Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were famous for pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable in their personas as two London geezers exchanging worldly wisdom in a London pub. Derek and Clive Live is master class in improv with the liberal of the F and C-words. Their work is best appreciated in the company of drunken friends late in the evening.
I was astonished some years ago when someone on the TV series House (a character played by Candice Bergen) used the Yiddish word shtup – the transitive verb for sexual intercourse. (It was being used literally, to describe what Dr. House was doing to Candice Bergen’s daughter.) I have heard people say that it is milder in its overtones than its natural English translation “fuck” but it just goes to show you that what is allowed on TV versus what is shocking or forbidden is subject to all sorts of random variables.
My late colleague arrived at age 16 on Kindertransport from Germany in 1939. One of the first things he saw when he arrived in London was a sign “Fuck Hitler” painted on the side of a building. He said he knew what the word meant (or thought he did) but couldn’t imagine why anyone would wish a pleasurable act on Hitler. I cannot imagine that in 1939, the authorities in NY would have allowed such a sign.
In 1939, in London, the graffiti artist might well have qualified for a government grant…
You’ve never seen Blazing Saddles (released in 1974)?
It was hardly allowed in the UK, but unless someone is caught in the act of painting it, who’s going to prosecute?
The C-word (I can’t bring myself to use it) is much stronger in that usage. It tends to be used of a man rather than a woman and suggests someone actively reprehensible in some respect, though younger people have been using it much more casually, just as some people use terms like “bastard”, “sod” and “bugger” as banter among mates.
“Twat” on the hand isn’t usually used to mean something much stronger than “idiot” (possibly because it sounds like “twit”?), similarly to the way the French use “con”. David Cameron only caused mild amusement when he said of some overactive Twitter user that “too many tweets make a twat”: he wouldn’t have got away with the C-word.
[quote=“lobotomyboy63, post:16, topic:852951”]
(Rustling envelope) And the winner is…
“Four Weddings and A Funeral” for “Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck!”
[/QUOTE]Steve Martin is indignant at this slight.
Start at 3 minutes. Planes, Trains & Automobiles (Marathon Car Rental Scene) - YouTube
I disagree.
You might use it with friends that way, but NOT with strangers.
I taught at a private school for decades.
If a pupil had ever said that to me, he would have been in trouble.
If I had said it to a pupil, I would have had at least a lecture from my Head of Department.
British broadcaster Bill Grundy infamously tanked his careerfor inciting the Sex Pistols and their entourage to swear on an early evening magazine programme in 1976. The Sex Pistols on the other hand rode the tide to fame of course. The big problem as seen then was the timing - three hours before the watershed (after which British TV cannot be assumed to be suitable for children). It was also a programme popular with the elderly. One of my grandmothers was deeply shocked and declared she would never watch anything with that man again. It is still not a word to be heard at that time of day
Yeah, OP back again. That is how it is used a lot on Ramsay shows. “If you don’t want to work here, then just fuck off home.” as in go home. Or: “If you don’t know how to cook mussels, why don’t you fuck off to the bookstore and buy a book called ‘How to Cook Mussels’.”
I have never heard an American use the phrase that way.
It’s some people’s emphatic dismissal of choice, but you could also hear “sod off”, “piss off” or " bugger off", which may (depending on context) be intended as semi-humorous among friends. A euphemism used in at least one sitcom is “naff off”.
Way back in the 60s the Guardian headed a story about the polar explorer Sir Vivian Fuchs and his new expedition *Fuchs Off Again"
Its almost as nuanced in its use as ‘bloody’ amog Brits and Australians, which at one time was called the Great Australian Adjective. You have to be aware of context, tone and pronunciation to really understand the shift from joking use and banter to being told to fuck off properly.
On a related note a friend told me that as a child her mother said ‘Never say bloody, say bugger’.
In a similar vein & purely anecdotally:
A friend who lived in London at the time, told that the title “Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me”, was quite controversial when it was released in the UK. She said that (then) “shagging” had the same profane connotations as F*cking would in the a N. American title.
She said that if they had called the movie “Austin Powers: The Spy that F*cked Me” it would probably have been less controversial in the UK.
I disagree. “Shagging” feels less aggressive. A man might be nicknamed “Shagger” by his coarser friends in a humorous sort of way, but you wouldn’t apply the other word without some implied opprobrium.
I’m assuming the film title implies a similar understanding in the US.
Except of course in Myrtle Beach, SC. Once on my travels I saw an American TV programme about their Shag Festival, where a sweet old lady (with a silent but permanently grinning husband beside her enthused about “we just live to come here and spend the whole weekend shagging - people come from all over to shag - why, there were thousands of 'em shagging all over the beach”. But the makers were obviously aware of the other meaning, as in this clip:
And there’s Boondock Saints:
As PatrickLondon said, you were misinformed. Shag is about as mild a word as you could choose without using a euphemism. It unambiguously means intercourse, but there’s no negative connotation, and it’s never used as an expletive. It’s nowhere near as harsh or offensive as “fucked”.
‘Bonk’ might be slightly more benign, and more likely to appear in newspapers - as in ‘Bonking Boris’, or Australian parliamentarians’ Bonk Ban. And not only in the Sun or other tabloids but on the BBC and ABC.
Different people respond to expletives in different ways, of course:
When the French say Banking the accent makes it sound very much like bonking in English which is hilarious.
Having said that I once failed to understand why on a trip to Australia, introducing myself as a 'Routing specialist' and pronouncing it the English way - 'rooting' caused so much merriment during a serious business meeting. Rooting, apparently means fucking in Australia but that association is unknown in UK English.