there is of course very little still held to be unspeakable. Many words and expressions which only a matter of decades ago were considered so distastefully explicit that, were they merely to be breathed in public, the perpetrator would be shunned, barred from polite society, and in extreme cases shot through the lungs, are now thought to be very healthy and proper, and their use in everyday speech and writing is seen as evidence of a well-adjusted, relaxed and totally un\*\*(Beep)\*\*ed-up personality. > > So, for instance, when in a recent national speech the Financial Minister of the Royal World Estate of Quarlvista actually dared to say that due to one thing and another and the fact that no one had made any food for a while and the king seemed to have died and most of the population had been on holiday now for over three years, the economy was now in what he called “one whole joojooflop situation,” everyone was so pleased that he felt able to come out and say it that they quite failed to note that their entire five-thousand-year-old civilization had just collapsed overnight. > > But even though words like joojooflop, swut, and turlingdrome are now perfectly acceptable in common usage there is one word that is still beyond the pale. The concept it embodies is so revolting that the publication or broadcast of the word is utterly forbidden in all parts of the Galaxy except \*\*one where they don’t know what it means. That word is ‘belgium’ and it is only ever used by loose tongued people like Zaphod Beeblebrox in situations of dire provocation. Such as… > > FORD: And I’ll tell you another interesting thing… > > ZAPHOD: I don’t want to be Interested! I don’t want to be stimulated or relaxed or have my horizons broadened, I want to be rescued Ford, I just want to be swutting well rescued!\*\* ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/123 "2003-05-29T13:19:15Z")
What is it, 5 years to qualify for citizenship? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/124 "2003-05-29T13:34:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by E-Sabbath \* > \*\*Change for the American press. Personally, I think it adds a slightly improved dimension to the story. \*\* Yup. See [here](http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~nhughes/dna/faqs/diff.html) for other differences between teh UK and US editions. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/125 "2003-05-29T13:44:39Z")
So Wowbagger says “You’re a jerk, Dent, a complete _kneebiter_”? Fuck me. ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/126 "2003-05-29T13:50:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\*What is it, 5 years to qualify for citizenship? \*\* Well, 5 years to be able to apply. Dunno if i’ll qualify. They might deport me back to the continent. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Aro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/127 "2003-05-29T14:38:24Z")
Fecking foreign blow-ins invading the peace around here. This used to be such a lovely wee island too. Now its fecking ruined. Feck. \ _“Bloody foreigners coming here, stealing our jobs and our wimmen. Them fecking Greeks are the worst. They invented gayness!”_ \ ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/128 "2003-05-29T14:50:59Z")
my charm and beauty only add to the loveliness of this little island (naah, who am i kidding. So. I’ve no comeback for that one, so. damn. _hate_ it when that happens. ) ---
**Author:** ![kabbes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e99b99/32.png) [@kabbes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kabbes)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/129 "2003-05-29T14:53:31Z")
Just read the differences webpage. Very interesting. I prefer the original though. It has more punch. pan ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/130 "2003-05-29T15:04:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > **So Wowbagger says “You’re a jerk, Dent, a complete _kneebiter_”?** Yup. Actually, I prefer the more creative insults to “shit” and “asshole”.\*\* > [@](#): > > Fuck me. \*\* Buy me a drink first, and I’ll consider it… ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/131 "2003-05-29T15:30:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jr8 \* > \*\* Buy me a drink first, and I’ll consider it… \*\* I’ve lost track of where you’re from **jr8**. If you’re from the states, then: You freakin’ Americans are too freakin’ literal, and you should lighten up. Otherwise: I’d be happy to buy you a beer, but the other is out of the question. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/132 "2003-05-29T16:10:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > **You freakin’ Americans are too freakin’ literal, and you should lighten up.** As an American, I’m _deeply_ offended by that remark. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581/133 "2003-05-29T16:14:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jr8 \* > \*\*As an American, I’m _deeply_ offended by that remark. \*\* As an Englishman, I’m stuck in a self-referential loop. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-brits-are-ok-and-america-should-lighten-up/177581.md?page=6)