Did Not Do the Bloody Research: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Sometimes a writer will use "international" slang to make a character seem more salty and "regional" (frequently American versus British usage of a word). Sometimes, however, an expression is still considered vulgar elsewhere. When words like "bollocks" or "wanker" appear in a work whose language is otherwise PG, it creates dissonance for those who are familiar with them. ([[Have a Gay Old Time|Though it varies according to region, age, and circumstances,]] "bloody" is about as strong a curse as "damn", and "bloody hell" is about the same as "goddamn". [[wikipedia:Bloody#Etymology|It refers to "God's blood" as an oath. Maybe.]])

 

 

This trope covers any confusion or [[Hilarity Ensues|hilarity]] arising from foreign swear words, not just in the US. Since international expletives are often "G-rated" on American TV, "arse" and "shite" can be family-friendly ways of getting "ass" and "shit" [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|past the radar]]. In Britain, "ass" can freely be used before the [[Watershed]], while "arse" is used conservatively. Gestures may be similarly misunderstood, such as the vee finger sign that means "peace" in America but is not nice at all in some other countries.

 

{{examples}}

** In the Napoleonic Wars, one of the French slang terms for the British was "Les Goddamns", because of how often they said it. On the other hand, randomly cussing for no reason at all is a common Japanese stereotype of Americans, though almost exclusively played for laughs.

** The name Laputa was taken from Jonathan Swift's ''Gulliver's Travels'', so it's not too big of stretch to imagine Swift naming a floating island "the whore" on purpose. Of course, Hayao Miyazaki probably didn't realize the name had a hidden meaning.

*** Swift may have called it "Laputa" because it had "no visible means of support", a phrase used in vagrancy laws.

*** It may have also been more literal, referencing Martin Luther's "Reason is a whore", seeing as Laputa is a highly advanced society that cannot make anything practical for all its enlightenment.

* In the first episode of Season 3's edited English dub of ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', the apparently Australian Jiece gives us such lines as, "ah bugger, this blasted thing!" and, "no bloody Saiyan that we've ever met is that strong."

 

* In an issue of ''[[Y: The Last Man]]'', a captured woman calls the leader of the Amazon gang/army a cunt. The [[Ax Crazy]] leader [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this by going into a detailed description of the word and how it's not an insult in Britain. The captive responds by spitting on her and getting shot for her troubles.

** Just to clarify it certainly ''is'' an insult in Britain.

** Chamber is also the team's [[Lancer]], sort of a cleaned up version of an old-school British punk, and very grumpy most of the time, so him using strong language isn't too surprising.

* ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', the funny, light-hearted X-Men title, had Pete Wisdom, who tried to include 'bloody hell' in every sentence he spoke. He was supposed to seem rough and a jerk, but it was still slightly uncomfortable if you don't like swearing, especially if you're not quite sure how offensive the swearing is.

** Which is again an inversion, since Ay Carumba can be approximated to 'darn', or a similarly mild epithet.

** It's even better. Because of the placement of the speech bubble, it looks like "I command you to--WANK!"

** The placement suggests that it most likely was intentional.

* In an early issue of [[Marvel Comics]]' ''[[Conan the Barbarian (comics)|Conan the Barbarian]]'' series, British artist Barry Smith convinced American writer Roy Thomas to have a soldier call another soldier a "wank". After the issue's publication, Thomas shortly ended up with more informative letters from British readers than he'd have liked.

 

* While all the swearing recognizable to American readers of [[So Bad It's Good]] ''[[Death Note]]'' fanfic ''[[Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami|Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]'' is censored out, British ones are not, leading to Watari yelling things like "''THAT TIT IS TAKING THE PISS NOW!... WE MUST GET THE WANK OUT OF THIS SODDING CONTRACEPTION!''" fully uncensored.

** Note that the only thing that makes no sense (besides "contraception", which doesn't have a slang meaning) here is "get the wank out" which is nonsense.

** Same goes for ''[[It's My Life|ITS MY LIFE!]]'', to the point that overused British curses were associated with this fic's Wheatley.

* The ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' fic ''Phantom Dreams'' had Seifer refer to Squall as a little bugger, which given the [[Slash Fic|nature]] of the fic was [[Accidentally Accurate]].

