Thursday Thirteen Mandarin Curses From Firefly

Thirteen Mandarin Curses From Firefly 1. "Ni ta ma de. Tianxia suoyoude ren. Dou gaisi." Mal, upon learning there's a mole on board Serenity in the first episode. Translation--"Everyone under the heavens ought to die." (I think he was upset.) 2. "Ta ma de! Nimen de bizui!" Mal again, as people argue about killing the mole--"Everyone shut the hell up!" (Ta ma de is a very common interjection in Firefly, and seems to be a fairly interchangable curse--damn it, oh shit, the hell, etc.) 3. "Oh, juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan..." Again Mal (guess who my favorite character on the show is?) in The Train Job, just before the barroom brawl gets started... means, "Oh, this is a happy development..." 4. "Huh choo-shung tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!" Shepherd Book--yes, our lovely preacher is cursing! In War Stories, he's speaking about Niska, the twisted freak who's captured Mal and Wash, and his cadre of torturers, calling them, "Fornicators of livestock!" 5. "Shun-SHENG duh gao-WAHN." In Trash, this is Mal's reaction to seeing the rich estate Saffron takes them to rob. "Holy testicle Tuesday!" *snicker* 6. "Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze duh ur-tze." River in Safe, ranting at Mal as she throws Simon's medical supplies all over the place during one of her psycho episodes. Translation, "Son of a drooling whore and a monkey." Now, River, Mal's much cuter than that... 7. "Da-shiang bao-tza shr duh lah doo-tze!" In Our Mrs. Reynolds, Mal says this to Jayne after Jayne offers to trade his favorite gun for Mal's new wife. It means, "The explosive diarrhea of an elephant!" So that's a no, then? 8. "Wuh duh ma huh tah duh fong kwong duh wai shung." Same episode, but Wash this time after Saffron tries to seduce him. I love this one, it's so quintesentially Wash! "Holy mother of God and all her wacky nephews." LMAO! 9. "mei-mei" In almost every episode, and usually used in reference to Kaylee or River. It means "little sisiter" and is a term of endearment. 10. "Gao yang jong duh goo yang." In Jaynestown, Wash says this after seeing that Serenity is landlocked and cannot take off. It means, "Motherless goat of all motherless goats!" 11. "Jeo-shung yong-jur goo-jang. Jien-cha yong-chi gong yin." This is one you don't want to hear when you're out in the black. This is the automated voice of Serenity saying, "Life support failure. Check oxygen levels at once." (from Out Of Gas) 12. "Ching-wah TSAO duh liou mahng" In Ariel, as Mal is trying (without much success) to learn the medical lines that Simon is teaching them so they can seem like they belong in the hospital. It means, "Frog-humping son of a bitch," and it was the first phrase I learned phonetically from Firefly! 13. "Tai-kong suo-yo duh shing-chiou sai-jin wuh duh pee-goo." Another terrific Wash phrase, this line in War Stories means, "All the planets in space are stuffed up my butt." Does he not have the funniest lines? I can't believe he died in Serenity! *weeping* Links to other Thursday Thirteens!


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