Thursday, September 30, 2010

Favorite Fictional Expletives and Exclamations

Another list inspired by Rebel Monkey's Question of the Day ; this time the question was about everyone's favorite fake curse words.  My original answer was the earliest example I could remember encountering, courtesy of the film Johnny Dangerously:  "fargin' bastich."  But as a life-long fan of Sci Fi, Fantasy, and comic books, I've encountered a long list of faux expletives and exclamations crafted by the author to create the sense of foul language without actually using any.  I know there are those who decry the artifice, saying "we all know they mean $#*! when they say frak, so why not just say $#*!?", but for me, the created words generally feel more charming than forced.

So with that, here are some of my favorite examples
  • Noy Jetat -- this exclamation of shock and dismay came from the early 90s cartoon Pirates of Dark Water
  • Feetal's Gizz -- short for "Feetal's Gizzard," this exclamation was a favorite of characters in Keith Giffen's L.E.G.I.O.N. and Lobo books.
  • Sprock/Grife -- This pair of futuristic curses were popularized by everyone's favorite team of 30th Century teenagers, The Legion of Super-Heroes.
  • Frak -- Probably the most popular and wide-spread faux curse on my list thanks to the incredibly well-received Battlestar Gallactica reboot series . . . and to the fact that it sounds really close to the word it replaces . . .
  • Blood and ashes! Blood and bloody ashes! -- This oft-used exclamation from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books worked its way into my subconscious along with the fatalistic phrase "The Wheel weaves as The Wheel wills."
  • Frell/Dren -- While "frak" may be the more well known Sci Fi curse, I will always be a bigger fan of the more melodious alien expletives that were sprinkled liberally throughout Farscape
  • Great Rao! --  This one is Superman taking his Kryptonian sun deity's name in vain -- who ever would have thought the big blue boy scout would be so blasphemous?

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