Billions of Blue Blistering Barnacles

Since I’m feeling melancholy and cantankerous, this seems like an appropriate thing to blog about : Wikipedia’s List of Fictional Expletives. For the most part, the colorful curses and bizarro exclamations on this list far surpass anything I could think of to say right now on my own. They are gathered from television, films, books and sometimes have simply evolved from curses used in various cultures. If clicking the link, keep in mind that some of the curses may offend.

I am particularly entertained by explitives that don't employ "bad words," although some of the obscene ones are funny. I know I've come across a lot of other creative curses in my reading that aren't featured here. Some of my favorites from the Wikipedia list:

Billions of blue blistering barnacles! - A favorite curse of Captain Haddock from The Adventures of Tintin series of comics (see list of exclamations used by Captain Haddock).

bitchcakes - from NewsRadio, crazy, frenetic ("he went all bitchcakes").

catastrophuck - A situation (i.e. a poorly-planned, under-manned, under-equipped, mismanaged war) that reaches a point of horrific disarray. -- from "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"

elbow head - used in the Weebl and Bob episode titled "Fishing".

holy flerking shnit - Phrase used by Kang of The Simpsons in one of the "Treehouse of Horror" episodes.

Oh my stars and garters - from X-men's Beast (comics); denotes shock or surprise.

zarking fardwarks - from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: "What in the name of zarking fardwarks is the old fool doing?" spoken by Ford Prefect, about Slartibartfast, originally in Life, the Universe and Everything and also in the third radio series. Also spoken as just "Zarking fardwarks!" by Arthur Dent when that character misses a telephone call in the fourth radio series. Alternative form: "zarking photon". Approximate meaning: "fuckin' hell."

I was also interested to see the listing for “asshat”, as my younger sister has been saying that for years and recently I have noticed more and more people saying it. According to Wikipedia: “ass-hat - ‘the term 'asshat' was first used in Sweden as an alternative for the word ‘asshole.’ In modern times refers to an office worker with limited upward mobility. Also refers to an unlikeable or generally pitiful character.”

I had no idea.