A Conversation for Ask h2g2

British Insults

Post 21

Rudest Elf


Bloody whingers!

smiley - reindeersmiley - spacesmiley - run


British Insults

Post 22

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

smiley - winkeye

Turkeys!

It usually means loud, officious, self-important.
Easily applied to over-zealous bureaucrats.
But it may be too American.
smiley - shrug
~jwf~


British Insults

Post 23

Whisky

Some of it would depend on who the people doing the insulting actually are...

"Bloody foreigners" works for anyone, but given the people are apparently on a ship, then if there's any kind of RN connection behind them then the word 'muppet' would be quite good... (with or without the 'bloody'.


British Insults

Post 24

Hoovooloo


Do you want an actual racial epithet? I'm not even sure which one would apply to Turks.

W
O
G
S
?

They start at Calais, so I'm told, so it's not region specific.

Period-appropriate epithets are a tricky one, from two angles. On the one hand, a period-appropriate insult might sound to modern ears strange, jarring, or even quaintly mild. Alternatively, it might sound jarringly modern - it *would* be period appropriate for a cowboy to refer to a lawman as a "pig", apparently, but you'd never use that in a story because the character would sound like he was from the 1970s instead of the 1870s. The audience's ignorance makes that the wrong choice artistically even if it's appropriate factually.


British Insults

Post 25

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

~*~Do you want an actual racial epithet?~*~

Oh, no, heavens not. Something akin to "Bloody tart" was what I was looking for. I only don't use that because they're obviously not women.

smiley - pirate


British Insults

Post 26

Hoovooloo

Fair enough.

I echo "jobsworths", in that case.

If you'd like a wackier word, may I submit "gauleiter", which is a German word that meant something like "provincial governor" but now means any overbearing, officious and arrogant functionary and has nicely anti-foreign connotations and underlying references to the Nazis.


British Insults

Post 27

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

smiley - tit

Beef is not the only meat that can be jerked.
So jerky turkeys would work.
Or turkey jerks. Or jerk Turks.
Or turkey jerkies.

Too American perhaps?

smiley - cheers
~jwf~


British Insults

Post 28

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

Too obscure for an American audience. No one would get it.

smiley - pirate


British Insults

Post 29

Hoovooloo


Sorry, I assumed you were aiming at a reasonably literate and intellectually developed audience.

If you have to keep it so simple even Americans can understand it, probably best to go with "foreigners". Americans know what foreigners are, and understand that they're
(a) all the same and
(b) bad.


British Insults

Post 30

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

I expect almost no one outside of Germany would get it, Snobbish One. There's no cause to be insulting.

smiley - pirate


British Insults

Post 31

Pastey

Amateurs would fit too.

Idiots always goes well.

Modern day you'd also use Muppets.


British Insults

Post 32

Alfster

Hoovooloo



Wow...'we' have something in common with the Yanks, shame they are foreign.


British Insults

Post 33

swl

Dunno if w.ogs is right.

Wouldn't they be r.agheads?


British Insults

Post 34

~ jwf ~ scribblo ergo sum

smiley - biggrin
In the 1890s (See HGWells and others)
all Muslims were called Turks. This no
doubt a residue of the Ottoman Empire
which ruled most of the Muslim whirled,
and remained the traditional nemesis of
the Western Christian whirled.
smiley - cheers
~jwf~


British Insults

Post 35

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

May I just say that I've never ever heard about that German insult you mentioned? smiley - laugh


British Insults

Post 36

Hoovooloo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s4BqzHEK6o&feature=endscreen


British Insults

Post 37

Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor

Ah, yes, which may be the reason why I never really heard a German say it.


British Insults

Post 38

Mr. X ---> "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

You should mention that on Useless Facts, jwf.

smiley - pirate


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