The Artful Debauchery of Curse Words

We have a dictionary dedicated to such.

I see your picture on the cover. Is this spam?

That's my avatar. It's Roger Mellie a character in Viz Comic.

I read Viz, but I don't have anything to do with it. Not only that, it's very successful, with TV and film spin offs, they don't need to spam somewhere like this.

Should'a known that wasn't really you.

Apparently he's based on a real person, a presenter of local news in the North East who inadvertently swore a few times live on air.

That's why the profanisaurus, which is now in it's 7th or 8th edition, is accredited to Roger. Readers of Viz write in with their own profane words and phrases, the good ones get published in the comic, and then make the next edition.

I actually heard the ITV guy in the studio whose mic had been left on, on the evening of the day when Lady Diana got killed, say "Say what you like about her, she had a nice pair of Bristols". They were showing a picture on screen of her in a low cut dress.

He must have been one of the last people to use it. It was all the rage back in the 70s when people couldn't say tits.

For our American friends, it's rhyming slang, Bristol City- titties.

Malcolm Tucker is the unrivalled master of the swear word.

From the 1970s until early in this century, there was a magazine entitled Maledicta, dedicated to what was described as "verbal aggression." It was quite the scholarly affair, too. Naturally, even though the magazine is no longer published, they have a web site.

Abroad in Japan
TEACHING SWEAR WORDS TO JAPANESE PEOPLE