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Thoughts on Casual-conversation Profanity as a Cultural Barometer – Provoked by the 2010 MTV Movie Awards (Warning: Serious profanity)
John O’Sullivan, recalling his own hometown, said that when his grandmother ran a pub in the Liverpool docklands in the years around the First World War, there was only one occasion when someone swore in her presence. And he subsequently apologized. Mark Steyn
In the 60 years that I had the pleasure of her company, I never once heard my mother use profanity. Likewise, none of her circle of friends did, and I believe they would never have dreamed of using vulgar language – in any situation -- neither publicly nor privately. And, although I grew up without a father, I never once heard grown men using profanity in what we used to call “polite company”.
The Texas boys I played with with in the 1950s – the other guys in the neighborhood – didn’t use profanity either except in very rare cases -- usually as a prologue to a fight. Put another way, cursing was reserved for combat, and because it was used sparingly, it could be used to great effect. I didn’t begin to hear what I call “casual-conversation”, i.e. anger-free profanity, until the mid-60s.
Joe Biden to President Obama upon the passage of Obamacare: “This is fucking great!”
One of the truly absurd things going on in our television culture is the “bleeping” out of profanity. I say absurd because 99% of the time what is bleeped is still clearly comprehended by the viewer. Thus, the profanity “censored” in the exclamation “Bleep you -- mother bleep-er!” is understood by all (including kids). Clearly, the bleeping in no way cloaks the profanity. If the goal of the FCC is to keep profanity off mainstream television, the “bleep-out-only-the-offensive-syllable” method is a complete backfiring failure. It has instead greatly enabled the use of profanity on network television.
But really, who the bleep cares??
So then Little Red Riding Hood says: “Jesus, Grandma – what’s with those big fucking teeth?”
Alas, it is now entirely evident that our culture has gradually accepted casual-conversation profanity, and I’m certain that many or most people don’t really see any harm in it. But . . . are there negatives to the devolution of our language to an ever lower, crasser level? What difference does it make if I tell you my vacation was fabulous – or was fucking fabulous? How much less profane is me bleep-writing you that my vacation was f---king fabulous or "effing" fabulous? Your brain fills in the "fuck" – no?
Grace? What the fuck is grace?
"Todd is such a prick -- can you believe he's dating that cunt?"
Well . . . I believe this downward trend reflects our culture’s attitudes about grace and manners – how much we value them. Why not casually talk on a vulgar level? Why bother dressing up to go the theater or church? Why not walk down the street with your friends and loudly fill the air with variations of “fuck” etc.?
Rather than respecting your opponent in an athletic competition, why not celebrate after each one of your minor triumphs throughout the game -- better yet, talk trash to him while so doing. And really – does it matter if you act like a complete backstabbing, badmouthing, manipulative rat on your reality show – and why shouldn’t high school boys dress like thugs and high school girls dress like hookers? Hell, girl – where’s the harm in being on national television and advertising how hot and slutty you are? Miley's getting rich doing it!
Our ever-accelerating slide down this greasy slope got started back in the 1960s when we cool counter-culture cats all decided society would be better off if we didn’t stigmatize any behavior. It was all like “Who are we to judge? You do your thing and I’ll do mine and I’m OK and you’re OK”. It seemed like a great idea at the time -- no one would be made to feel bad about themselves and/or their behavior, and then magically – relieved of such negative vibes/thoughts – everyone would behave admirably. What a colossal misjudgment of human nature.
Societies fall apart when (among other causes) their ruling elites, political and intellectual, lose faith in their own right or duty to prescribe standards. . . they become persuaded that generosity of spirit and broad-mindedness are the only true virtues, even if they result in paralysis in the face of disorder, with all the accompanying miseries of those who suffer it.” -- Anthony Daniels
So now our pop culture is Grand Canyon broadminded and no, friends, the pendulum isn’t going to swing back. The TV Shows, movies, music are going to keep getting ever dumber, more vulgar, and more sexualized – at least until such time as we start recognizing societal carcinogens when we see them. “Wow – did you see that Super Bowl Halftime? Janet Jackson reached over and pulled out Justin’s dick!! What a hoot!”
