WEBVTT - How Swearing Works 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.280 dot com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:17.079 Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, uh and Jerry's over there. 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:21.800 So this is stuff you should know beep. Addition, are 0:00:21.800 --> 0:00:26.520 we gonna beat No? I don't think so we're above that. Um. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:28.319 I'll tell you what. It was a joy to read 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.760 this Tracy V. Wilson article. Tracy stuff you missed in 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:36.040 history class. Used to do a lot of writing, and 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:40.160 her articles are always she leaves no stone unturned. Yeah, 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.120 the V. The V stands for very good article. It 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:46.920 really was good. Yeah, it was very good article, very good, 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:53.360 so very good. Did you did you notice her images 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.920 in the article on the site? No, oh they were 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:05.520 all like star Trek, Firefly, Harry Potter. What later in 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:07.600 the article? Or was that from that other thing you 0:01:07.640 --> 0:01:11.319 sent me? Oh that was from another thing. Okay, No, 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:13.240 I kind of just put it all in together, so 0:01:13.360 --> 0:01:17.680 I was like, man, Tracy really went for it. A 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:21.280 lot of bombs. That was not Tracy. That was well. 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:23.000 There are a couple of other articles I sent you. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.399 One was James Harbick wrote a good one on the 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:29.840 BBC and another was from Rebecca roach On a On. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:32.520 Was that that swearing in other countries? Yeah, that was 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.440 really good. Um, I'm excited about this one because I 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:40.800 loved to curse and swear, and you folks don't know 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.440 that because we've always kept our show g rated. I know, 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.160 which is I'm glad we do that because I kind 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:49.400 of stand out these days among podcasts. Yeah, that's true. 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.480 Plus it's kind of like, um, it just makes it 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:56.400 you have to get a little more creative when you 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.440 have limitations like that. I found like working within a 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.560 structure or makes you think more rather than just like 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:08.799 letting it all hang out being loosey goosey lazy. Yeah, 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:11.600 I'm very lazy than in my regular life. Well, my 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:16.280 wife and I both have sailor mouth. Should we be 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.440 telling people this? I don't think it's fine, Okay, because 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.800 this is a good lesson to kids that, um, you know, 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.320 there are appropriate times to say certain things in inappropriate times, 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.880 and when you're podcasting, apparently it's inappropriate exactly at least 0:02:30.919 --> 0:02:34.200 with us. But chuck. Um. One thing you might be 0:02:34.240 --> 0:02:39.720 happy to hear is that a longstanding myth called the 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:44.079 poverty of vocabulary hypothesis is not held to be correct 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.880 any longer. Well, what's the myth? The hypothesis was that 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.400 people swore because they couldn't think of other words, and 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:57.000 that you were basically lower, lower class, poorly educated um 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.520 with a small vocabulary, which is why you cursed. And 0:03:00.600 --> 0:03:02.840 up until fairly recently, I think it was a two 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.359 thousand sixteen maybe fifteen journal article that really put the 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:10.239 nail in the coffin and said, nope, we tested people. 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:12.720 The people who came up with the most swear words 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.440 were also the ones who had the most extensive vocabulary 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:21.520 elsewhere too. So the idea that you're just dumb if 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:26.320 you if you swear a lot normally gone. Yeah, But 0:03:26.400 --> 0:03:29.040 I mean there, it spends on how you do it. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.840 Like sometimes you can tell someone I can't think of 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.520 a better word, you know what I mean? And sometimes 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.920 like I know some people that are just some of 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:44.000 the best swearers. Was most creative, intelligent swears And it's 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:48.000 like a music almost. I love it it is, and 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:50.760 it is a music. It's definitely not just words. As 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:55.040 we'll see, swearing is its own thing. It's kind of phenomenal. Actually, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:59.520 there's a hypothesis that language came out of swears originally 0:04:00.200 --> 0:04:03.080 that the first took took, Yeah, it took took was 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:06.640 basically hit his thumb with a club against the rock, 0:04:07.280 --> 0:04:10.720 shouted something, and that became the S word as we 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:13.440 know it today. Well, Tracy, one of the first things 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.159 she points out was a thought super interesting and that 0:04:16.279 --> 0:04:20.320 it's a very paradoxic, paradoxical thing, and that they are 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.239 a taboo. But it's not a taboo that people avoid. 