 

** Mike Myers' father was British, so he's likely well-aware of those words' connotations. It's also likely that the film was aimed at U.S. audiences, with British marketing an afterthought.

* In Shyamalan's ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', the repeated use of the word "bender" (a homosexual male) has been said to provoke inappropriate laughter from British audiences.

* ''[[Muppet Treasure Island]]'' is otherwise free of profanity, though when Billy Bones is dying, Gonzo and Rizzo lampshade the fact that "this was supposed to be a kids' movie!" Shortly after that, when Billy's shipmates search his room, one of them says "Billy's dead, and he hasn't got the bloody map!" Billy himself asks aloud "How does [Mrs. Bluberidge] bloody do that?"

** Some versions of the film dub over "bloody" with "bloomin".

* In the first ''[[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider|Tomb Raider]]'' movie, Lara is fond of the word "bugger". She uses it a couple times, once with something as innocuous as some food blowing up in the microwave. The movie is PG-13, but it's mainly because it's an action movie, so there's very little in the way of swearing anyway.

 

* In the [[Lois McMaster Bujold]] [[Vorkosigan Saga]] novel ''Memory'', Miles Vorkosigan is said to have "buggered the cartridge" from a [[Sonic Stunner]] to improvise a grenade. Also, he describes Impsec's security recording as having been "buggered" when he finds evidence of tampering. Nowhere else in Bujold's books do we find this sort of expression. "Buggered" is fairly innocuous US slang for fouled-up or broken (but usually not irreparably). In the UK you can ''describe'' something as "buggered" or talk about "buggering something ''up''", but in most dialects if you say you've buggered something you'll get some strange looks. Thus Miles' statement sounds as odd to the British ear as it does to the US ear when a Brit "[[Burn the Witch|lights up a fag]]."

* [[Harry Turtledove]] doesn't do too badly at curse levels, but uses things like 'bloody' far too often in a lot of cases (which has to be quite a bit, given how much we use it). Furthermore, some of the slang is simply wrong. 'Crikey' is an exclamation of surprise, not a swearword that you can chuck in anywhere.

* The aliens in ''[[Ender's Game]]'' are known as Buggers, which makes an awful lot of the text hard to stomach for British readers... "We can't let the Buggers win!" "I'm going to kill as many of the Buggers as possible!" It would be akin to somebody writing a huge sci-fi epic where we're being invaded by deadly swarms of Dumbasses or [[Spaceballs|surrounded by Assholes]].

** Han specifically asks him at one point if he minds that his name is a rather insulting joke, so it's not really worried about the radar. In some rural parts of the US, "bollocks" is simply used to mean "testicles, usually of an animal", (e.g. in the context of castrating a bull)—it's slightly more objectionable than "buttocks".

* [[John Brunner]], in his dystopian near-future novel ''[[The Sheep Look Up]]'' (set in a [[Twenty Minutes in The Future]] version of the USA), fell foul of this by having a midwestern DJ {{spoiler|(who had been poisoned, alongside thousands of others, by leakage into the water table of a military psychedelic)}} use the word "bollocks" in what is probably the filthiest limerick ever printed.

* [[Jack Vance]] innocently named an alien race ''the Wankh''; the resulting book ''[[Planet of Adventure|Servants of the Wankh]]'' sold quite well in a niche market. For a recent republication he consented to rename them ''Wannek'', irritating at least a few fans because a race that can express a sentence in the overtones of a single chime ought to be monosyllabic.

 

* In one episode of ''[[Friends]]'', Chandler calls a character a "wank", to which many British viewers react with surprise or disbelief.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' lived and breathed this trope through the character of [[Badass Decay|Spike]] and occasionally Giles.

** Not to mention Spike used ''[["V" Sign|that certain hand gesture]]'' several times. Probably the director [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|worked under the assumption]] that no-one outside of the U.K. would know that an outstretched index finger and middle finger do ''not'' form the victory sign if the back of the hand is pointing ''away'' from the body, in the direction of the viewers. Done this way, it means the same as an outstretched middle finger gesture. Hilarious.

