Conversation:

The little paragraph about the w-word being lost on Americans takes me back to one of Odo's favourite console games, merely because of the in-apt use of this word.

In Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, there is a level set in an alleged London, and one little task involves hitching your skateboard behind a motorbike and sidecar containing two policeman who try to bat you off with their truncheons. Amid the voice samples used for the policemen is a Dick van Dyke-esque Cockney accent saying "get off, you w***r!" which has been known to cause great hilarity among young children (and Odo) and outrage among mothers.

B

yes...this word would have meant absolutely nothing to me (since I live in Canada, which, although better than the US, still IMO is not as cool as GB...which is why I want to move there) until a few months ago I got Aladdin Sane (Bowie's 1973 album). My favourite song on it is 'Time', which has a nice line near the beginning:
"Time, flexes like a whore,
Falls w***ing to the floor"

*smiles wistfully* the UK's got such a better history, and better swear-words...

Use of the word in American TV shows: you can add Mork and Mindy to the list, as Mindy's landlord in later series was a Mr. Wanker... in the middle seventies, at five in the evening - a SUNDAY evening - on Granada,we could not beleive our ears that the Yanks seemed totally oblivious of the true meaning of the word. (Robin Williams, who we later discovered was Scottish-born, knew alright, and threw the word around with some gusto and frequency.)

My favourite use on Mork & Mindy (as a kid) was Mork exclaiming:
"Ah W****r, bummer"
Which in English parlance was a double whammy, as 'bumming' is a juvenile expression for sodomy, and a bummer....

In Canada (at least around here), someone who wastes time is often referred as a w*****. Thus the sing-song refrain of someone standing around at work- *W***, w***, money in the bank!*