It may be more the structure than the word "arse" that is at the origin of this. There are a few expressions where you can use a whole range of words, but the important thing is the structure. For example, you can put pretty much any past participle in the following and it will be understood to mean either "he was extremely drunk" or "he was extremely drugged" (or one or two other notions such as "tired"-- the point is there are a narrow range of interpretations compared to 'all the past participles in the universe'):

This is properly funny. I've even put it in a seldom-used toilet." --Jeremy Clarkson --John O'Farrell with any pair of words that semantically go together will effectively be taken to mean "he wasn't very intelligent". A funny book from the man behind some of Britain's funniest TV shows. Quite an achievement for such a miserable old ba****d."A funny book from the man behind some of Britain's funniest TV shows. Quite an achievement for such a miserable old ba****d." --John O'Farrell Due to the name of the author I couldn't stop from reading this in the voice of Victor Meldrew who is a fictional comedy character and a literal British Institution played by an actor of the same name. I did a Google Search and I couldn't find anything that said that the actor and the author of this book is/isn't the one and the same, Richard Wilson. This has it's funny moments - a fair few but it was also it bit meh. I think RW would be OK with me saying that because he says so in the book - skip the parts you can't be arsed to read LOL. I'd like to say that this is a funny, intelligent, thorough account of not bothering to expand your horizons, but I can't be ar**d." --Paul Merton "A terrific blow for freedom. Richly comic." --Boris Johnson "A funny book from the man behind some of Britain's funniest TV shows. Quite an achievement for such a miserable old ba****d." --John O'Farrell Perhaps you can in fact attain happiness not by going anywhere or doing anything but instead by actually reducing your ambitions. This is the philosophy behind '101 Things Not To Do Before You Die'. Each chapter begins with a diatribe, followed by a detailed look at the alternative side of the 101 most frequently cited must do's, revealing ugly details not mentioned in existing guidebooks and giving off-putting facts and statistics to quote at holier-than-thou thrillseekers.