*** And then he put it in the ''Season Five opening credits''.

** Then there's the hilarious moment in the episode "Tabula Rasa" where Anya accuses Giles of using a lot of British slang that she doesn't understand. When he argues that she couldn't possibly have heard him say any of them words she mentioned (they had lost their memories at this time), she retorts, "Oh, bugger off, you brolly!" which is a slang term for umbrella. Clearly Anya overestimates her curses.

** There's a truly startling moment in ''[[Angel]]'' where Spike instructs Angel to "wank off," the writer apparently believing this is analogous to "piss off." [[A Date with Rosie Palms|It really isn't.]] It's commonly believed that Joss knew what was meant. The creators have joked in the commentaries about how they could use language that would ''never'' have made it past the censors if not for the fact that it was British, rather than American, obscenity. Although it may have worked well for American broadcast, it somewhat spoiled the UK transmission of the show, which had to cut the "wankers" and the "bollocks" from pre-watershed airings, thus making dialogue occasionally choppy and nonsensical.

** This is probably deliberate though, as they use the storyline involving Rita to parody other examples of people having not done the research.

** Could also be an instance of [[Fridge Brilliance]]. Rita is {{spoiler|retarded, meaning that mentally she is a child. Therefore, although pussy is by and large an offensive term to adults, a child would only know it as a friendly word to describe a cat.}}

* In ''[[Leverage]]'', which is otherwise almost entirely devoid of profanity, Sophie Devereaux is introduced in a flashback where Nate shoots her and she snarls, "You wanker!"

** But let's be honest. What would YOU say if you'd been shot?

* Ewan McGregor was a guest on ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' with Jay Leno a few years back, and the conversation turned to the V-sign. McGregor was asked to explain the history of it (the ''false'' folk etymology based on the English longbowmen at Agincourt), and while doing so he demonstrated it to the entire audience. The audience cheered madly, and McGregor started laughing about how he had just flipped off both live and viewing audiences and was being applauded for doing so. He actually looked rather embarrassed by it.

* In ''[[Corner Gas]]'', when Davis feels the need to use British English words ('football') over their Canadian English counterparts ('soccer').

'''Davis:''' A wanker. }}

** Given the entirely-innocent grin on Davis' face, he likely didn't realize how offensive the word was. Which was probably part of the joke.

** Neil Connery inviting someone to 'kiss my white Scottish arse.'

** Receptionist at 'Nirvana Village' doppling centre: "Your kind has to take what you can get." "And what's that?" "''Bollocks!''"

* In ''[[Weird Science]]'', Lisa once used 'wank' to mean any pointless pastime. "Then you can wank to your heart's content. Wank, wank, wank."

 

* On ''LoveLine'', Adam Carolla once pondered if it was okay to say "shite" on the radio at 10 PM pacific (it is, or at least it was when he said it).

** It means the exact same thing in American English that it does in British—most Americans would be surprised anyone thought it was an exclusively British expression ([[Disco Stu|it just sounds slightly outdated to American ears]]). Apparently, [[They Just Didn't Care]].

 

** Though the few still-in-use terms included in the Cant were jarring enough (Blood and Sodding being the most jarring) the use of the word Pike for "move on" was ill-advised, since the only derivation still in use is "Pikey", which is [[Irish Traveller|rather racist]]

*** Strangely enough, "pike" is still in use in Australia and New Zealand (where it isn't offensive at all, and means "to cancel at the last minute on a social engagement"), along with "piker" (one who is notorious for doing so). "Pikey" is however completely unknown (or at least it was, until ''Snatch'').

 

* ''[[Sonic Rush Series]] Adventure'' got a 12 rating in the UK partly because the (American) translators gave Marine the Raccoon, who speaks in an exaggerated Australian accent, a line involving the word "bugger." It still got a G rating in Australia, because Australians tend to take swearing much more in stride.

** ''[[Sonic 3 and Knuckles|Sonic 3]]'' had a a tank-like, insectoid badnik named in the manual as [[Accidental Innuendo|Buggernaut]].

