Chinese cursing has to be the most clever idea I have seen for getting around censors, and it still seemed realistic and plausable. Has any other show used this idea or was Firefly first?

TaraLivesOn | January 02, 08:13 CET

Farscape did a variation on this theme with its own lexicon of phrases for cursing, nasty language, etc. Frell. Tralk. Loomas.

Both shows found clever and imaginative ways to get around censors and, make colorful language a fun and realistic part of their characters' lives, which is as it should be!

Cursing in a tonal language has its pitfalls. The sheer vehemence of cursing in Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese) is a bit lost in the transfer to English-speaking folks. Even the simplest of Cantonese curses that I grew up hearing seem more terrible to me than what I know them to mean. Then again, I once worked with a woman who was too proper to curse but could say "jerk" with more violence than I've ever heard anyone say the more common curse words.

punkinpuss | January 02, 14:39 CET

I loved the bit on the Firefly DVD featurette where the writers, actors and the Firefly linguist talked about how they incorporated Chinese into the scripts.

Adam Baldwin's comments are particularly memorable.

bookrats | January 02, 21:22 CET

There was an early episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation where Jean-Luc Picard said, "Merde," which is apparently the French word for "Shit."

Oddjob | January 03, 03:33 CET