There’s a clear campaign against the mentally ill with the global rise of fascism. Lots of it shows up in anti homeless rhetoric, but you can see it in the MAHA and anti vaccination movements.
There’s no reason to use the word “r-tarded” to describe someone. As someone who’s worked with the intellectually challenged, it’s an insult to them to compare them with people who are willfully ignorant.
Smeg is short term slag for smegma. Yes, its also kitchen brand. But the context of the show, and the popular slang term of the time, it meant smegma.
this is very likely true and it is fair to assume from your username that you’re familiar with uk slang/slurs. also probably fair to assume that grant/naylor would deny it if asked
smeg certainly means dickcheese but i’d guess before being popularised by red dwarf it wouldn’t have replaced other four letter words in constructions like smeg head, smeg off, smeg you etc
on the subject, with ‘gimboid’ they were ahead of their time in using the -oid suffix for insults