# What interjections/insults have dropped out of fashion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 19, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002 "2009-08-19T22:49:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Never\_Say\_Dice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ee59a6/32.png) [@Never\_Say\_Dice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Never_Say_Dice)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/1 "2009-08-19T22:49:09Z")
I’ve been watching old 60’s TV reruns and realized I can’t recalled the last time IRL I heard: lame brained, dad burned, holy mackerel, bone headed, … ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/2 "2009-08-19T22:59:50Z")
Anything that is ethnic or national related is taboo, as is anything suggesting a disability. For instance, Ralph Kramden say to Ed Norton, “You are a mental case.” Outside of overweight people and to a lesser degree gay people, any insult is no do-able unless you are one of those groups. TV used to be a good soure of “Safe” expressions, because they couldn’t use the real ones. Now they can just use the real ones instead. I often wonder if anyone did use some of these expressions in real life, that I see on TV. On the flip side, I think some TV shows brought some expressions back. I never heard anyone use “Dingbat” or the word “stifle” till _All In The Family_, then suddenly I heard it all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/3 "2009-08-20T00:20:53Z")
My dad was quite fond of “Caesar’s ghost!” or “Great Caesar’s ghost!” I don’t hear that much anymore. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/4 "2009-08-20T00:22:21Z")
Cripes Criminey Jehosaphat Haven’t heard any of those in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/5 "2009-08-20T01:05:33Z")
“Stop that, you wantwit! I might get stung by a bumbled bee!” [Mr. Burns] ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/6 "2009-08-20T01:42:24Z")
I would propose that “sockdologizing old man-trap” went out of fashion on April 14, [1865.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_assassination#Booth_shoots_President_Lincoln) ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/7 "2009-08-20T01:47:29Z")
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/8 "2009-08-20T02:26:21Z")
You Harlot! nincompoop! camelopardis! (extra points if you get that one. double if you know the OTHER show.) ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/9 "2009-08-20T02:30:02Z")
Knave Beggarly super-serviceable finical rogue one-trunk-inheriting slave whoreson Son and heir of a mongrel bitch For that matter… mongrel brazen-faced varlet King… Lear? What is this King Lear you speak of? ---
**Author:** ![wierdaaron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eada6e/32.png) [@wierdaaron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wierdaaron)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/10 "2009-08-20T02:35:08Z")
Hark? Whoopsiedaisies? My grandpa would occasionally say “well blow me down,” which I believe Popeye also said. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/11 "2009-08-20T02:42:06Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Anything that is ethnic or national related is taboo, as is anything suggesting a disability. For instance, Ralph Kramden say to Ed Norton, “You are a mental case.” > > Outside of overweight people and to a lesser degree gay people, any insult is no do-able unless you are one of those groups. > > TV used to be a good soure of “Safe” expressions, because they couldn’t use the real ones. Now they can just use the real ones instead. Those may have gone out of fashion on tv, but people still use them. I hear them all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/12 "2009-08-20T02:52:19Z")
> [@Unintentionally\_Blank](#): > > nincompoop! I use that one a lot (I’m 36). I even pull out a “lame brained” every once in a while. Blockhead doesn’t get much love these days, even with the ongoing availability of _Peanuts_ cartoons. And, I am the only person I know who regularly uses “dolt”. Mild, archaic terms of contempt are really useful at times. They’re great when I want to mock someone while showing that their stupidity doesn’t really get to me. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/13 "2009-08-20T02:54:37Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I use that one a lot (I’m 36). I even pull out a “lame brained” every once in a while. > > Blockhead doesn’t get much love these days, even with the ongoing availability of _Peanuts_ cartoons. And, I am the only person I know who regularly uses “dolt”. > > Mild, archaic terms of contempt are really useful at times. They’re great when I want to mock someone while showing that their stupidity doesn’t really get to me. Gadzooks! ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/14 "2009-08-20T02:55:19Z")
I like ‘criminy!’ and ‘dagnabbit’ for office-safe ejaculations, but it’s really hard to beat ‘Jiminy CRICKET!’ for an expression of astonishment that’ll raise eyebrows all round. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/15 "2009-08-20T02:58:38Z")
I also drop a “drat” or a generic “curses” here and there, usually ironically. If my wife is beating me at a board game, I’ll erupt with a “curses!” ETA: One of my dad’s favorites was “poppycock!” (used when a coarser man might say, “bullshit”). I dredge that one up now and again, but I have never heard anyone else say it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/16 "2009-08-20T03:08:20Z")
> [@wierdaaron](#): > > Hark? Whoopsiedaisies? My grandpa would occasionally say “well blow me down,” which I believe Popeye also said. Dickens often shortened that to just “Blow me!” The look you get on someone’s face when they think you’re a dusty old fogey for reading Dickens and you flash them a page where a character says: “Blow me!” = Priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/17 "2009-08-20T03:23:32Z")
Bugs Bunny said a lot of them. Maroon and nincompoop are the first ones to come to mind, except he called the charging bull a nin-cow-poop. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/18 "2009-08-20T03:36:48Z")
“Judas Priest!” was an oath my grandfather used to mutter under his breath quite frequently, especially when disgusted by modern culture, like The Beatles or airplane hijackers. ---
**Author:** ![Harry1945](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Harry1945](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harry1945)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/19 "2009-08-20T03:45:32Z")
When someone at school asks if they can do something to help whatever I’m currently overwhelmed with, I’ll say: “Golly, that would be swell!” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002/20 "2009-08-20T03:45:37Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Cripes > Criminey > Jehosaphat > > Haven’t heard any of those in a while. Used to hear “Criminently!”, a variation of criminey I suppose. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-interjections-insults-have-dropped-out-of-fashion/507002.md?page=2)