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.360 It's one of the few taboos like everybody, not everybody, 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.000 but many, many people in brace right, I think like 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:33.520 seventy eight percent of men. And we're talking for the 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.880 most of this show about sort of Western countries except 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.200 at the end. But as far as we know, and 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:45.360 we being like humanity, uh, swearing is universal. Here we 0:04:45.400 --> 0:04:47.760 go se of men and fifty eight percent of women 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:54.760 swearing in public. It's not even in their private life. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.920 you know. Yeah. And apparently that's a longstanding understanding of swearing, 0:05:00.120 --> 0:05:03.080 is that men do it more than women. And back 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.240 in the seventies there was a Berkeley linguistics researcher named 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:12.359 Rebecca lack Off, and um, she noticed that women tended 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.320 more to use what are called minced oaths, which is 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.760 saying like fiddle sticks instead of the F word, basically 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.279 talking like ned flanders in places where men would have 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:25.719 cursed otherwise um. And she surmised that it was because 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:28.839 women are taught from a young age to be polite 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:32.640 and preferential, um, whereas men are allowed to curse and 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:35.279 kind of let it all hang out. But that just 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.800 put women in an awkward situation or damned if they do, 0:05:38.880 --> 0:05:42.520 damned if they don't, uh situation. And that if they 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:47.760 are polite and deferential, they're treated like a fractional person um. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:52.880 But if they transgress and and curse, they they've broken taboos. 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.240 And like in Western society, it's way worse for a 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:59.599 woman to curse than a man, at least in public 0:05:59.720 --> 0:06:02.839 or may be even private, which is a double standard 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.440 that we need to do away with. Agreed, because it's 0:06:05.520 --> 0:06:08.000 much like the First Amendment episode where I got all 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:11.400 rile up against obscenity. The idea that some words can't 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:14.560 be said because it's taboo just irks me to no 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:16.520 end as well. I don't think it's a big deal, 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.880 but I do respect that others do, and I really 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.400 do try to curb my how loud I curse in public? 0:06:23.680 --> 0:06:28.360 Public in public's Um, I really do. I try to, like, 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:30.920 and this isn't just since I've had kids. Have always 0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:32.800 just sort of tried to be aware. Maybe it was 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.960 my Baptist upbringing, but um, it's bad of a mouth. 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:37.960 As I have, I've always tried to just sort of 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:40.520 be aware of my surroundings because I never wanted to 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.720 be that guy that was making someone else feel bad 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:46.880 or whose parents had to like shuffle their kids away 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.480 from me because of the language I was using. You know. Um, 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.920 I've had a hard time with Emily. Yeah, yeah, she's 0:06:54.960 --> 0:07:00.279 just she doesn't now she's louder and doesn't just she's 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:01.920 just not a She's in the moment, you know. She's 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:04.919 very free spirited, and I'm always like, oh, you know 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:06.480 there's kids right out there, can you keep it down. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:12.080 She's like, if it f that kid, if that kid, 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.440 just it. Um. But Tracy just has a lot of 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:17.400 little tidbits here at the beginning. I think we should 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.960 mention because they're just interesting. One is that people, and 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:23.680 I found this to be true when I worked in 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:27.119 at a Mexican restaurant. We all learned the curse words first, 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:29.160 and when you learn a new language, it's one of 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:31.680 the first things you learn if you learn through immersion 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:37.880 rather than in a classroom, are colloquially colloquialisms and curse words, 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:41.760 although she says curse words and swear words are different. Yeah, 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.679 so we should you want to say, with the differences, so, um, 0:07:45.760 --> 0:07:48.360 most people use them interchangeably. But a curse word is 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:54.240 where you're basically hexing something. You're you're calling for someone 0:07:54.480 --> 0:07:59.040 to be well damned, yeah, or anything good. Idea like 0:07:59.160 --> 0:08:02.280 F this window that I can't get open, that's a 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:06.320 curse on that window, exactly, you're right, um. Whereas swearing 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.520 is kind of different. It's like by Odin's