Half a league, half a league downward
Into the valley of dreck rode the network brass
So -- much as the NY Times spearheads the mainstream-media, so MTV and HBO are cutting-edge spearheads of the sexualization, vulgarization, moronization of pop culture. My imagined impression of MTV and HBO is that they’re both staffed by scads of young, bright, attractive people who believe they are totally hip -- and whose cluelessness about their ongoing degradation of our culture is matched only by their self-absorption and their zealous adherence to political correctness.
So -- brace yourself. Below is a rough “unbleeped” transcript of some of the utterances in the first 30 or 40 minutes of the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. Among the attendees were many of Hollywood’s A-Listers, all beaming and seemingly completely comfortable with the vulgarity on display. (Note: Most of these words in skits/clips were bleeped out but were contextually obvious and easily decipherable to anyone who could lip-read on a 2nd grade level. And, a bunch of “live” profanity got by without being bleeped. The question marks indicate words I couldn’t make out.)
Tom Cruise in Skit: “My job is to get those two things drunk and make them fuck . . . And I’m gonna make you two fuck puppets even bigger”.
Tom Cruise in Skit: “Tonight I’m going to shove this lump of coal up my ass, clinch my butt cheeks, and crap out a diamond . . . if any of you . . . fuck with my diamond I’m going to fuck fuck you so hard . . . Sit back and enjoy my giant two hour shit.”
Host Azia Ansari: “My mom’s mean as shit.”
Various actors in skits: “You gonna send a white bitch to my mother fucking ??? . . . at one point a dude’s gonna fuck a ?? with his pony tail.”
Sean Combs: “What the fuck you guys talking about? . . . I ?? hate you mother fuckers.”
Tom Cruise in skit: “What the fuck is ??? You get the fuck off my stage . . . let’s kill this bitch.”
Steve Carell: “Some movies literally scare the shit out of you.”
Co presenter Paul Rudd: “Here are the nominees for the Best Scared as Shit performance” – this is actually a category – “Best Scared as S—t Performance” reads the graphic.
Craig Robinson (who will be hosting the VH1 HipHop Honors): “All all I want to say to you cocksucking pranksters . . . damn it feels good to be a gangsta”
Ansari in skit -- to little kid – “Shut the fuck up”. Later, “Fuck you BP” repeated several times.
Finally, at the end of the show, the spokesman for winning Twilight movie: “I’ve never heard the word “Fuck” used so many times in one evening so I’ll say that this is pretty fucking cool . . . thank you to fucking X, thanks to fucking Y” . . . etc., etc.”
And – oh yeah – Christina Aguilera did a number called Woohoo – check out the lyric below:
You know you really wanna (hey)
Wanna taste my (woohoo)
You know you wanna get a peak
Wanna see my (woohoo)
You know you wanna put your lips
Where my hips are (woohoo)
Kiss all my (woohoo)
All over my (woohoo)
All the boys think it's cake
When they taste my (woohoo)
You don't even need a plate
Just your face, ha (woohoo)
Licky, licky, yum yum (woohoo)
What a great guy (woohoo)
Now kiss all my (woohoo)
All over my (woohoo)
Kiss, kiss all my (woohoo)
All over my (woohoo)
Kiss, kiss, kiss all my (woohoo)
All over my (woohoo)
The number ended with a close-up of a red neon-flashing heart on her crotch.
Wrote Dave Itzkoff in the NY Times: “The kids today love their cursing. And there was plenty of it that somehow didn’t get bleeped on the show: Mark Wahlberg swearing it up during a comedy sketch with Will Ferrell; a profanity-laden acceptance speech for “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” delivered by Peter Facinelli, which makes us wonder if we’ll ever see him on MTV again.”
In a statement, MTV said: The MTV Movie Awards is a live televised event known for irreverent comedy and a party atmosphere where our guests speak more freely than they otherwise might. While we aired the live broadcast with a delay, we were unable to mute every word that some might find objectionable. All of these words will be muted in subsequent airings.
We sincerely apologize to those in our audience who were offended by any objectionable words that might have slipped by for the live airing.
There – you see – MTV means well. It’s just “irreverent” – and irreverence is good, right?
Morality is a sense of right and wrong that is born out of group-wide systems of conflict management based on shared values . . . shared values constrain individual behavior through a system of approval and disapproval. -- primatologist Frans de Waal
And . . . Speaking of profanity:
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