Fry & Laurie and Red Dwarf feature in most offensive swearwords poll
Insults made up by Red Dwarf and A Bit Of Fry & Laurie feature in a poll looking at which swearwords Britons find most offensive.
'Smeg' from Red Dwarf features 31st in the YouGov study, with 11% of respondents saying they found it highly offensive and 29% saying it was fairly offensive.
Speaking previously, the sci-fi sitcom's creators Rob Grant and Doug Naylor have explained that 'smeg' is not actually related to the term 'smegma' as many presume, but was entirely made up based on their plan to create a generic four-letter single-syllable swearword that they could use in the show without sanctions.
Meanwhile 'pimhole', which featured several times in A Bit Of Fry & Laurie, was 37th in the list, with 4% finding it highly offensive and 6% fairly offensive.
An example of the word's use in the sketch show is when a police sergeant (played by Hugh Laurie) recounts to a barrister (Stephen Fry) in court: "I apprehended the accused and advised him of his rights. He replied 'Why don't you ram it up your pim-hole, you fusking cloff prunker'."
The made-up comedy phrases both feature higher in YouGov's list of offensive terms than words such as balls, crap, bloody and poo.
The full results of the study can be viewed on YouGov.co.uk. 'Cunt' tops the list, with over half of those polled finding it highly offensive, meanwhile the study suggests 'Fuck' is the nation's favourite swearword to use.
The survey also revealed that most Britons (57%) say they swear most days, with 37% saying they swear every day. While fully three quarters of 18-34 year olds (73%) say it is okay to swear with friends in public, this falls to just 22% of those aged 65 and over.
The study also concluded that Britons still support the watershed, the 1964 Television Act rule which prevents "foul language" being broadcast before 9pm. Researchers note: "Six decades later, this line in the sand for 'foul language' is still implicitly supported by Britons, who see swearing on TV before 9pm as unacceptable by a margin of 69% to 27%, but acceptable after 9pm by a margin of 77% to 20%."