Samantha Allemann Rounds Up TV's Greatest Non-Swears in frankie Issue 133

In frankie issue 133, Samantha Allemann examines the creative ways television writers have invented curse words for family-friendly shows. She highlights Degrassi Junior High (1987–1989), where "broomhead" was a frequent insult, noting that the Canadian series tackled teen pregnancy, suicide, abuse, domestic violence, HIV, and substance abuse but avoided real swearing. Heartbreak High (1994–1999) used the Australian "rack off," which appeared 40 times in the series and also in the Netflix reboot. Home and Away (1988–) features Alf Stewart (Ray Meagher) calling people "flamin' galah," "flamin' mongrel," or "flamin' yahoo," and exclaiming "Stone the flamin' crows!" Red Dwarf (1988–1999) introduced "smeg," derived from smegma, and expanded it to "smeghead," "smegger," and "Smegging hell"; android Kryten (Robert Llewellyn) could only say "Smeee heee." Battlestar Galactica (1978–1979) used "frak" (originally spelled "frack"), which gained new popularity in the mid-2000s reimagining, though some fans criticized its overuse on Reddit. The Good Place (2016–2020) replaced swear words with "shirt," "bench," "ash," "ash-hole," "deck," "cork," and "fork." Bluey (2018–) uses "biscuits," often uttered by Bandit (David McCormack), which Allemann notes ties into merchandise. The article appears in frankie issue 133, available from the frankie shop and stockists.