Foreign Cuss Word: Difference between revisions

== Comedy ==

* [[Played With]] in one sketch by German comedian Didi Hallervorden. Context: A prisoner gets a visit by his wife (or gf), but all the time they have Didi as a kind of chaperone who will honk a horn and give them minus points whenever they get too lovey-dovey and/or obscene. This gets pretty ridicilous, and the prisoner protests. Then...

Didi: "Do you think I don't understand Polish?!" }}

 

* "Sacrebleu" is a double subversion; literally it translates to "sacred blue" (which sounds harmless), but it referred to the Virgin Mary and there's a whole lot of stiff-upper-lip context associated with it, making it a serious curse in France (until about the end of the 18th century, anyway), but everywhere else just sort of a joke--like hearing "puta" or "culo" or, even worse, "maricón."

* In the last ''[[Animorphs]]'' book, Jake uses [["Three Laws"-Compliant|the Chee's non-violence programming]] to force them to help him end the war, and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old|Erek]] drops into a language he doesn't understand for about thirty seconds.

'''Jake:''' No offense, but that's the least of my problems right now. }}

** Also "The Secret", where Ax says that the lumber company's name, Dapsen, has an impolite meaning in Yeerk that he won't say.

* British curses abound in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':

** Giles often uses obscure British slang terms, whose true meanings few Americans would know, but which generally sound like insults in context. Some of these have highly vulgar origins; for instance, Giles uses "berk" as an insult, which comes from the Cockney rhyming slang "<s>Berkeley</s> Berkshire Hunt". (What rhymes with Hunt?) One episode lampshades this through misinterpretation:

'''Giles''': "No. Toth is the name of the demon." }}

** In standard British English, "berk" isn't really very rude. It's also pronounced as it's written, as opposed to the "berk" in "Berkeley", which would be pronounced "bark". So very few people know the origins, and it's used to mean a mild form of "idiot", rather than [[Country Matters|the obscene word it originally comes from]]. If someone knocked over a glass, you might call them a berk, but you certainly wouldn't call them a **** - [[Beergasm|although it depends on what was in the glass]].

** In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', Dr. Radek Zelenka is played by David Nykl, who speaks fluent Czech. [[Word of God]] says only about half of Zelenka's Czech lines are scripted, and Czech fans have confirmed that not only is there a lot of uncensored swearing, he sometimes [[Bilingual Bonus|breaks the fourth wall]].

*** As an [http://www.twiztv.com/scripts/atlantis/season3/atlantis-301.htm episode transcript] has put it:

* LeBeau of ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' swears in French, or at least seems to.

* ''[[Late Show With David Letterman]]'' did a bit where a woman shouted out obscenities in Finnish. On stage. Uncensored. In reality, however, none of what she said was actually obscene, but relatively mild insults delivered in a tone that suggested very offensive content. Apparently they would have still had to bleep the bad words out had there been any, so they settled for what they could get away with.

* In an international-level fencing championship, one fencer made a mistake and swore in Swahili. An elderly member of the audience stood up and informed the referee that he'd done so, and the offender was penalized.

* Some anatomical references sound not only more polite but [[Everything Sounds Sexier in French|sexier when spoken in French]]. Take, for instance, "derrière" or (to quote Christopher Buckley):

* A football game for Euro 1996 or 2000 where a young David Beckham tripped a striker from the opposing side (Greece). The striker's response as he was sitting on the grass? "Ante gamisou, re malaka" (ie. Fuck you, you wanker.) The referee did not catch it, but Greek viewers laughed their asses off. (Eventually, we lost, however)

* This actually happens a lot in the Netherlands, where people '''love''' to over-use English swear words. They aren't considered as bad as they would be in English, to the point where you can (usually) say "fuck you" to someone without it being considered offensive.