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is the derogatory term "smeghead" actually vulgar slang? Or was it coined for the tv show? Just curious.Wish I could help with this one, but alas, the first time I ever heard the word was on the show. Which is not evidence of anything. I suspect it might have been an invention - but then the 'feck' in Father Ted wasn't an invention, so who knows - in the deepest, darkest Midlands and North West of Enghland there might be whole tribes of smegheadders... 
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Hi Shy... (ulp - the devil made me do it)
I can confirm that I misled you earlier. Craig Charles (Lister) is not Brummie, but a Scouser - true Liverpudlian, and it's the accent of that region that he demonstrates. (Bad boy, shanks - smacky wristies for earlier post.)
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JazzO
"Are you being served" is from the '70s. I doubt if any programme being produced today (even in the UK) would be allowed to get away with the salacious 'pussy' references, amongst other things.
"Mr Bean" is from the early and mid-'90s. So is "AbFab". "Red Dwarf" has been going on for over ten years - so you can actually see some of the effects of changing technology through the series.
Acknowledged classics (at least as fas as Brits are concerned):
"Fawlty Towers" - late '70s/early '80s
"Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister" - early/mid '80s
"Blackadder" - mid '80s
Current Britcoms worth seeking out:
"Goodness Gracious Me" - Sketch show (not sitcom) with South Asian immigrant satire
"Have I got news for you" - political/topical 'quiz' show, and still the funniest (and cleverest) thing on television
"The Royle Family" - TV verite, if you will - brilliantly true, flawlessly scripted and acted - but may, because of that, seem to lack the production 'values' of most US sitcoms. (Think of Ken Loach and Harold Pinter collaborating on a TV comedy and you might get a feel for it...)
cheer
the sunshine warrior
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Oh well, I suppose I'll have to let you know the official line on this one. I'm not convinced and am not entirely keen to have a SMEG fridge. Anyway, here's what is said in the FAQ for alt.tv.red-dwarf: What does "smeg" mean?It's a word made up by Grant Naylor for the characters to use as an all-purpose profanity. Some fans have theorised that it was derived from "smegma" (a particularly unpleasant bodily secretion), but Rob and Doug deny this. In the interview on the CD included with the Six of the Best box set, they state that "we wanted to invent a futuristic curse word which had the right sort of consonant and vowel arrangement to make it sound like a genuine . . . curse word." In an online chat session, Doug Naylor said "I think it's Latin for clean, also there's an Italian washing machine company called Smeg. Also each of the letters S-M-E-G stand for smelting metal and something to do with the washing machine process." A detailed list of "smeg" references in the show is available at http://www.bristol.u-net.com/smegweb/docs/smeglist.html http://home.interpath.net/pat/rd/faq.html
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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>But, I guess you don't have an entertainment mecca like Hollywood over there, do you?
This reminds me that Shanks is planning a tour of Southall including a Bollywood (that other great mecca, outside Mecca of course) movie. I think that in another life Shanks may well be a Bollywood star but he's too self-effacing to tell us.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Yelled at Jazz (?!) - come on, more like being mauled by a dead sheep. If you want to come out with fighting talk then you have to accept that others might like to assert their point of view too. I'm perfectly happy to accept that you don't like programmes like "Keeping Up Appearances", I'm not over keen on it either. I can't bear to be in the same room as "Are You Being Served?", having had to endure it in the seventies, it's probably a post PC throwback show.
I know what you are saying about production values, I was just offering the other side. [Actually it can get much worse - my long-suffering American friend was apalled by "Changing Rooms" - one of the biggest hits of the last couple of years "You watch decorating shows in prime time?!", she said!]
In general I thought the replies were pretty mild (particularly since bel is still recoving from the suggestion that we encourage the invasion of Quebec).
Tsuwm and I have been trading much worse insults for ages (fortunately his choice of words are so obscure that I generally don't understand them)!
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I think that in another life Shanks may well be a Bollywood star but he's too self-effacing to tell us.
roflol!
I was, however (for a bit of pocket money - a friend's mum had a friend who knew someone who had an uncle...) once an extra in a 'dance' sequence in a film that flopped so badly at the box office nobody ever saw my shiny blue silk shirt...
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addict
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addict
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British comedy programmes tend to go for people who look funny as well as being funny, we're less inclined to go for glamour, it would be hard to imagine a succesful UK version of "Dynasty".
"Men Behaving Badly" was also remade as an American series - with the same name but 'beautiful people' actors. Rather took away the point!
And I have always been fond of the soap opera summary:
- American soap - rich people in the sunshine
- Australian soap - average people in the sunshine
- British soap - working class in the rain.
What does this say about the aspirations of us Brits?
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veteran
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veteran
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Some fans have theorised that it was derived from "smegma" (a particularly unpleasant bodily secretion), but Rob and Doug deny thisThe lady[-ies] doth protest too much! This is absolute rot (the denial, that is). Kids - especially boys, bless 'em - have been talking about smeg for ages, long before Red Dwarf. And it came straight out of Biology lessons, Sex Education, and the odd Dictionary trawl, like so many other pubescent gems. The Red Dwarf people have, however, had considerable success in sanitizing the term. Not the first time a very crude phrase has come into fairly wide acceptance through ignorance of its root meaning. Oh, and shanks - confusing Scouse and Brummy - for shame!  (mind you, I'm married to a Brummy, so should know the difference. cf Frank Skinner for a mild Brummy accent, incidentally)All you people over the Pond - yep, see Red Dwarf. Though IMHO you're best off with the 3rd series onwards.
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Oh, and shanks - confusing Scouse and Brummy - for shame! (mind you, I'm married to a Brummy, so should know the difference. cf Frank Skinner for a mild Brummy accent, incidentally)
Hanging my head. And of course, Frank Skinner (again probably unknown and irrelevant to our friends across the various waters) is a good example of mild Brummie.
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