News: 30 of your Britishisms used by Americans

[Garry Russell]

Crikey is supposedly an exclaimation used instad of "Christ" which was a no no in those far off days.

Just a typical British thing of saying something by not using the word that everyone knows you mean.

[speedbird591]

Just a typical British thing of saying something by not using the word that everyone knows you mean.

You're frigging right there, mate!

Ian

[Tako_Kichi]

Just a typical British thing of saying something by not using the word that everyone knows you mean.

You're frigging right there, mate!

That reminds me of an article I read once regarding the pre-production days of the BBC TV comedy show 'Red Dwarf'. The writers/producers were trying to come up with a swear word that Dave Lister could use but which wouldn't force them beyond the 9 p.m. 'watershed' (the point after which bad language could be used as all kiddies were supposed to be in bed by then ).

They tried numerous words out and even invented a few new ones but nothing was working the way they wanted them to. Finally Craig Charles (the actor who played Lister) suggested a word that was used in Liverpool (where he was born and raised) but he'd never heard anywhere else, the writers/producers had never heard of it either so they decided to use it. The rest as they say is history and Lister used the word 'smeg' throughout the numerous series of the show. It came in various forms such as 'smeg', smegging' and his common reference to Arnold Rimmer (the ship's hologram character) as 'smeg-head'. They also came up with a few other new words like 'gimboid' and 'goit' as derogatory terms for people (usually Rimmer).

It was only after the show was a huge hit that the writers/producers discovered (to their horror) that 'smeg' was in fact a contraction of the word 'smegma' (look it up) but the word stayed in as it brought some colour to the dialogue. Lister without the swearing would have watered the show down too much.

[FlyTexas]

It was only after the show was a huge hit that the writers/producers discovered (to their horror) that 'smeg' was in fact a contraction of the word 'smegma' (look it up)...

Googling it now. s-m-e-g-m-a






Brian