Hello internet, Ric here. Profanity is a strange concept. They’re just words right? But it’s
the meaning we assign to them and meaning by those who here them that give them relevance.
Cultural influence affects these words too but then again that’s pretty much how language
works in general, even alien ones. In this fashion, a well-constructed roast can cut
deeper than a string of expletives uttered in anger but those same expletives can add
emotional emphasis to statements. As such a glossary of swear words can be a useful
tool for any interstellar encounter. In theory this video won’t be demonetised
right? Alright, let’s do this. Science fiction swear words, here we go.
This list is not comprehensive, nor in any particular order, but after asking the community
for some examples, I’ve got enough to compile a list of curses and insults, what fun!
Starting off with a strong one is Battlestar Galactica’s famous swear, Frack. This curse
word is a stand in for Ffff. Hrm. and dynamically used in the same ways. Multipurpose and ffffunctional,
it’s the Swiss-army-knife of curse words. Originally spelled F-R-A-C-K for the original
series, the remake wanted to make it hasher and shorter so dropped the C making it a four
letter word like it’s real world counterpart. If you really want to hurl insults towards
the Cylons, the mechanised enemies of the Colonial Fffleet, why not throw in the term
toasters too? Fraking toasters. Also a nice touch was that instead of exclaiming “God!”
like “Goddamn it” the primary religion was a polytheistic one therefore “Gods”
plural were used instead. Let’s turn our attention to a galaxy far,
far away and see if we can find some additions to our vulgar lexicon. Well, the Star Wars
galaxy is ancient and home to many alien civilizations, so many if fact that you could probably just
string together some sounds and insult someone or something somewhere. But some common ones
include, Karabast, a favourite damnation and expletive of Zeb Orrelios. Quite simply it’s
just like saying blast it, bugger or damn it.
A far older term dates back to around 1000 BBY at least and that’s Kriff. Kriffing
is pretty much there to be a profane emphasis, for example: “you Kriffing Jedi think you’re
so cool”. Or “you better Kriffing well have done what I’d asked”, or “Go Kriff
yourself.” While we’re here there are also terms like
Sleemo, to call someone a sleazy jerk, and the Huttese term Poodoo. This, despite its
sound refers to the stuff that goes into a digestive tract, not out of it. It actually
means fodder or animal feed. You also have insults like the infamous Nerf Herder. Oh,
so rude! What does it mean; well a Nerf is a big buffalo like creature from Alderaan.
And a nerf herder is someone who herds them…So wait, in means shepherd? Okay… I guess it’s
a class based insult? Right, let’s Kriffing move on to the next
pile of Bantha Poodoo. Firefly was set in a future where the two
greatest space powers of America and China led most of the space faring and established
the colony planets of the ‘Verse. To reflect this, an entire language was derived that
was a hybrid and degradation of both English and Chinese lingos. Naturally folk maintained
a majority of words from both languages, but a few new terms popped up here and there,
both good and bad. Saying something was “Shiny” was akin to saying all is well, but if something
was afoul, you best Gorram run. Gorram seems to be used in the same way you’d
say Goddamn and probably evolved from that exact phrase, though most insults and extensive
profanity was done in Chinese to maintain its certificate 12 viewer rating. I mean because
it was more creative, Gorram it. Speaking of Firelfy, Shepherd was a character
and also the name of the main character in Mass Effect. That was the sound of me trying
to catch my Segway. Mass Effect, like Star Wars has numerous alien
languages to draw from, but the one curse that stands out the most is probably the one
uttered frequently by the most unassuming and lovable, Tali’Zorah? Well she is a scrappy
mechanic by trade so, perhaps her calling everything a Bosh’tet isn’t too unexpected.