* ''[[Mario Party]] 8'' (seen above): The line "Magikoopa magic! Turn the train spastic!" in the Shy Guy's Perplex Express board game initially caused the game to be recalled in the UK, where "spastic" is seen as an insulting term for the disabled. It was changed to "erratic" over there.

* ''[[Super Mario RPG]]'' has Croco refer to Mario as a "persistent bugger" at one point; when Europe finally got SMRPG on the Virtual Console, it got changed to "persistent pest" to avoid PEGI giving it a 12+ rating.

* Reverse example. In the DS version of ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'', Prince Harry tells the main character, before his wedding to not "cock it up." Cue the player making innuendos about the wedding night. Although, considering Prince Harry's choice of souvenir for his own wedding {{spoiler|(he has musical instruments made so he can gleefully present the player with his very own *coughcough* "marital organ,")}} this one might be intentional.

* ''[[Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy]]'' features a fisherman with a stereotypical pseudo-Bristolian seafarers' accent. He describes unwanted fish as "buggers". The game got off with a 3+ ("general") rating.

** And the previous game got away with a character saying 'arse'. However, the third game is careful to avoid the trope. A character uses the word 'bollocks', but it's censored.

* ''[[Jazz Jackrabbit]] 2'' fell into this trope in Britain, due to Jazz' brother being called Spaz. "Spazzy" in American English simply means "zany" or "crazy", which definitely describes him, but anywhere else it would be like naming him "Retard."

* On ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', the phrase "bloody" is pretty common in the vocabulary of Demoman and Sniper. Sniper is also keen on using the word "wanker." The game ''is'' rated Mature (17 and up), but the other characters keep to milder language, in keeping with the lighthearted tone of the game (the strongest words they use are "ass" and "son of a bitch").

* The manual for ''[[Crash Bandicoot|Crash Team Racing]]'' offers advice for avoiding missile attacks by saying that, if the player is, 'being tailed by one of these buggers,' it's a good idea to drop something behind you. Could be [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]].

* ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'' features enemies called Buggers (possibly a [[Shout-Out]] by the translators to the ''[[Ender's Game]]'' example, but as they are robotic and accompanied by enemies called "Debuggers" it is likely to be a coding reference and unintentionally funny). The [[Nintendo DS]] release had a new translation that changed the enemies' names to Verminator and Deverminator respectively since that release was the first time the game made it across the Atlantic. The new names seem to imply that they're rogue pest control robots.

* British players of ''[[Escape from Monkey Island]]'' have been rather taken aback upon hearing the usually family-friendly Guybrush Threepwood describe a group of termites as "little buggers."

* ''[[Portal 2]]'' features Wheatley, a personality core with a pronounced British accent and vocabulary to match. Later in the game, when things stop going his way, he begins tossing around "bloody" an awful lot for a game rated E10 in the U.S. (One must also however consider that Wheatley was ''made'' in the United States in-universe, so it could just be stupidity on the part of Aperture.)

** {{spoiler|On the other hand, the "[[Fake Irish|Irish]]" character himself is not actually an Irishman, as his [[Accent Relapse]] shows during [[The Reveal]]...}}

* Rocket Racoon in ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'' gets away with calling people 'wankers' just by having a British accent. Which is strange, since one of his other taunts gets censored to "Flark-Face".

* The ''[[Banjo-Kazooie]]'' games contain a lot of racy Britishisms that slipped past ESRB censors and got an E rating. Note that given Rare's sense of humor [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|this was almost certainly on purpose.]]

 

* Played straight and averted by ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'', as some British characters are played by British handlers themselves, while others do tend to lapse into this.

* While swearing is ''very'' infrequent and mild in the ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' universe, in sb_email 22, Strong Bad receives an e-mail from a fan from England. Since the e-mail concluded with "Thank You," Strong Bad told the sender he would sound more English if he used something in its place like "Cheers," "Cheerio," or "[[Sex Pistols|Nevermind the Bullocks]]." Of course, knowing Strong Bad [[Fridge Brilliance|he probably didn't know or care he was being offensive]], or perhaps thought he was but wasn't, since the British term is 'bollocks', and 'bullocks' refers to cattle.

** Swearing is mild and rare except for the fact that the use of the word "crap" was a running joke in some of the Strong Bad e-mails.

* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] once, "borrowed a phrase from the British" to describe people as 'twats', but pronounced it 't-wot' - to rhyme with hot, instead of 't-wat' to rhyme with hat, cue many confused British people wondering what the hell a twot is and why it's apparently British.

 

** One episode featured a [[Sex Pistols]] parody including a song consisting entirely of "<Noun> is bollocks!"; for comparison, this is essentially equivalent to "bullshit." When the episode was aired on Sky in the UK it was the first ''Simpsons'' episode ever to premier after the watershed.

** Possibly lampshaded in an episode where Homer is forced to ensure the safety of a screaming caterpillar taking up refuge in their garden. After making it clear several times he wishes to kill it but knows he can't, Homer accidentally (almost) kills it. The judge then sentences him to community service for (among other things) "... aggravated buggery."

** The episode "Trash of the Titans" features the Irish band [[U2]], and repeated use of the word 'wankers'.

** It's gone right over Skinner's head at least once.

'''Skinner''': If by wank you mean educational fun, then stand back, it's wanking time. }}

*** All the kids assembled break into laughter, obviously.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' have also used to the 'w' word - when Stewie makes it to the set of ''Jolly Farm Revue'' and is told to "Piss off, you grotty little wanker!" Although Family Guy being the [[Refuge in Audacity|tasteful show it is]], they probably knew what was being said.

** Almost certainly the latter, to judge by previous examples of FG fun with Anglicisms:

'''Peter''': Well, someone tell this "cigarette" to shut up. }}

** Stewie (who has a fake British accent because he's a [[Evil Brit|villain]]), uses both British and American words. Cue hilarity when he vainly refers to his backside as his "fanny". Again, the writers could well have known what it meant in Britain. They may have even [[Fridge Brilliance|been using the dual meaning]] to joke about Stewie's sexuality...

* ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' episode "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide" opens with a man with a British accent saying "I feel like an absolute bloody fool."

 

** In contemporary times, "bloody" can be an emphatic way of saying "very", with little residual offensive value. Ironically, it's so inoffensive now that using it often sounds like a [[Bowdlerise|bowdlerization of worse swearwords]]. "Bugger", in modern Britain, is mostly harmless in much the same way (but "bugger" ''really really'' does not mean the same thing in the UK as it does in the US. See also "fanny").

* Real life examples abound in Asia as a result of the practice of [[Gratuitous English]]. The sight of a demure girl in a T-shirt reading "A Fuck" (not just "fuck", not "the fuck" but "A fuck") is pretty jarring. It's rumoured that there are hospitals in China where the gynaecological ward is labeled (in huge letters) [http://www.weirdasianews.com/2009/07/20/engrish-signs/cunt-examination/ "Cunt Examination."]

** Also, the time when [[Aya Hirano]] wore a T-shirt reading "Did you cum twice too?" in a concert.

** The (extensive) rules and regulations for Shanghai municipal park, prominently displayed on signs by the entrances, include the instruction that visitors should not [[Sophisticated As Hell|"urinate or shit"]] anywhere in the grounds.

*** 'Same in both Germany and the Netherlands.

* Many English-language publications in the USA are quite happy to print the offensive Spanish word ''cojones'' (often misspelled as ''cajones'') as a [[Foreign Cuss Word|euphemism]] for "balls." An owner of a faux-Mexican eatery got away with calling his place C. O. Jones for about a year before anyone caught on.

** Also ''pendejo'' ("limpdick") and ''cabron'' (literally "randy old goat" but somewhere between son-of-a-bitch and mother-f***er in severity). Nobody has managed to get the Ch-word (which only exists in Mexican and possibly Cuban Spanish) past the radar, but doubtless someone will try.

* Some years ago, a US network purchased an Australian tv show (''The Flying Doctors'') but required certain dialogue changes made - specifically, when a young boy describes his injuries as hurting 'like buggery'. In Australian, although most people are aware of the actual meaning of the word, it's rarely used that way or censored when used in other ways. The comedy troupe '''Doug Anthony All Stars''' got considerable mileage out of variations on this joke:

'''Tim and Paul in chorus:''' No Richard, ''nothing'' hurts like buggery... }}

** It originally referred to 'Spastic', which means someone with a particular developmental disability. Much like the similar epithet "retard," it has become somewhat divorced from its origins; and the perceived offensiveness of the word depends greatly on crowd and context. Some will find it highly offensive, regardless of the use, and others hardly bat an eye.

