British Comedy Guide

First sitcom to use the f-word Page 2

Apologies for my flippant responses earlier. I agree with zooo.

Quote: zooo @ November 30 2011, 8:29 PM GMT

I have no idea of the answer, but it's a very interesting question!

I'd like to know the firsts for all the other sweary words too.

I think Billy Connolly was the first TV stand up routine I heard it said, although Stan Boardman has being doing his German aeroplane joke for a good many years.

Gimme Gimme Gimme?

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 1 2011, 12:31 AM GMT

Gimme Gimme Gimme?

No, that started in 1999, so that's 8 years later than the Drop the Dead Donkey episode.

Quote: Ian Wolf @ November 30 2011, 7:39 PM GMT

Does anyone know what was the first sitcom to feature the word "f**k" in it, totally uncensored?

The earliest example I can think of is in Drop the Dead Donkey when Sally Smedley tells George Dent to f**k off in "The Evangelist" episode which went out in November 1991. No doubt there are earlier examples.

It would not surprise me at all if it was this episode. It's Channel 4 after all, and they must have been dying to to be the first channel to do it! 91's quite early too, I can't believe anyone said it in an 80s sitcom!

You might be right.
With the reputation it has, you'd think they might have said it in The Young Ones, but whenever I watch that I'm surprised by how childlike and innocent it actually is, so I doubt they did all that much swearing.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 1 2011, 10:23 AM GMT

It would not surprise me at all if it was this episode. It's Channel 4 after all, and they must have been dying to to be the first channel to do it! 91's quite early too, I can't believe anyone said it in an 80s sitcom!

The reason why I think Drop the Dead Donkey is not the first is because I've got the entire series on DVD and at no point during the extras is it mentioned that they were the first sitcom to say f**k. Mind you maybe they don't want to make a big fuss, or maybe they are not aware of it.

I'm still surprised it's that early though. I'd have said something much later, like The Office, myself. It certainly wasn't common before The Office, whereas now it is.

Quote: Godot Taxis @ December 1 2011, 12:31 AM GMT

Gimme Gimme Gimme?

A man until midnight?

Quote: Ian Wolf @ December 1 2011, 10:53 AM GMT

The reason why I think Drop the Dead Donkey is not the first is because I've got the entire series on DVD and at no point during the extras is it mentioned that they were the first sitcom to say f**k. Mind you maybe they don't want to make a big fuss, or maybe they are not aware of it.

Didn't it have a higher than average ABC1 demographic, so it gets a pass because the plebs weren't watching?

Back in 1989 the BBC received around 500 complaints because Pauline Quirke's character said the word bastard in the opening episode of Birds of a Feather.

Was this the first woman to swear in a sitcom?

I is I recall an early and entirely gratuitous example in The Comic Strip Presents... Dirty Movie 1984, but not a sitcom of course.

Quote: Timbo @ December 1 2011, 8:53 PM GMT

I is I recall an early and entirely gratuitous example in The Comic Strip Presents... Dirty Movie 1984, but not a sitcom of course.

Actually, the BCG does refer to The Comic Strip Presents... as a sitcom. If that mentioned the word "f**k" then that would probably the first sitcom mention of the word.

Quote: Ian Wolf @ December 1 2011, 10:43 PM GMT

Actually, the BCG does refer to The Comic Strip Presents... as a sitcom. If that mentioned the word "f**k" then that would probably the first sitcom mention of the word.

No it wouldn't, because if the BCG describes The Comic Strip Presents as a sitcom then the BCG is off its face.

Quote: Ian Wolf @ December 1 2011, 10:43 PM GMT

Actually, the BCG does refer to The Comic Strip Presents... as a sitcom. If that mentioned the word "f**k" then that would probably the first sitcom mention of the word.

Thanks for pointing that out. It's definitely not a sitcom.

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