Father Ted was not only one of the best comedy shows this country had produced, but it gave us the word that the English language has been missing, a sociably acceptable way to say one of the most common but socially unacceptable swear words.
We knew what the priests really meant when they told Bishop Brenan and others to Feck off and it quickly became an everyday word because we had been waiting for a way to say the word without actually saying it.
I was never happy with saying freaking or fricking, they just never seemed guttural enough and muttering that someone was a fugging twit just seemed too cutesy. A bit too close to saying hugging possibly.
Focker or Fokker was the closest we got to it, the satisfying hard k seems to be the key and Stan Boardman made a career out of making jokes about the German Fokkers bombing his city during World War 2.
I make regular use of feck and mumble for fecks sake at least three times per day when i mess up and it is all thanks to Father Ted. God Bless his feckin cotton socks.
7 comments:
I'm a much bigger fan of Frak myself. Great word
Probably at the behest of his publisher, Norman Mailer used the words "fug" and "fugging" in The Naked and the Dead... and it did sound pretty weenie...
Feck is great. Actually, Father Ted is just great. I loved it when Ted lost that bet and had to kick Bishop Brennan "up the aaaarrse"!
Frak is a new one to me cody, haven't heard of that one before.
Great scene...Bishop Brenan looking for the face of Bishop Brenan in the skirting board. His face after Ted boots him is brilliant.
Thjis must be a Brit topic...
Clueless in Texas,
Q
We are the proud owner of some real crap comedys Q but Father Ted was one of the real gems or maybe it just didn't travel well over to America.
i never knew about feck and feckin' until youngest daughter was in a play called the cripple of inishman last year. apparently, the irish use it as slang too.
I didn't know it until Father Ted and it took a few listens to work out exactly what they were saying at first. Now we are all fecking over here.
Post a Comment