Suprising European slang in 80's tv show

[yoda313]

I thought I'd post this. Awhile back we had done some posts on "translations" of slang and whatnot.

Wanker was mentioned.

Well in the 80's comedy SLEDGE HAMMER there was an episode in the second season about a wild English rock band. The lead singer said WANKER in prime time. Remember this was broadcast on ABC during the family time. Pretty suprising for the era.

The sensors probably had no clue what the guy was saying


Its a 30second 1mb divx clip:

http://www.yoda313.com/video/wanker.avi



By the way the episode was titled "sledge rattle n roll".

[Xylob the Destroyer]

FCC will let you say anything you want now except for the dreaded "C word".
I'm still waiting to see which show/network finally gets up the balls to drop the F-bomb in prime time, or even "shit".
Oddly enough, I've noticed that it's perfectly fine to use profanity in American television shows as long as the words are not English. I notice Spanish profanity the most.

[SquirrelDip]

Peg Bundy's (Katey Sagal, "Married with Children") maiden name was Wanker and was from Wanker County, Wisconsin, "where everyone is relative"

[Forum Troll]

"wanker", not unlike "bugger", "bloody", "arse", and '"shag", are not offensive words to most Americans. While they are strong words in the UK and other parts of the world, here they're just silly sounding words that foreigners use. As for spanish profanity, I have yet to hear "Joder! Santa Maria, que me cago en la hostia!" on TV.

[Craig Tucker]

Saw something funny on TV the other day, Wilma Flintsone saying bollocksed.

Something along the lines of Fred bollocksed that up. It was on a show over here about the top 100 cartoons of all time. I guess someone snuck it in under the radar.

[Richie V]

There's an episode of The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air (one of the earlier ones) where Geoffrey the British butler calls Will a "wanker".

I remember watching it at 4pm on the satellite channel Trouble. I thought it was funny that it managed to slip through. Needless to say, everytime I've seen that episode since (I used to watch a lot of TV) the sound just cuts out. You can still cleary lip read what is been said as Will questions "wanker?".

[Cole]

Phil Collins used the word in an episode of Miami Vice which was shown late one night in the UK in the late 80s.

Subsequently, Don Johnson was on a peak time early evening live chat show (Wogan) and said it about (IIRC) some of the MV production team.

You hear 'wanker' on televison a lot now, but back then you didn't.

[Ironballs]

This site always cracks me up

http://www.wankerscorner.com/

[Ironballs]

check ou the specialities on the menu, the wanker's special

[guns1inger]

US network TV cracks me up. I remember the furore over the language and nudity in NYPD Blue when it first started - nudity - but no nipples ! A few years later and no one cares, then along comes The Shield. Raw, gritty - balls. It was NYPD Blue with film grain and pseudo bleach-bypass added. Move along, nothing to see here.

Hell, we get Sopranos uncut on free to air (well, we did, although the last season has been a long time coming - channel 9 take note). I must admit - no-one has had the balls to schedule Deadwood on FTA

[ozymango]

This site always cracks me up

http://www.wankerscorner.com/

They have very good food, by the way.

P.S. Wilsonville is about fifteen miles south of Portland.