R__d My L_ps: The Rise of the Barely-Bleeped Curse

While it's true these are just "words" we are talking about, the use of them is really more about emotions. The use of swear words can represent a degree of emotion within a conversation, arguement, etc.

Personally,I don't want to give our world permission to do use them freely - another "giving in" point for me. Swearing is kind of a personal thing - would you in daily conversation start swearing to the cash register person at the grocery store as part of your checking out banter? Would you freely greet someone you know in a waiting room and use profanity in your conversation with other people nearby? (assuming you're not overly angry in either of these situations...)

In TV or movies, profanity has not added anything extra to the plot for me - it can usually be done without. I'm all for using "snap!" instead of "sh_t" for instance. Kind of a manners thing that I would like to see embraced for public view.

In your blog? If you swear, doesn't mean I won't read it, but honestly, don't know if it really adds to the discussion at all.

So, overall, when I see/hear swearing outside of a personal conversation/exchange, I usually think "was that really necessary to get your point across?"

I don't have any children whose virgin ears need protecting, so for me there's only one benefit to "micro-bleeping" swear words: Sometimes it's actually funnier than the word left uncensored. South Park and The Daily Show do this often, but my favorite was Arrested Development (e.g. Tobias looking into the fridge and screaming "Where the f__k are my hard-boiled eggs?!")

I have a vague memory of the network dramas being able to say sh_t after 10 p.m. (pre-Janet Jackson, of course). And some TV-MA FX series, especially Rescue Me, routinely use sh_t, bullsh_t and even the c-word (um, the male version, which is inexplicably and undeniably more offensive).

And I personally used "_"s in this comment because I used a naughty word a couple months back and it didn't post. Maybe Time's automatic spam-blocker is trying to keep out the filth?

@beerbaron: There may be a profanity blocker at work, though I don't know of it, but I know I've encountered full-on profanities in comments. We've had a spate of people's comments being held by the spam blocker as spam, but that seems to have more to do with URLs, certain keywords, and IP addresses. (Say if you're using a public computer that's been flagged for spam and it's IP is on a spam list.) Even I've been caught by the spam filter this way.

By the way, Anon, as far as the blog is concerned, I'm thinking more about quotes--say, for instance, my John from Cincinnati Watch earlier today. It's not like I'm going to start writing, "Mad Men f___ing rules!" Though I'm sure AMC would love to use that in the ads.

I really don't care one way or another. Curse words do not bother me in the slightest. They never bothered my parents either - my sister and I were both raised hearing plenty of bad words, and it didn't warp us in any particular way. My parents talked to us about the appropriate use of words in different contexts, and that was the end of that. If other parents would follow that simple advice, the whole subject could be put to bed. The world does not need to be sanitized to protect children - parents should protect their children by preparing them to deal with the world as it is, and to help their children find ways to make positive changes and contributions to the world. Who cares about some 4-letter words?

What's really interested me lately is the Volkswagen commercials showing a bad accident, etc. At the end they'll show the person involved say something like "holy s___" with the commercial cutting right before (after?) the s. Leaves a clear impression of what the person is saying without actually saying it, and this is a mainstream commercial. Anyone else notice this? Wonder if this is a phenomenon that will catch on as a way of amping up the emotion in commercials.

Jen,

I understand what you're saying, but I'll respectfully disagree. Perception is often reality and the way we present ourselves says a lot about the kind of person we are and what kind of character we possess. I heard my father say "damn" one time in my entire life. Boy, did that make an impact. Now, did my dad talk like that around his buddies and coworkers? Perhaps, but knowing my father, I seriously doubt it. I'm 50 years old now and I've been known to utter my fair share of four letter words. Do I sprinkle all of my sentences and conversations with four letter words? No. In fact, I am very picky and choosey about what words I use and especially who I say them in front of. I'm a little ashamed to say that I've used a very small number of four letter words in front of my son more than the once my dad did. Like me, he knows that those words are not acceptable for him to use.....although he may around his friends like I did when I am not in ear shot. The point is that everything has its time and place. Thinking that you should use damn or sh*t in the normal course of a conversation at the office shows a lack of being able to express oneself in a mature and appropriate manner. Using f*ck, sh*t and c*nt on a regular basis in public is akin to farting at the table at a dinner party. It just isn't the time or place to manifest a "normal" bodily function.

It is my belief that most of the comics who rely on working blue do so out of insecurity. Their routines woul be just as funny without the fout letter words. They think it gives them a hipness or edginess and will get a laugh if the jokes bombs.

I find it ridiculous that you can't say the F-word on tv but you can, for instance, show horrible car accidents. I would think a small child could see those insurance comercials and get pretty scared. The chances of them even NOTICING bad language on TV doesn't seem too high. (And if it bothers parents, they can just V-chip it, for god's sake.) On British television I don't think there's any censorship in terms of language, and this has always made sense to me. Then again, I do have a trucker mouth.

