Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
In a future where nobody says the real words, smeg head is the insult that sums up Lister and Rimmer: scruffy, loud Lister against uptight Rimmer, with one invented word doing all the swearing a 1980s BBC sitcom could not. Fans kept it as the show's trademark curse, and the cast even named the bloopers tapes Smeg Ups.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Red DwarfShow the scene
Smeg head is the signature insult of Red Dwarf, and it is there from the first episode. In 'The End' (BBC Two, 15 February 1988), Lister and the newly resurrected hologram of Rimmer row about the accident that killed the crew, and Lister calls Rimmer a smeg head. Another scene in the same episode, set in the past, has him complaining to a senior officer that Rimmer is a smeg head, and Rimmer demanding to know the penalty for calling a superior technician that. Grant Naylor present 'smeg' as an invented swear word, though a lexicographer has found it in British schoolboy slang of the mid-1970s.
Sources (3)
- Red Dwarf Wiki: RD: The EndSynopsis and TranscriptReference checked
- Red Dwarf Wiki: Smegarticle body, Outside the showReference checked
- Wikipedia: Profanity in science fiction'In other contexts' sectionReference checked
Context reviewed