What does it mean? Well it’s never translated but you can call someone a Bosh’tet and
they don’t take it too well so I guess it’s not great? Also, in plain terms, Krogan have
four balls so when they talk about their quad, they mean their nutsack. Hey I bet Jack knows
a few swear words we could learn. Red Dwarf, where it’s cold outside and there’s
no kind of atmosphere. There is a word that perfectly fits any situation and like a 4x
optical scope, can be affixed to many things to improve their efficiency and damage. Emotional
damage. That word is Smeg. On its own a humble exclamation of unhappiness, it’s true potential
is harnessed with the power of the imagination! Smeghead, a common insult, smeg-fo-brains,
oooh seething. Smeggin smeg. Too much. But what does Smeg mean? Well… it comes from
the term smegma. Which you should not google. Seriously don’t when asked by a child to
explain what Smeg meant, the actors crawled off stage in hysterics. I wish I could find
that clip. Even the civilized Star Trek galaxy has its
myriad of curses, a majority of which are Klingon in origin such as PetaQ, K’Pekt,
Mak’Dar, T’Gla, Tohzah, Toruk-Doh and Yintagh. What a lovely contribution the Klingons
have made to galactic linguistics. We don’t even have translations for most of these,
but I’m going to guess that at least one of these means coward, or perhaps they’re
just various ways of clearing phlegm from the back of your throat. There’s also To’Ba
which seems to be a mild insult and Peta’Q roughly translates as an insulting term for
servant. Most of the insults in Trek are actually just
comparisons to undesirable animals and creatures that have bad reputations but a select few
could be construed as potentially speciesist. McCoy has often called Spock things like a
Green-blooded hobgoblin in regards to a seeming lack of empathy or compassion stemming from
his Vulcan heritage and Klingons and Ferengi do consider being compared to a human as being
soft. Also calling a Ferengi Lobeless would be saying that they suck at business, I guess
it’d be like insinuating they’re kind of dumb.
I’m pretty sure people have called the Ferengi trolls too at some point. Because of their
appearance. And the Bajorans and those who fought against the Cardassians often call
them Spoonheads, cause of their cranial ridges, or Cardies as offensive slang. In fact, the
more I look into it, the more I find. Shran calling all humans pink-skins is a complete
generalisation, something I’d never noticed before. Star Trek! I’m shocked. Though most
of these do come from cultures other than humanity, so I guess those aliens races all
are all kind of jerks. Even in the pages of comics profanity finds
its home, when not being covered by Grawlix text (that’s the name for all the signs
censoring swears in comics) alien vulgarity is a-plenty. The Kree from Marvel Comics for
example use the term “Das’t” as a mild sort of dammit and DC’s main man, Lobo often
calls people a “Bastich” which as probably exactly as it sounds.
A standout from Farscape is “Frell” as a stand in for our not-advertise-friendly
four letter fffreind. Dren can be swapped out for calling something a steaming pile
of refuse. Shards is an exclamation from McCaffery’s
Dragon books, I’ll have to take your word for it on that one.
Even the titular Doctor from Doctor Who once told the Daleks to “Spack off!”
Science fiction parody Rick and Morty has the multi-layered term to “Squanch”, but
in of itself this word has a complex and near infinite meaning but when used carelessly
is just simply disgusting. Squanch it and move on.
But by far, the worst vulgarity come from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which itself
has numerous swears of alien origin like joojoflop, swut but these pale in comparison to the word
reserved for the most dire circumstances, when no hope remains and even rock-bottom
has fallen out from under you, then and only then is it acceptable to sigh and say the
word…. Mmmm, no I can’t say it… Belgium. There. I said it!
I’m deeply sorry if I’ve offended any viewers with his video, human or alien origin
but at the end of the day, we’re all people. Fallible and fun-loving so you know what it’s
no surprise that we invented curse words for even enlightened alien cultures.
In honesty I think it’s a fun idea to develop a language to make your science fiction race
more fleshed out and believable and it is a subtle reminder that more often than not,
alien cultures are used to reflect different aspects of our own societies, warts and all.
So frag it all, for Drokk’s sake, let’s just enjoy ourselves because at the end of
the day, all words are made up. So let’s have a few more.
Know any others? By the way, YouTube automatically flags comments with English swear words, but
the same restriction isn’t placed on fictional ones so go wild!
Thanks for watching, until next time I’ll see you around!