By the way...I remember hearing once on a commentary track for an episode of The Shield that the writers/producers were seriously considering breaking the "swear barrier" by having Corrine Mackey say about their youngest daughter, "I know it's fucking autism." Which makes me wonder--on cable, who enforces the the no-swearing rule? Clearly you can get away with some stuff on cable you can't on network, but is that because the laws are more lenient or that there ARE no laws about it (and it's simply the cable network imposing some rules)?

@evie: The FCC is not empowered to regulate decency on cable, only on over-the-air broadcast networks. Basic cable networks can, and have, aired unexpurgated f-words. (It made the news a few years back when ESPN--of all places--decided to allow several of them in a biopic about Bobby Knight.) So it's determined by what the networks (and their carriers and advertisers) will allow.

Fuck No! It's a word, you only give it as much power as you want. The word is meaningless beyond your own perception. If someone decided tomorrow that the word "cold" was offensive would we all have to tow the line and make sure we don't say "cold" in any context?

There is a language filter within this posting mechanism as I just used f--k to start a post and it was "held for approval by blog administrator."

@Karma: Curiously, though, evie's use of the same word plus "-ing" sailed through. So apparently obscenities are less dirty in gerund form!

Anyway, acting as blog administrator--or at least someone authorized to access the Comments--I just published your filthy talk. It seems silly to exclude it from a grown-up discussion on language. Though I guess I can see the point of the filter--if nothing else, to prevent porn spam.

New York City is reputed as having the best tasting drinking water in the world. Would you drink a cold glass of it if you knew that there was one drop of urine in it, or 10 drops, or 100 drops? At what point would you accept the fact that drinking p##s isn't all that bad after all? Is it any different with public cursing, and could it have the same effect?

I don't mind the profanity, or the bleeping, on most of the thinkgs that get shown on cable after 9PM or so...

But yesterday, I was watching an "encore presentation" of the premiere of Damages. It was being shown at 3 in the afternoon, and everything was being bleeped, and rather crudely at that. (Same thing with the Daily Show -- a LOT more bleeping during the reruns that are shown during the day/early evenings than on the broadcast at 11PM)

The thing about using these words uncensored is that , with use, they lose their steam. I read somewhere that it was first religion based words that raised all the ruckus, and I can clearly remember in my youth(I'm 50) how shocking it was to hear even 'damn' on tv uncensored. I remember Walter Cronkite saying 'goddamn' one time in an interview. They let it through and we were all shocked,that they allowed it and that Walter Cronkite cussed! F*ck definitely doesn't carry the impact it once did. My worry is if we lose the shock value of religion and sex based words, what do we use next?

I remember when Lucile Ball got pregnant and they decided to write it into the show and Lucy Ricardo got "with child" but they couldn't say pregnant on TV.

Why is Latin OK but Anglo Saxon is to much for delicate ears? Genitals but not C___ or C___. On the other hand it would seem strange to hear someone yell "defecate".

I think people should stop searching high and low for ways to be offended. If you think it's tasteless, then it is. If you think it's funny, then it is. It's like when someone eats in a sloppy manner, you don't eat with them anymore. If someones conversation, or a tv show, is too offensive then don't listen. And prepare your kids for how the world is, don't prepare them for a world you hope for, then throw them out there with the wolves.

Here in the UK, the broadcast channels have a 9pm "watershed" rule. Certain profanity, nudity, and some levels of violence are not allowed before that time (during the Live Earth broadcast, the BBC had to keep apologizing when the artists would curse). After that, it's pretty much fair game; though the use of the word cunt is still fairly taboo here.

I think this blog is either for adults or for children with a higher-than-usual interest in John from Cincinnati.

Heh. True.

Personally, I'm puzzled by people who get offended by the simple juxtaposition of certain letters and/or phonetic sounds, so I'm pro-spelling things out in quotes, particularly.

Anyway, while I share your desire to spell out profanities, I understand the fact that this is a Time blog may require you to censor or warn about certain "bad words," and that's pretty much my thought process as far as bleeping of words on TV. About micro-bleeping specifically: the less bleeping, the better.

For me, full-on bleeping < micro-bleeping < no bleeping < intentionally comedic bleeping.

this new style of partial-bleeping is wonderfully parodied by Jimmy Kimmel in his series, "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOaoMvkWDeY

I've been TiVo-ing the morning airings of "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" for years, as to not interfere with recording "Charlie Rose" in the evenings. I had no idea that there were more bleeped-out words in the repeats than in the original evening airings! I assumed the evening shows were just as heavily bleeped.

Now I have to decide whether the non-bleeped versions are actually funnier, and worth changing my TiVo settings to try to hunt down "Charlie Rose" repeats on the never reliable, never consistent, PBS stations.