New York Post

Scrabble ban list

- By LAURA ITALIANO

Toy giant Mattel reportedly plans to scrub the UK versions of Scrabble of hundreds of “offensive” words — leaving game-loving Brits clutching their “boobies” for fear of losing their “arses.”

Other prized words such as “goolies,” “wrinklies,” “boffing,” “farting” and “fatso” may also wind up on the wrong side of the official Scrabble lexicon, British aficionado­s of the tile game now worry.

“The woke brigade is ruining our game,” two-time British Scrabble champ Craig Beevers griped to The Scottish Sun.

“I feel this will be the final nail in the coffin for a lot of competitiv­e players,” Beevers added.

Mattel, which owns the rights to Scrabble outside the United States, isn’t tipping its rack of letters just yet — but The Sun claims the game maker’s inprogress list of forbidden words will run to 400 and will reportedly be a worldwide push.

“In Scrabble — as in life — the words we choose matter,” a Mattel exec told the outlet.

Brett Smitheram, a rep for the Associatio­n of British Scrabble Players, told The Post on Saturday that words are indeed “being compiled for deletion” by Mattel.

“It’s not the Scrabble associatio­ns doing it — more that Mattel has decided it has to be done and are compiling the list themselves,” said Smitheram, who is the 2016 World Scrabble Champion.

“Scrabble associatio­ns are left with the choice of accepting the new list or really ceasing to be able to use the name Scrabble at all,” he lamented.

Mattel seems intent on removing words that might be seen as derogatory or rude, Smitheram said. Some alleged offenders may well be salvaged, too.

“I don’t think that ‘farting’ or similar will be removed,” Smitheram added.

The list is still under discussion, he said — but not by members of his associatio­n’s Dictionary Committee, who he said have all resigned in protest over the effort.

“This decision isn’t being made by lexicograp­hers,” Smitheram scoffed. “So it’s not likely to create a technicall­y robust word list.”

The effort is reminiscen­t of a purge of “offensive” Scrabble words from the US version of the game last year. That time, The North American Scrabble Players Associatio­n eliminated 236 words, including racial slurs and other bigoted terms from the official Scrabble word list used at tournament­s, a culling made with the support of Hasbro, which owns the rights to the game in North America.

Mattel reps did not immediatel­y respond to requests for comment.

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