Faima Bakar writes for HuffPost about the eternal problem of bad language:
A series of Tesco mobile adverts which used food puns to allude to commonly expressed expletives have been banned after receiving a lot of complaints. The ads used words such as shiitake, pistachio and fettuccine in place of popular phrases. One of them said ‘what a load of shiitake’ with an image of a mushroom, while another featured a nut next to the words ‘they’re taking the pistachio’. A third revealed pasta uncovering the words ‘for fettuccine’s sake’. And naturally, 52 people complained. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) declared the images “were likely to cause serious and widespread offence” and told Tesco to stop using the ads. Tesco Mobile claimed it didn’t actually use any offensive words or images, but agreed to the ban and apologised nevertheless. […]
We spoke to Tony Thorne, a lexicographer and language consultant at King’s College London, who tells us we’ve learned to associate swearing with personality and morals. “Many Brits still affect to be shocked by bad language because they think it fits an image of respectability,” he tells HuffPost. “In fact scientists have proved that swearing is therapeutic and most people do it, even if not publicly. “Lots of brands have tried to use plays on rude words, since FCUK, but younger consumers often find these cringeworthy while older consumers may find them offensive – or obscure if they don’t get the reference.”
He points to Claudine Davi’s Letters from the linguists: the evolution of swearing, which shows that profanity came from blasphemy – against God, against royalty. Then in the 18th and 19th century, it evolved into a social taboo which elevated its status. Forbidden words had more power to shock and disgust, something that somewhat remains. But now, we have more commonly accepted obscenities that won’t cause anyone to cast a second look. Unless they’re on a Tesco advert, maybe.
I’m endlessly fascinated by the power of words to cause such reactions. Thanks, Trevor!
I like “scientists have proved that swearing is therapeutic and most people do it”. Well, then.
“Take the pistachio”
There was a schoolyard song we used to sing:
Charlie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell,
Charlie went to heaven, the steamboat went to
Hello operator, give me number 9,
and if you do not do it, I’ll kick you in the
Behind the ‘fridgerator, there was a piece of glass,
Charlie sat down on it, and he cut his
Ask me no more questions …
Etc.
But now, every other word on HBO and Netflix is fuck or fucking. It really annoys me when it’s untrue to the period (e.g. in The Marvelous Mrs Maisel).
And naturally, 52 people complained. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) declared the images “were likely to cause serious and widespread offence”
FFS. Get a life.
What is causing offence to me is the Supreme Court has just overturned Roe v Wade.
Yes indeed, but let’s not get into that here. Vent your outrage on social media and your political representatives (as applicable).
Over 20 years ago in Aus/NZ there was a series of ads for Toyota utes featuring an actual swear word. That Youtube video describes them as BANNED — but they weren’t here. I guess they went out at ‘adult time’ on TV.
It helped a lot that the ads were so bucolically humorous; and the likely buyers (actual rugged farmers, or those who wished they were) could identify immediately with the scenes.
There were a few complaints. The ASA’s response was more-or-less ‘get over yourselves’. We embraced them: there were BUGGA T-shirts; BUGAME rego plates; bugga! (with that spelling) became not-a-swear-word.
Surely swearing is a matter of mode rather than meaning. Do we not all invent our own swear words? A recent one that I like was coined by a UK politician who accused a colleague of having made “a right Horlicks” of his job.
That Youtube video describes them as BANNED — but they weren’t here.
In my experience, “banned” in the description of youtube ad videos is just code for “contains nudity or profanity” and not a claim that the ads were actually banned somewhere.
Do we not all invent our own swear words?
I know I do (and so does my brother), for certain values of “invent”. (In particular, AFAIK, “triangular heck” is original to me, though I vaguely recall some cases where other people thought that it was a neat phrasing.)
[A googling attempt found at least one instance in the “other people thought it was a neat phrasing” category, but the vast majority of other results are by me, and all the other exceptions I could find were accidental colocations.]
[…is it “colocations” or “collocations”? The latter feels more familiar but the former feels like it makes a little more sense.]
“Collocation” is the linguistic term. “Colocation” is when you rent space and bandwidth at a data center to put your own servers in. They have different vowels in the first syllable.
Collations ?
Connotations?
Koala cushions?
My angry 7-year-old half-dutch niece once called me a fishhole and it stung…
Children can be so cruel …
One of my thoughts on developing new expletives.
The Tom the Dancing Bug comic had an ongoing meme where one of the characters calls another a “doik”. A term specifically made up to be disparaging, but the other character can’t logically take offense because it doesn’t actually mean anything.