raiding, where 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.480 you're invoking the name of like a deity or something 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.560 religious or whatever, and you're doing that to like give 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:20.840 weight to your your words, your or I swear to 0:08:20.920 --> 0:08:25.160 God as a swear and technically, if you are a 0:08:26.280 --> 0:08:30.320 if you're a pious type, swearing to God, it's going 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.319 to be as bad as saying F that window, if 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:36.200 not worse. Actually the worst is you know, if you 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:39.280 say g D. I remember growing up and as a 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:41.080 church kid, that was that was the worst of all 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:44.280 swear words. Yeah, right, you know, taking the Lord's name 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.680 in vain? Yeah, and that can be and most basically 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.760 all words, will you swearing curse interchangeably like any normal 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.120 human being. But um, most most swear words are all 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.040 swear words I believe can be broken down into two 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.520 category and one of them is deistic, where it involves 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:10.440 a like a higher authority, God, religion, something about that, right, 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.560 and um. The other is visceral, and that is basically 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.400 everything else it involves body parts, body function. It's funny 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.040 they really do break down into this. Yeah, basically everything 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.600 does it related to the body? Are related to God? 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.240 Pretty interesting? Yeah it is. And and again that seems 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.440 to be universal. But what one culture emphasizes another culture 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:37.120 might not. And even within the same culture over a 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.920 period of time. Uh, words can change. Emphasis on words 0:09:40.920 --> 0:09:45.280 can change. Like, for example, in the nineteenth century, you 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.600 did not say bull as in look at that bowl 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:55.120 over there, yes, because it was associated with sexual virility. 0:09:55.200 --> 0:10:00.000 So you would say, look at that brute cow over there, 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.079 or look at that sea docks, anything but bull because 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.440 it was a bad word at the time. And then 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:09.079 now it's like someone would look at you like, what 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.000 what the Hell's the sea docks. Is that why bs 0:10:12.000 --> 0:10:14.200 is has bull in front of it. I wonder if 0:10:14.240 --> 0:10:19.640 it's like a particularly virulent type of of fallacy or lie, 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.600 because I don't see why else it would. That's what 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:25.920 I thought too. Tracy also says that UM, no one 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:28.760 really knows because cursing came before writing what the first 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.280 swear words were UM, but researchers agree. And this I 0:10:33.280 --> 0:10:37.320 thought was super interesting is that um they called it 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.920 word magic, early forms of word magic, or where they 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:44.080 came from, which um basically means, especially in cultures that 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:46.760 didn't have writing, they believe that words had a lot 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:49.559 of power and you could curse something like we said, 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:51.560 like words could be really good or words could be 0:10:51.600 --> 0:10:55.360 really bad, and that swearing kind of evolved out of that, right, 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.200 which is just awesome. I love it. It is um 0:10:59.320 --> 0:11:02.880 And there is a good example of this. Apparently. Our 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:08.240 word for bear here in English is rooted from the 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:12.439 Germanic word for brown, and it was based on the 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:17.680 pagan Germanic taboo against saying the name of a wild 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:22.360 animal because it might make that wild animal appear because 0:11:22.360 --> 0:11:25.280 of word magic. So that's why we say bear today. 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.920 So interesting because something like ursa would have been. It 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.280 would have made the bear appear and killed everybody, and 0:11:31.280 --> 0:11:33.600 it would have been your fault because you didn't say brown. 0:11:33.920 --> 0:11:38.439 He said, ursa. Did you ever hear the for unlawful 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:44.280 carnal knowledge acronym? That's completely not true. Um that the 0:11:44.960 --> 0:11:49.000 F word is old, very old recording in English since 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:52.120 the fifteenth century, and they found some roots of it 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.560 back in Middle Dutch f o k k e n 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.679 was to thrust or copulate, Norwegian f u k k 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:04.240 a was copulate, and in Swedish f o uk meant 0:12:04.320 --> 0:12:07.640 penis uh. And apparently even though it was around, it 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:10.440 wasn't really used in common speech though much It was 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:13.280 like a word in English. Yeah, but it wasn't really 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:15.640 used as a curse word until much later on. Yeah, 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.640 like the I think the sixteenth centuries when it first 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:24.640 appears in writing, and even then it seemed kind of casual. Yeah, 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:29.400 just a casual. I've got another one. You're ready. Zounds. 