We’ve logged yet another fucking year here at Strong Language, so that can mean only one thing: It’s time for our annual awards recognizing excellence in swearing. It’s our ninth go-round — check out our posts from ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19, ’20, ’21, and ’22 for a trip down memory lane. The awards are also an opportunity to pay tribute to the patron saint of Strong Language: Malcolm Tucker, the deliriously obscene operative played by Peter Capaldi on the BBC political satire The Thick of It from 2005 to 2012. We’re not the only ones keeping Tucker’s spirit alive these days. For instance, there’s someone going by “Malcolm Tucker” on TikTok, posting choice soundbites like Tucker’s Law (an outtake from the 2007 “Spinners & Losers” special): “If some cunt can fuck something up, that cunt will pick the worst fucking time to fuck it up, ’cause that cunt’s a cunt.” (I can totally see Malcolm having this on a tea towel.)
Meanwhile on Twitter (X, whatfuckingever), “John Bull” has been imagining Tucker’s reactions to the omnishambles of the Rishi Sunak era in British politics.
And as we’ll see, echoes of Tucker can also be detected on TV shows staffed by Thick of It alums. But let’s not beat around the proverbial bush: who swore it best in 2023?
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