Actually it was an article in the Daily Mirror by columnist Cassandra (William Connor) which described Liberace as, “…*the summit of sex—the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she, and it can ever want… a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love”
*
Titter…heh heh heh.
There’s also the construction “I could murder a fag” meaning that one really desires a cigarette. (I assume it’s like “I could murder [for] a [cigarette].”)
Along with many other posters, I can confirm that it is still in daily use without so much as a titter, here in Edinburgh. Folk will say they are nipping out for a fag and no-one blinks.
Have to clarify on the use of “murder” in the above quote, though. It’s not “murder for”, it’s just “murder”. “I could murder a fag”, or “I could murder a pint” implies that once I get my hands on one, it’s not going to last very long.
Ah, I get it now.
There was an article in the Sunday Times magazine about Boy George today, and it had a sentence something like ‘He was smoking a pack of fags a day.’* The Sunday Times isn’t a tabloid; it’s the most popular mainstream, fairly literate Sunday newspaper over here. That gives you an idea of how standard the ‘cigarette’ usage is, and how the ‘homosexual’ one doesn’t even occur to people.
*not a double entendre
You’re right, I should have looked it up.
Jeez in Australia we used to have candy cigs called Fags. The term is not used as much as it was but is still in general usage, I once heard a funny story from a mate who once in the States in the early 90s asked if he could “bot a fag” when he was gasping for one.
Incidentally ‘fag’ is rarely if ever used as a derogatory term for gays in case you’re wondering how we avoid hilarious cigarette based misunderstandings, you’d just sound like you were trying to purposefully sound American. So we don’t use ‘fag’ for that purpose.
In Scotland at least you can also perfectly innocently ask to ‘bum a fag’ off somebody if you don’t have any yourself.
I hardly know any smokers now so I’m not sure how common it is these days but I’m sure I’ve heard the phrase relatively recently.
It’s still used even among teenagers in the UK, IME as a teacher and parent of a teenager.
I’ve often used the term ‘cadge a fag’ to mean the same thing. In the past, before I packed in the fags.
It’s not an old timeys word.
EDIT: Do’h, ‘bum a fag’ is such a common phrase I completely missed the double entendre.
American here. Do not ever ever ever ask to “bum a fag” in the US. Ask at a redneck bar in Alabama, you are liable to get shot. No, I’m so seriously.
Americans generally recognize the British “bum” = “butt” (but would generally not say “bum” except to affect a British accent), but not “fag” = “cig”. This means that “bum a fag” means one thing, i.e. “Anally penetrate a homosexual.”
Yup, it was still in use in Glasgow as of Saturday. I’ve not talked to any smokers since then though 
Maybe they’re getting mixed up with “die for”? I’d definitely say “I’d die for a pint”
Corollary:
Does the word “cigarette” itself have any kind of connotation among UK and Irish English speakers? Does it sound stilted, or pretentious, or hypercorrect? Or is it just a neutral word?
On this note, I used to hear “I am all fagged out” as in tired, beat, exhausted. Still used much?
It’s just a neutral word in my experience. I’d need to do a survey, but I think it’s used more often than any of the slang terms.
Slightly dated, possibly regional and/or class based.
1950’s Goon Show gag:
Major Bloodnok, in a tired voice: “Oh, it’s a bit of a fag.”
Eccles: “What is?”
MB: “Half a cigarette.”
So a labored pun on two meanings of “fag”, as something that tires you out, and as a smoke. Would that still be “funny” today?
Roddy
That’s a very subtle variant I think. “Fag” can indeed be used to mean tired out, but also to mean lacking the will or desire to do. e.g. “I should do the washing up, but I can’t be fagged”, and I should think that is the intended meaning in your quote.
To answer your question though, I think most people would get the meaning in its context, but would be unlikely to use it themselves these days, especially younger people.
Whether it would be considered funny or not? Well who knows? I think a lot of people would at least appreciate the wordplay.