From my observations, this is an idea not uncommon among teenagers.
A term specifically made up to be disparaging, but the other character can’t logically take offense because it doesn’t actually mean anything.
– А ты вуалехвост.
– А что это такое?
– Вуалехвост, и всё.
– А ты первердер.
– Это ещё что значит?
– Значит, что ты первердер.
– And you’re a veiltail.
– And what’s that?
– A veiltail, that’s it.
– And you’re a perverder.
– What does that mean?
– Means you’re a perverder.
(Viktor Golyavkin, Болтуны [“Chatterboxes”].)
Gavin Wraith:
That expression is not totally without precedent. I’ve heard older Irish people say “making a right hames” out of something.
Here’s a discussion:
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/making-a-hames-of-it/
I suppose as people like me forgot the meaning of the original expression, they might well have substituted Horlicks.
In Irish you might say Rinne mé praiseach ar fad de. Literally “I totally made porridge of it”, but more idiomatically “I made a complete mess of it”, or perhaps “I made a total dog’s breakfast of it”.
I suppose Horlicks is in there with the breakfast theme, although interestingly Horlicks is seen as a breakfast item more commonly in India than in the UK, where it is more of a bedtime item.
@maidhc
Horlicks was not chosen for semantic similarity to breakfast but for prosodic similarity to bollocks, which is or was quite a rude word in Ireland or (I think also) Britain; telling someone they are talking bollocks could lead to an immediate physical response.
It typically takes children a few years to figure out that swearwords have literal meanings at all.
– А ты вуалехвост.
A schoolmate who was a bit simple took to calling me mujibur. (At the time, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was all over the news.) His surname was Mamontov (Mammothson?), so his nicknames had all to do with proboscideans. I must have called him a mastodon or something to trigger such a colourful—and absurd—nickname.
@juha
Is your nose large or unusual?
No, not at all. Quite an average one.
Besides, that would have been beyond him: he was by no means bright.
BTW, I see that Великое чудо маниту!—an allusion to a scene involving elephant figurines in the Deerhunter by Fenimore Cooper—is still current.
People don’t seem to be aware of the Deerhunter reference — at least those answering Что значит выражение “чудо маниту”, откуда оно пошло?
I—and the other mammoth-baiters—learned it from this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmprD_9uWFk
Timestamped link:
https://youtu.be/YmprD_9uWFk?t=2475
The Deerslayer is an 1823 novel, which has been adapted numerous times. The Deer Hunter is a 1978 Vietnam War film also recently mentioned). Aside from guns, they have rather little in common.
@Bloix:
“Charlie had a steamboat, the steamboat had a bell,
Charlie went to heaven, the steamboat went to
Hello operator…”
Just like the old Russian kindergarten/schoolyard song:
Как из гардеропа
Выглянула жо…
– А? Что?
– Да ничего,
Желтая рубашка.
Note the substandard form гардероп instead of гардероб. Only people who don’t read much would say that.
We sang it as “Miss Lucy” (had a steamboat, etc.). For a hightoned version, there’s Cole Porter: “Have you heard / That Mimsie Starr / Just got pinched in the As / ssstor Bar?” / “Well, did you evah! What a swell party this is.”
https://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-hor1.htm
* Horlicks isn’t a recent coinage, may be a revival.
I wouldn’t be surprised to find a 1939-1945 British Forces usage
At my playground, “Miss Lucy had a baby, she named it Tiny Tim…” I know I have encountered the steamboat song or chant, but I don’t remember if Charlie or some other male name was associated with the steamboat. There was also a song I learned at camp about a Charlie who was a fireman, which concluded something like “wherever he ends up, he’ll do well / ‘cause he puts out fires!”
The big playground fad at the time were fake book titles with suggestive author names, such as “Glass Girdles, by Seymour Hare.” Not swearing, but smutty, and therefore not to be said where adults could hear.
Ah yes, my late friend Mike (who signed his comments here “your fiend, thegrowlingwolf”) and I shared a fondness for those; see this old LH post about the Ridiculously Large List of Silly Names, wherein I share my favorite: Claude Balls, author of The Tiger’s Revenge.
Always ur, not your, as far as I’ve noticed.
Good catch! I didn’t bother to check his spelling… but now that I do, I find there actually was one instance of spelled-out “your” (consistency was not one of thegrowlingwolf’s hobgoblins).
🙂 I like that somehow.