*** It ''originally'' meant "[[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|prone to spasms]]," for any reason.

* Due to years of enforced squeaky-cleanliness by the Franco regime, there was an enormous backlash of profanity on Spanish television during the transition to democracy. This has led to Spaniards being comfortable hearing "[[Cluster F-Bomb|joder]]" being dropped left and right in early evening sitcoms. Exporting them to Latin America, on the other hand...

* Not a particularly offensive example, but [[Twitter]] amused a few Brits when it was launched, "twit" being a very mild term for "idiot".

*** On the other hand, given that about 99% of Twitter content would qualify, maybe they were in on the joke ahead of time.

** Of course, this has also led to particularly useless or stupid Twitter users being referred to as "Twatters" in the US, in part because it's a mild swear compared to [[Country Matters|that other word]].

* ''Brat Camp'', a documentary about British delinquents being sent to an American disciplinary camp, had one of the teenagers in question making use of this, explaining to the camera crew that they "Don't know what the word 'bollocks' means, so don't tell them".

** They do know. It's just not used as profanity here (it's basically just used, mainly by older people, in its literal sense, and almost exclusively of animals). Saying "oh bollocks" sounds, to Americans, like saying "Oh pizzle" or "oh phallus".

* [[wikipedia:Sacrebleu|"''Sacré bleu''!"]] in English-language works is a silly, meaningless expression that a stereotypical character will utter in order to demonstrate his or her [[Buffy-Speak|Frenchness]]. It means "holy blue" and could be a veiled reference to the sky-blue clothing traditionally worn by Mary (the mother of Jesus) in Roman Catholic illustrations. However, [http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/sacrebleu dictionaries explain it as being] [[Bowdlerise|a bowdlerization]], with "bleu" substituted for "Dieu" (God), occurring also in old phrases like "parbleu" ("by blue") or "morbleu" ("blue's death"). Such phrases are thus comparable to English phrases like "zounds" (from "God's wounds") or "dagnabitt" ("God damn it").

** Interestingly, "Sacrement!" and "Tabarnak!" <ref>sacrament and tabernacle</ref> and other French Catholic curses are still used in Quebec. It's common in English Canadian children's shows to have the [[Token Minority|French character]] say them as a way of [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]], since they aren't swear words when translated into English.

** It's also the derivation of the band name "The Pogues", originally "Pogue Mahone". They shortened it when BBC airplay became a likelihood, as it was pointed out that there are Irish-speakers who listen.

* One of the sponsors of the 2010 Olympics was a Canadian clothing company called Roots (a longtime Olympics and [[NHL]] supplier, and Canada's answer to The Gap) . One wonders why the Australian team seemed so interested in wearing their stuff...

* The word 'twat' in some parts of Britain is just as offensive and has the same meaning as the [[Country Matters|C-word]], but in Scotland it is often used as a marginally-more-offensive form of "twit" (as in "you complete twat"). When a scientist was quoted as saying anyone who thought the Large Hadron Collider was going to destroy the world was "being a twat," it was rather amusing to note the difference in how many letters of the word, if any, various newspapers chose to censor.

* It's also worth mention that "Twat" is actually a less extreme epithet than the "C-word", even in Britain (with "fanny" being far, far less offensive, school-child version of both) however none of these words is considered as bad as it is in the U.S., where calling someone "female genitalia" is potentially grounds for divorce proceedings to take place.

** This lead to a wonderful moment in the '90s when (then) Radio One DJ Steve Wright was forced to explain on his afternoon show that "in America 'fanny' means 'bottom'" after playing the radio edit of Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day" (which, of course, contains the line "jumped on the big fat fanny" when Ice Cube is relating some "fun" he had with a girl).

** Bizarrely, the use in the [[Title Theme Tune]] for ''[[The Nanny]]'' was left uncensored in Australia. Of course, the mental images provoked by the line "out on her fanny" become fairly bizarre...