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.800 You know that word, uh, zounds? I think like Shaggy 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:38.000 used to say it a lot, He said, zinks. Yeah, 0:12:38.160 --> 0:12:42.960 somebody said zounds Encyclopedia Brown. I don't know, so zounds 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:48.280 sounds like that yeah. Is Um, it's related to God's wounds. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.480 So you're saying God's wounds, Yeah, invoking a deity, So 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:56.959 that would be a deistic curse. Wow. I can't wait 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:59.720 till the end when we go around the world. Some 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:04.080 of those are really funny. Um, should we take a break, Yeah, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.440 all right, we'll take a break and talk a little 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:32.080 bit about why people swears skulk Alright, So this makes 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:33.959 a lot of sense. There's a lot of there's a 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:40.000 line of thought that says that swearing eventually it comes 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:42.800 to take the place of crying. Yeah. I thought this 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:48.120 was there's a lot of anecdotal evidence. It makes perfect sense, 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:50.880 makes total complete sense. Yeah, because when you're a kid, 0:13:50.960 --> 0:13:53.200 you cry about things, and then when you grow up 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.800 here in the West, you're, for some reason taught not 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:00.280 to cry anymore, especially little boys, which is totally us, 0:14:00.440 --> 0:14:04.880 says Rosie Greer. Yeah, I cry all the time. Uh, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.920 And so that swearing becomes a what they call an 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:12.480 instinctive response for if you're upset, or if you're afraid, 0:14:12.720 --> 0:14:17.400 or if something bad happens, if you're frustrated, and that 0:14:17.520 --> 0:14:19.880 just kind of takes the place of crying. Yeah, which 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.120 again both makes it tremendous. Do you swear while you're crying? 0:14:23.120 --> 0:14:28.400 Because no, I don't do the ugly cry. We should 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.120 probably get a judgment call from our legendary producer Jerry 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.800 about is it okay for us to say if it 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:39.280 in place of actual bad words here Jerry says, yes, 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:43.560 we need a ding ding ding. So Um, that makes 0:14:43.600 --> 0:14:46.320 total sense to me that you learned to swear. And 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:48.400 one of the reasons why it makes total sense to 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:53.840 me is that swearing is a way of letting off 0:14:54.680 --> 0:15:00.880 pressure valve suddenly and quickly, almost involuntarily, right, um. And 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:02.680 if you can do it out of anger, you can 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:04.480 do it out of frustration, you can do it out 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.440 of shock, surprise, pain, um. And yeah, and and at 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.840 least in the context of our society, it would be 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:13.920 weird if you cried in all those situations of an 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.120 adult when you can get it over with just by 0:15:16.160 --> 0:15:18.480 saying shouting the S word or the F word or 0:15:18.520 --> 0:15:21.720 something like that. You know. Um. And Actually, there's a 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:25.760 linguist named Jeoffrey Nowmberg. I probably screwed up his name, 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:28.760 but he had this great description of swear words. He said, 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:33.440 swear words don't describe your feelings. They manifest them, which 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:36.000 is absolutely true. I've seen it put as like a 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:41.240 quick verbal hand grenade. Um. It encapsulates a feeling and 0:15:41.480 --> 0:15:46.080 in in like a really potent condensed form. It's true. 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:52.000 So bam um. Another really cool um thing that that 0:15:52.040 --> 0:15:55.320 Tracy wrote about was that um they do a lot too. 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:58.800 They can establish a group identity, They can make you 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.920 feel like a part of a group. UM. They can 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:05.280 express like intimacy or trust with someone. They aren't just 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.920 regular words beyond shock value and humor, which are all valid, 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:14.800 but beyond camouflaging your fears which is valid. They really 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.240 can Like I remember, I remember in our one of 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.920 our first editorial meetings and how stuff works years ago 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:25.600 when our former boss who gave us the the charge 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.760 to do stuff you should know, dropped f bombs in 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:31.240 the meeting. And and this was the first kind of 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:37.200 like my stupid chicken killer software job that I had. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:39.200 I was like a frat house, so that didn't count. 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.760 Like the language and there was terrible, But this was 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:44.960 my first like real job where yeah, where I thought like, 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:47.320 all right, I'm in my first like meeting and he 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:50.320 starts dropping f bombs and I immediately felt a kinship 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.640 and I was like, all right, this guy is doing something. 