I'm currently trying to figure out the origin of offensive words. This really stems from my curiosity of why curse words really seem to upset people so much. Now, I understand that there are hateful words that are full of venom meant to belittle others: Slurs that really shouldn't be uttered as it releases more hate into the world. But I don't get what's really so offensive about a word like "shit." Or "fuck" for that matter. Sure, used in a hateful way, like "Fuck you" or "you're a fucking piece of shit, you fuckshitfuck" and I get that it's offensive.
But what if you overhear someone say "oh, fuck, there's a fly in my soup, great." Now, a statement where the curse word just means "look, a bad thing has happened" would not be able to be aired on network television. I'm not condoning foul language... I just want to know why it's considered foul, or even sinful. Personally, I think the word kill is a much more vile word than fuck in it's pure meaning, yet you don't ever hear the word kill bleeped.
Let me know your thoughts on foul language. I'm very curious about your view. (And I'm also curious to see how many people actually read this, so please comment).
Another reason why I find curse words interesting is because I don't shy away from foul language when writing plays, sketches, or even musicals. It really depends on the tone of the piece, but as an artist I want to explore the human condition. And I've found that that condition sometimes includes some language my local priest would consider to be naughty.
Which reminds me of a story from Sunday school. One of the other children and I for some reason got into a conversation about "bad" words. He went on to say "Of course, there's the worst word of all to say..." I, of course, thought he would say "fuck," which I had only recently learned because another student got in trouble for writing down "fuck" on his paper, and I didn't know it was a bad word until I came home and asked my parents why someone would get in trouble for writing down "fuck."
However, my Sunday school compatriot proceeded to say that the worst word that you can say is "holy." That's right, holy. As in "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners..." As in the Holy Spirit. As in the Holy Rollers. It made no sense to me. I got the whole "Don't take the Lord's name in vain" thing, but holy being the worst word you could ever say?
Details are hazy, but for some reason I called him an "imbecile," which apparently was another bad word according to this kid because I got in trouble for cursing. But, really, of all the words: holy?
However, he probably was just a forward thinker. He knew the worst word to say was holy because he predicted one of the most annoying traits in advertising: the holy explosion tease. You've seen it: it's in at least 67% of action movie trailers. The protagonist sees something startling, says "HOLY..." and before he can say anything profane, there's a sudden cut to an awesome explosion. Wow, I really want to see that movie. It has curse words and explosions!! XTreme!
shameless cross promotion:
http://runningwithdinosaurs.blogspot.com/
this is my good friend's blog. He's much better about updating it, and he plays a Dinosaur in a stage show. How can that not be awesome?
Favorite Links
www.clarkandmichael.com: this is hilariousness brought to you by Arrested Development's Michael Cera.
www.radiolab.org: a very insightful and interesting radio show about science presented through story telling. It's similar to This American Life: 3 different stories, sometimes about normal people, all centered on a theme. And you might learn something! Or not. But it's full of great facts and actually pretty entertaining. You can download episodes via their website or iTunes.
www.youtube.com: i discovered this nice little diamond in the rough of the internets. You might think it's just for tube enthusiasts, but it actually features videos! I know you're skeptical, but maybe you should check it out. It might just be the next big thing (doubt it).
1 comment:
I haven't read the whole entry, nor do I have time, but with regards to foul language. I find not so much that it's offensive as it is simply uncreative and makes the offender appear less intelligent. Part of this conclusion came during a time when I was trying to decide if I was in fact racist or not. I thought to myself, well yes I do certainly fear a certain type of black person and a certain type of latino person. Especially in a city like Los Angeles I found that these sentiments were more predominant, riding public transit or else walking the streets at night I would fear many people of those description. Then it came to me one night that the factor that I most fear is unintelligent language. If a black man who spoke like a PhD professor spoke to me late at night on a street corner I would be almost completely unafraid. Consequently if a profanity using white trash hick accosted me in a dark alley I'd use my superpowers to incinerate him.
Think about that! and then comment on MY blog so that I feel important!
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