* Fox Sports showed a lot of interest in British sports by being one of the first outlets to report on English footballer Wayne Rooney's plan to leave Manchester United. Just as impressive was their choice of article name - 'Later, wankers.' It was changed, but British papers and panel shows had a field day.

* Hebrew has rather few original common cursewords, often using loanwords from Russian and Arabic, and are perceived as far milder in Hebrew (actually, only elderly people in Israel would really frown upon cursewords nowadays). For instance, the common phrase ''kus emek'' (literally 'yo' mamma's cunt' in colloquial Arabic, used as a very strong version of 'fuck!' or 'fuck you!') could startle Arabs but is seen as a frequent term of displeasure for Hebrew, albeit somewhat crude (somewhat like 'damnit'). Similarily the most common Russian curseword in Hebrew, ''k yebyona mat´'', literally meaning 'to the fucking mother', is pronounced ''kibinimat'' in Hebrew, with the vast majority of native Hebrew speakers entirely unaware of its meaning and using it as an equivalent of 'kus emek', or as the equivalent of English 'Hell' or 'to Hell' ("send them ''kibinimat''"/"to ''kibinimat''" is like a crude version of 'to Hell with them', and 'go ''kibinimat''' is, well, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|go to Hell]]).

* In Germany, English curse words are used quite often and are usually considered to be less offensive than the German equivalent. So any German who visits the US should remember not to say shit or fuck as they're used to doing. Also Germany is in general more relaxed concerning swearing, so they will rarely be censored. Tho only place where this happens is on MTV when they show subbed American shows like [[Pimp My Car]].

** Same goes for [[The Netherlands]]; shit and fuck are thrown around willy nilly, but "Kut" which only ranks medium on the swear-0-meter, probably won't be said on a family show.

* In general, most Europeans are more comfortable with swearing than Americans.

** "''Zut alors''!" is more of a cross between "''Oh Man''!" and "''I've had enough''!" and is the kind of profanity you would expect from first graders

* In Norway, the word "skitt" is a slightly informal word for "dirt" (the verb form, "skitten" is the common term for "dirty"), but can also be used as an extremely mild expression of anger (we're talking about as offensive as saying "oh no" here), as well as a very mild insult typically directed at physical objects (around the level of calling something a "stupid thing"). The word is pronounced exactly the same way as the English "shit". Cue not-very-English-savvy Norwegians picking up the word "shit" from English television and movies and assuming it's as inoffensive as the Norwegian word, then trying to use it in English-speaking countries.

** Sales of [[Spider-Man]] comics must be pretty dire in those countries.

* In Aussie slang, the word "root" apparently is somewhat offensive. One website describes it as "a synonym for f*ck in nearly all its senses" and uses some examples including: "I feel rooted;" "this washing machine is rooted;" "(s)he's a good root." This created a pretty funny story after the 2008 Olympics, when Australian diver Matthew Mitcham won the gold medal in a pretty amazing come-from-behind (no pun intended) victory. He was apparently pretty amused and surprised when he heard a bunch of American fans saying "they were rooting for him."

* The N-word has made its way to Bosnia through rap videos on MTV where black people throw the term around casually as a term for friends. Cue Bosnian youths greeting each other with "Vatz-ap mah nig**" and some very pissed off tourists. Also South Slavic profanities are infamously crude, creative and ubiquitous, so most English swear-words are barely acknowledged as such.

* Many half-decent tries at imitating a Jamaican accent depend heavily on an irate tone and liberal uses of the word "ras claat" or "bombo claat" without the speaker actually understanding what they are saying. For all intents and purposes, the speaker is calling the object of their annoyance a used tampon. This insult is (for obvious reasons) hardly ever used on a daily basis, being reserved for the worst sort of people; by hilarious contrast, it most probably appears more times in imitations of Jamaican speech (because of how strange it sounds to outsiders) than in Jamaican speech itself.

* An American actor was being interviewed live on BBC Breakfast, and used the word 'Wanker', obviously oblivious to its actual meaning, presumably having heard it being used by the British actors/crew he was working with as a greeting.

 

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[[Category:Language Tropes]]

[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]