"FUCKING HELL" BEER GETS THE EU GO-AHEAD
Country: Germany
The story: There are plenty of oddly named brands of beer -- Fiddler's Elbow, Sick Duck, and Santa's Butt, to name a few -- but the European Union's Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office may have just greenlighted the most offensive beer brand ever: "Fucking Hell."
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Although the name may be NSFW in English, it actually makes sense in German. "Fucking" is a village in northern Austria (though that's not where the beer will be brewed) and "Hell" is a word used to describe a light ale in Bavaria and Austria. The EU office recently explained its decision to reverse a previous rejection:
"[T]he word combination claimed contains no semantic indication that could refer to a certain person or group of persons. Nor does it incite a particular act. It cannot even be understood as an instruction that the reader should go to hell. [Fucking Hell is] an interjection used to express a deprecation, but it does not indicate against whom the deprecation is directed. Nor can it be considered as reprehensible to use existing place names in a targeted manner (as a reference to the place), merely because this may have an ambiguous meaning in other languages."
And the best part? The landmark decision creates an important precedent that will allow the use of other obscure, unfortunately named German towns in brand names. Citizens of Kissing, Pissen, and Titting: Watch out.
MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images
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