What is your favorite cuss word?

[Spexxvet]

JFC, fuck, an cunt don't bother me. The word "the" offends me, though. Please be considerate and don't use the "t" word. :p

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

JFC, fuck, an cunt don't bother me. The word "the" offends me, though. Please be considerate and don't use the "t" word. :p

You must love tw's posts.

[Kagen4o4]

but they were amusing right?

[mrnoodle]

I was thinking about this thread earlier, and it occurred to me: Why don't we blaspheme other gods? I have a theory (deeply rooted in my sad, misguided xtian fantasy), but I want to hear yours first.

[Spexxvet]

Mo-fucking-hammed, you've got a Buddhadamn point!

[mrnoodle]

See? That seemed forced. Too much effort, too little payoff. It's just not funny if it doesn't seem like "real" blasphemy. It's certainly not something that you would say if you hit your knee on the table.

[Spexxvet]

So it's a catch-22? If we blaspheme with an inapropriate deity (non-Christian), it doesn't sound right, but if we blaspheme with a Christian deity, it offends. And if we say fucking cunt, there's this whole other group that will be offended. Cussing is getting to be no fun at all. Poopy!

[Undertoad]

It seemed forced but it didn't seem blasphemous. But it WAS;

...it just didn't affect enough of our current company to seem like a CUSS.

If there is not likelihood of people getting offended, something can't be an effective curse word/phrase.

[Happy Monkey]

Because back when the phrases were invented, they were intended to be blasphemous, and the inventors were Christian, so blaspheming other gods would miss the point.

Now it's just a thing you say, with no religious import unless someone calls attention to it. Like "bloody" or "zounds".

[mrnoodle]

I have no doubt that many people aren't consciously trying to be blasphemous when they use God's name like that. I don't think of the act of copulation when I say "fuck". But there's still a reason why we use the words we do. If nothing else, there's a subconscious knowledge that some words are "worse" than others -- "piss up a rope" doesn't have the same bite as "fuck off and die". We can't say "gosh darn it" without feeling let down a little. It's got to be "goddammit" to carry the proper amount of cuss-osity.

My theory is that we have an inbred knowledge of God that we have to consciously rid ourselves of in childhood. When life doesn't go well and the invisible man upstairs doesn't prevent it, or some asshole does something bad to us and we associate them with religion, we throw the baby out with the bathwater. But there are a few remnants that never go away: 1. the knowledge that there are things that are innately "good" and "bad"; not murder and rape-level bad, but..well..like cussing. 2. Doing "bad" things feels good, often. Christians call it a sinful nature that rebels against God, non-Christians call it freespiritedness or something.

So, maybe goddammit is a more effective blasphemy, and universally regarded as a "bad word" because it invokes the name of someone that everyone but the most hardened atheist still "believes in" on some level. Even if they don't admit it.

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by mrnoodle

My theory is that we have an inbred knowledge of God that we have to consciously rid ourselves of in childhood.

i couldn't disagree with this more. I posit, in fact that the direct opposite is true.

[Happy Monkey]

It's pure history. "Fuck" is considered the be-all-and-end-all of "bad words", even though it has fuck all to do with religion. All "bad words" are pure accidents of history, and change over time. I already mentioned "bloody" and "zounds", both of which were once blasphemous. "Zounds" now sounds goofy and quaint. I can't speak for how "bloody" is taken in England these days, but I get the feeling its "bad word"iness is fading. The term "sucks" to describe disapproval is now mainstream, even though my mother still considers it a "bad word".

There's no telling what "bad words" will be in the future. I vote for "smeghead" and "gimboid" myself.

[Undertoad]

It's more like a historical founding than innate IMO. Crossing the line with religion was more taboo than anything else, when religion was taken as moot and not a competing explanation for origins. It remained so at the point when technology allowed us to widely record and share commonly-used language and continued to influence the language for years and years.

"Gosh" was a swear word at one point because it recalled the word God. Same for "Judas Priest" and "Jimminy Cricket" and many others, all semi-blashphemous curse words.

[wolf]

I think that we addressed why folks don't blaspheme against the Old Gods, here or in some other vaugely religiously tinged thread ... The Christian God patiently tots things up like an accountant or waiter, and you are provided with your reckoning at the end of your earthly life.

The Old Gods demand immediate payoff.

I just haven't yet figured out exactly what the 2005 Eagles did.

[lumberjim]

easy .Donovan was on the cover of madden