Talking Dirty

Mark Lawson in The Grauniad on ‘bad language’ on the TV. ‘So, now that which used to be called bad language is standard in large areas of daily life, there's clearly a case for broadcasting to relax its own bans.’

My Comment:

I’ve often wondered what it is about ‘bad’ language that is actually… well… bad.

I mean, it is all right to say, say, ‘sexual intercourse’ , but not fuck. So it can’t be the real meaning of the word that is ‘bad’. So that can’t be it.

It is all right to say words like duck, luck, buck and so on, so it can’t be the sound of the word that is – somehow – offensive to the ear. So, that can’t be it, either.

It can’t be the context because it is acceptable to say something like ‘Oh, flip!’ or somesuch when you spill your coffee over your keyboard, or hit your thumb with a hammer. So, it can’t be the context.

It can’t be that these are crude Anglo-Saxonisms when polite folk are speaking good old Norman French either, because swearwords seem to exist in all languages.

So, I can’t understand what the fuss is about….

Except that… I know that modern TV and film scripts that seem to be based on the premise that it is ‘realistic’, ‘edgy’ or ‘down with the kids’ or whatever, seem so dull, so monochromatic, in their overuse of these words. Like all attempts to outrage in art and entertainment, once what was once shocking becomes ubiquitous, commonplace, it merely becomes tedious as post-Duchamp ‘modern art’ so clearly demonstrates.