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:57.080 He's laying this out to the room, and that means something. 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.960 You know, it wasn't a casual thing. If you drop 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.360 an F bomb in a meeting like that, you're you're 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:06.280 telling people something. Yeah, like it's okay to use that 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.760 language here, or this is what kind of person I am. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:11.480 It really gives off a lot of social cues. Yeah, 0:17:11.640 --> 0:17:14.600 you know, I've always loved them for it. It really does. 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:20.280 It's also um it also kind of presents the person 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:24.159 of higher authority on on your level. You know, it 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.840 can turn people off, though I did think about that, like, man, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.120 I wonder if there's people in here that are offended 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.920 by this? Well it is, there's a real um. I mean, 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:37.840 foul language can be offensive, and the this really great 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.520 article by Rebecca roach On Aon basically posits that it's 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:46.440 offensive because when you are using foul language in front 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.920 of somebody, you know that there's a chance that it's 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:52.840 going to offend them, and you're doing it anyway. So basically, 0:17:52.920 --> 0:17:58.320 purposefully creating an atmosphere where someone probably will be offended 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.560 is the whole reason why bad language is offensive. Yeah, 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.280 it's like it's agreed upon between the two parties, Like, 0:18:07.320 --> 0:18:09.520 there are certain words that if I use in this conversation, 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:14.160 you might get offended or you might feel more included. Right, 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:17.320 And because I know that you might get offended, and 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:20.360 I'm doing it anyway, I'm saying to heck with your offense, 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:25.800 which again creates the offensiveness in the first place. It's 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:32.200 oh wow, what could you It's a dirty word. Um, well, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:34.359 I guess we should talk about social response a little bit, 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.840 because that's kind of where we're headed. But um it 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:42.320 didn't like obscenities and dirty words weren't even really looked 0:18:42.359 --> 0:18:45.080 it that way until after the eighteen hundreds. Now, there 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:49.040 were taboo words for sure, but they weren't considered dirty. 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.400 It was just taboo like don't invoke Odin's raven right. 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.680 But like, the word profanity didn't come around till the 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:58.919 nineteenth century, which is really interesting. Yeah, you know, and 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:03.680 originally profan the and blasphemy meant the same thing. They 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:07.000 both had to do with basically insulting the sacred um, 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.080 and then over time they started to diverge. Blasphemy for 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:14.280 me still means the same thing, whereas profanity now is 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:17.520 a general catch all for for what we would call 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:21.400 swear words or curse words are dirty words. Right, Even 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:25.879 though there's a in all cultures, there's a definite hierarchy. Yeah, 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:30.199 of you know, if your kid says d A M N, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.760 not the biggest deal, No, just maybe to bed without 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.119 dinner for a few nights. And if your kid is 0:19:37.160 --> 0:19:41.439 dropping F bombs, you know that it ranks or worse. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:43.960 You know, some people think the F bomb is the 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:48.679 worst thing you can do. That there, Yes, that's just 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:53.640 playing wrong. I'm sorry, at least in this day and age. Yes, Um, 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:57.399 that hierarchy you talk about seems to fall into a 0:19:57.440 --> 0:20:01.359 couple of categories. Even though have a hierarchy is universal, 0:20:01.800 --> 0:20:05.720 what is at the top of the hierarchy is not. UM. 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.040 One of the things that frequently is found at the 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.560 top of the hierarchy around the world is UM, moms 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.840 your mother. There are plenty of very different cultures around 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:22.960 the world, UM where insulting your mother, particularly either a 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:28.760 sexual act with your mother or UM bringing up your 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:34.040 person's mother's genitalia UM is the is the worst. It's 0:20:34.080 --> 0:20:36.479 the worst of the worst. Oh yeah, I remember, like 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:39.040 I said in college, when I worked at that Mexican place. 