What is your favorite set of SF curse words?
I’ll start this off with the obvious. My wife and I use ‘frack’ all the time. Completely transparently, too, we don’t even think about it most of the time. We’re not trying to be ‘ironic’ or make a little side nod to the show we loved, it’s just natural.
Frell doesn’t have the same satisfying sound, so we don’t use it.
I’d like to memorize some of the Firefly chinese stuff, haven’t yet.
Also, we use lots of Spongebob stuff. “Tartar sauce!” It’s funny, and you can’t seriously suggest that SS isn’t science fiction: It’s a show about superevolved marine life that apparently lives just offshore of Los Angeles, presumably endowed with their mutant powers through toxic waste outflow.
OK, that’s weird. The post apparently shows up while you’re still working on the poll.
And yeah, “Frak” has a particularly satisfying edge to it.
Frak does it all. I’ll even stretch it out to a ‘Frakkintalos’ when particularly teed-off.
No offense Talos. 
(I think this’d make a great call-in topic too, Pike)
I have to admit that “Frak” has become my self-censoring swear of choice, but I love the plaintive quality that “Belgium” has. When all is lost, it’s just Belgium, man. Belgium.
And “Frakintalos” will soon join my repertoire, no doubt.
I adore the word Frak. It has the satisfying quality of the F-Bomb without being offensive in mixed company.
My only commandment:
Thou shalt take my name in vain (or profane).
It’s pretty obvious where I stand. I do use ‘Cheese and Crackers’ and recent addition ‘Crom’. Having younglings around has forced me to become creative, which has increased my supply of family-safe cuss words:
Shinebox
Nougat
Maheck (name of a child in my daughter’s class. I heard her mother calling her name and just thot, “That’s perfect.”)
I find now that I stiill use the ol’ reliables, especially when sufficiently required, but I’ve come to really enjoy making people double-take when I use an uncommon expletive.
Ugh! That’s disgusting! :eek:
And “Frakintalos” will soon join my repertoire, no doubt.
I must admit, I approve of this idea.
I’m not sure they qualify as sci-fi, per se, but Eddie Izzard’s “Jeezy Creezy” and “Holy Ghost! Hoooooly Ghost!!!” are fun.
Probably my favorite, though, is Futurama’s “Sweet Zombie Jesus!”
Oh My Crom!! A can’t believe you said the B-word (Belgium)!!
I have a theory about that. I think intelligent life forms have purposely avoided Earth, because we’re the ONLY species sick and twisted enough to name a country after that most despicable and offensive curse word in the Galaxy: Belgium.
I don’t know if I could use frakkintalos as a swear word, though I’m sure I would if I had, like, just left the planet Talos IV and something really Belgium happened to me there (pardon my language).
The important thing about an expletive is its linguistic structure. The reason “frak” works so well is because it has a long, soft beginning and a hard, abrupt end. You can twist it and emphasize it numerous ways, but there’s not doubt that it’s not a nice word.
As much as I think Farscape’s range of expletives is better, they just don’t function the same way real-world curses do. “Frell” and “Dren” both have phonetic endings as soft as the word “damn” (which, when spoken is as likely to be a curse as a water-holding structure). And the hard ending and begining to “Tralc” really puts it in an odd position. There aren’t any curses in the common English language that both start and end with hard consonants (maybe the closes being “crap”).
Firefly comes close, but its curses are a bit too low, phonetically, to start. “Rutting” works really well, except that “Ru” means you have to start saying the word in the back of the throat, unlike “Fu” or “Shi,” which both start up near the teeth. So it’s a little quiet. And what good is a curse you can’t shout loud 100%? Same thing for “Gorram.” Words that back in the throat generally aren’t aggressive words. I mean, try to say “Gorram” with an angry face, brow furled. It’s not as easy the F-bomb, and will probably come out more like “Go-ram” instead of “Gorr-am.”
Of course, Frak’s going to be great because, well, it’s hardly a change at all. But, linguistically, it carries all the markers of a curse word we would actually use today in English. It forms in the front of the mouth, keeps a high register, and ends with a sharp, hard consonant.
Or maybe I’ve thought about this sort of thing a bit too much.
Frak’s pretty perfect, linguistically speaking! I voted for smeg out of nostalgia though …
I proudly wore my Red Dwarf shirt with the logo on front & “Smeg Off” on the back to high school after picking it up at a local Creation Star Trek convention, and got a dubious look from my algebra teacher. She wondered what sort of word it was, and I told her it could be used several different ways …
I love Farscape, but its expletives don’t really work for me. Frell & dren just don’t sound right - too soft.
JollyAndy’s explanation is awesome!
I totally voted for frak, though I’m fond of gorram, too…
(it probably helps that frak is actually a word used around la casa casilda)
Frak is by far the best, and it has slipped into mainstream culture, sort of. Frell is fun, I always thought of that as closer to “hell” then anything else.
I have used Firefly slang, but so much the profanity, although Gorram or Ruttin is fun once in a while. But “Don ma?” and “Shiny” is better.
And once, and only once I shouted “Are you out of Vulcan mind?!” at a card game.
I loooove “shiny.” That’s one of my favorite bits of slang to come from Sci-Fi in a long, long time. But as far as “catch phrases” go, I must admit to using “NO MORE MISTER NICE GAIUS” in casual conversation.
tough choice between firefly and farscape for me. I voted Farscape though just because there was a point when those were my go to curses (never happened with battlestar)
Farscape wins this by a mile! It has a full vocabulary of swear words that fit easily in to English. I’ve been using Frell and Dren from almost the first time I heard them.
Firefly gets props for bringing “Shiny” into the vocabulary, but the most of the swearing was done in Chinese.
The single best swear word though is clearly Frak. As has been said previously, it has the perfect sound to it, and is as versatile as the word it replaces.
Honorary mentions go to both Red Dwarf and Hitchhiker’s Guide too.
Frell of course its frell
why cause it just frell’in is…
Dear JollyAndy,
I love you.
Sincerely,
Starbuccaneer
Yeah, I actually use frak with frequency. In addition, I enjoy shouting, “Barnacles!” when something goes wrong.
Ditto on both! Also, “Tartar Sauce”.
Frak is my favorite (as per JollyAndy’s explanation and also frak is very maleable and you can use it in a number of ways - as a noun, as a verb, as an adjective, etc), though vocabulary wise, huge fan of H2G2’s. I also have an affection for The Middleman’s “My Little Pony!” (and many, many cool phrases).