I remember clearly when an incident at church made me think about my usage and tolerance of profanity. We were between pastors, and our young "pulpit supply" guest minister used the word "suck" repeatedly throughout his sermon. As in, "that really sucks". I was flabbergasted the first time, and annoyed at every repetition. Now, I admit that "suck" is one of my least favorite words as it is currently used in our language. But even with that factored out, it was inappropriate. The casual use of "suck" - "pissed off" is another example - in our vernacular has crept in to the point where it is fairly mainstream. Maybe the young pastor thought he was being edgy or cool, and it might be so in another setting. But he bombed in the pulpit. There is a time and place for everything, and language usage is no exception.
I was watching an episode of Martha Stewart the other day, and she had Ted Danson on the show. He accidentally let out a minor cuss word while they were cooking - on live tv - and immediately realized what he'd done. It's amusing... watch it here. It was their conversation that follows that I found interesting:
Well, nearly everybody.
Properly used, a cuss word can be very effective. Especially if one is not prone to using that part of the vocabulary, you're pretty much guaranteed to elicit a head turn when you do slip one in.
Even more impressive in my book, though, is the creative use of non-profane expletives. I know a woman who is a master of this. Her "aw, shucks" might be the most sincere expression of regret I've ever heard. (She also regularly uses "golly", and the more emphatic "golly gee".) "Crikey" is good. So are "fie!" and "nertz!". A former boss used "Jeezel Petes" - that was fun. Anybody remember Mork's "shazbot!"? Yeah, I enjoy those. I'm nearly as impressed when corporate advertising gets in the act:
I was watching an episode of Martha Stewart the other day, and she had Ted Danson on the show. He accidentally let out a minor cuss word while they were cooking - on live tv - and immediately realized what he'd done. It's amusing... watch it here. It was their conversation that follows that I found interesting:
Ted: Do you ever swear when you're cooking?I really never thought of Martha as particularly profane, but as they discussed later (not in the above clip), everybody swears.
Martha: [sarcastic] Oh, never. I never swear.
Well, nearly everybody.
Properly used, a cuss word can be very effective. Especially if one is not prone to using that part of the vocabulary, you're pretty much guaranteed to elicit a head turn when you do slip one in.
Even more impressive in my book, though, is the creative use of non-profane expletives. I know a woman who is a master of this. Her "aw, shucks" might be the most sincere expression of regret I've ever heard. (She also regularly uses "golly", and the more emphatic "golly gee".) "Crikey" is good. So are "fie!" and "nertz!". A former boss used "Jeezel Petes" - that was fun. Anybody remember Mork's "shazbot!"? Yeah, I enjoy those. I'm nearly as impressed when corporate advertising gets in the act:
*** to be concluded ***
2 comments:
;) love it
The cussing has lost most of it's shock value and is now just ugly.
Love the thoughts.
Great, now I want some Oreos!
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