Raunch Reviews is a series about profanity. Not real profanity, but speculative swearing. Authors often try to incorporate original, innovative forms of profanity into our own fantastical works as a way to expand the worlds we build. Sometimes we’re successful. Often we’re not. In this series, I examine the faux-profanity from various works of sci-fi and fantasy, judge their effectiveness, and rate them on an unscientific and purely subjective scale. This is Raunch Reviews, welcome.

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The Author: J. Michael Straczynski

Work in Question: Babylon 5

The Profanity: “Frag”

Look, it gives me no great pleasure in going after an incredible and beloved science fiction show for faux-profanity related gaffs. And it’s no secret that censor-slips aren’t looked at too kindly around here. But they’re familiar, and if I have to deal with them, you do as well. It’s in the rules or something. Babylon 5’s “frag” is yet one more embarrassment in a long-running tradition among television, so we all knew it’d eventually have its day.

We all know what’s implied. It’s not cute, nor is it all that clever. With one notable exception (“Shazbot”), censor-slips tend to be unimaginative and lazy, and we see that here as well. Four letter word, starts with “f,” you get the idea—nudge nudge, wink wink.

But, “Frag” is worse. Since the Vietnam War, it has become common military slang—and because this is a show with a substantial military theme, we see it used as both a censor slip and in its traditional sense. Which only makes it weirder and adds in awkwardness. It’s easy to see the ingredients that lead to it, but in the end, it does little to enhance the universe of Babylon 5—if anything, its mishmash use takes something away, and that’s the worst disservice dialog can perform within a story.

Score:  (0.5)

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🤬 Previous Raunch Reviews

• “Gorram” from Joss Whedon’s Firefly
• “Prawn” from Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell’s District 9
• “By the Firsts” from K. M. Alexander’s Bell Forging Cycle
• “Smurf” from Raja Gosnell & Jordan Kerner’s The Smurfs (2011)
• “Dren” from Rockne S. O’Bannon’s Farscape
• “Quiznak” from J. Dos Santos & L. Montgomery’s Voltron: Legendary Defender
• “Smeg” from Rob Grant and Doug Naylor’s Red Dwarf
• “Burn Me” from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time
• “Slitch” from Robert A. Heinlein’s Friday
• “Yarbles” from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange
• “Cuss” from Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox
• “Feth” from Dan Abnett’s Gaunt’s Ghosts from Warhammer 40k
• “Shazbot” from Garry Marshall’s Mork & Mindy and Dynamix’s Starsiege: Tribes
• “Seven Hells” from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice & Fire/Game of Thrones
• “Mudblood” from J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series
• “Frak” from Glen A. Larson’s, Ronald D. Moore’s, & David Eick’s Battlestar Galactica
• “Jabber” from China Miéville’s Bas-Lag series
• “Storm it”/”Storms”/”Storming” from Brandon Sanderson’s The Stormlight Archives

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Have a suggestion for Raunch Reviews? It can be any made-up slang word from a book, television show, or movie. You can email me directly with your recommendation or leave a comment below. I’ll need to spend time with the property before I’ll feel confident reviewing it, so it’ll take a little while before it ends up here. I have a lot of books to read.

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