0:20:39.080 --> 0:20:42.080 We learned all the course words first, and the guys 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:43.880 in the kitchen. I was like, man, you guys talk 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.040 about each other's mom more than anything I've ever heard 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.800 in my life. It was remarkable, and that must be 0:20:50.880 --> 0:20:53.800 And I guess in Um, I guess, is Spain listed 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:57.440 or Spanish languages? Well, it's a it's Latin languages, Latin 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:00.879 based languages, so Spanish would definitely fall under that togory. Yeah, 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:07.040 but also um, I believe Mandarin, um Arabic, some Arabic 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:12.840 languages just languages around like like really disparate cultures have 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:15.919 said like leave the moms out of this. Well it 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:18.240 was also funny too because she followed up with um. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:23.199 Sometimes in Bosnia it's uh, your father, it can be 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:28.360 a really big insult or grandfather, um in Albanian your family, Turkish, 0:21:28.359 --> 0:21:32.240 your extended family. And finally Mandarin, which is your ancestors 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:36.040 to the eighteenth generation. There it is man that is 0:21:36.200 --> 0:21:42.520 the best swear on the planet. F your ancestors to 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:45.399 the eighteenth generation. I wish I knew how to pronounce this. 0:21:46.320 --> 0:21:50.000 It's just that's as good as it gets. Cow needs 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:53.600 a zong sheba dae oh you know we this is 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:57.280 available in China. Yeah good, I'm gonna learn how to 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:01.680 say that, like for real, little kids in China listen 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.240 to this. The whole classics point. I need to learn 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.400 how to say very sorry. Then gasping is universal too. 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:13.439 But speaking of swearing at work, um, supposedly swearing at 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:18.280 work makes up three of the conversation. That's what it said. 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:20.359 That sounds low to me. I saw a two thousand 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:24.320 and sixteen study that found that women curse more than 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:28.200 men at work. More women admit to cursing at work 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:33.120 then man, but frequency wise, men curse more. So if 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:37.280 the average man who curses at work is placed beside 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:39.680 the average woman who curses at work, the man's gonna 0:22:39.720 --> 0:22:42.600 curse more frequently. But if you fill the room with 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:44.840 the women who curse at work and the man who 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:49.120 curse at work, there'll be more women. Does that for explained? 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:54.120 Really confused? Well? And then apparently among millennials, sixty six 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:57.640 percent of millennials say they curse at work, and then 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:02.920 of baby boomers curse at work, which if you put 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:06.200 that together, comes out to be a hundred and twenty. 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:14.280 So that makes like zero sense. If you fooled me. Um, 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:17.280 if you're talking about the law. Depending on where you are, 0:23:17.400 --> 0:23:20.399 there may be some arcane laws on the books that 0:23:20.560 --> 0:23:24.320 prevent you from cursing in public. Um, but it's definitely 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.159 you know, we did one on free speech recently. It 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:30.480 definitely does not qualify as protected speech. It depends what 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:33.600 can Yeah, alright, So like if you're just walking down 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:36.920 the street and you say, if you pig to a cop, 0:23:37.680 --> 0:23:40.400 you're gonna get arrested, but there's a pretty good chance 0:23:40.480 --> 0:23:44.000 that your case is going to get ultimately thrown out 0:23:45.200 --> 0:23:49.160 if you, Um, if you were in Pennsylvania, you are 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:52.880 going to well, depending on the town, and you curse 0:23:52.960 --> 0:23:55.760 in public, you say, f the Steelers, Oh man, you 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:58.960 made you you you should count your lucky stars if 0:23:58.960 --> 0:24:01.639 you make it safely to jail, unless you're in Philadelphia, 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.400 well there you go. Um. Apparently in Pennsylvania they were 0:24:05.520 --> 0:24:10.200 arresting people left and right for um, well citing them, 0:24:10.240 --> 0:24:14.199 giving them citations for cursing in public, and UM, it 0:24:14.320 --> 0:24:16.080 finally got to the point where the A c L 0:24:16.160 --> 0:24:18.199 You got involved and said, what are you doing. You 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:21.240 can't do this. This is protected speech. This is curse 0:24:21.320 --> 0:24:24.960 in public, and it's a. It's a gray area. Actually, 0:24:25.040 --> 0:24:27.199 like states, there are states, like you said, that have 0:24:27.400 --> 0:24:30.520 some laws on the books, and apparently one of them 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:32.520 is Pennsylvania, and they were enforcing it, and I don't 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:35.240 know if they still are or not, but pretty recently 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:38.439 they were, um, they were giving people citations for it. 0:24:39.560 --> 0:24:43.680 And in Michigan they had a law overturned as recently 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:47.639 as two thousand two where it was illegal to cuss 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:52.119 in front of women and children. And some guy was 0:24:52.200 --> 0:24:55.719 canoeing down the Rifle River. His canoe was overturned. He 0:24:55.760 --> 0:24:59.600 was in the water cursing up storm and there were women, children, 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:05.919 elderly there. He he was arrested and um taken to jail, 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:11.680 and the Michigan Court of Appeals said, no, this is 0:25:11.680 --> 0:25:14.040 a hundred year old law. While and the guy overturned 0:25:14.040 --> 0:25:16.440