Though you gotta love Letterman... another born and bred Hoosier who has escaped
I'm struck by the contrast... when we have real problems... when we've had several mass murders in the last few weeks, an economy showing signs of a recession, a dictator in Venezuela doing his best to win the "Crazy ass dictator of the decade award," and so forth... we get upset over THIS?!
Indulge me a moment, as I show why my high school nickname was "Dictionary Breath" (though in this case, maybe it should be "Etymology breath")
While we tend to conflate together "profanity" and "vulgarity" and use the former as the general purpose word, there is actually a significant and very important difference.
- Profanity is properly and accurately only used of taking the name of God (any God) in vain, invoking it in an oath or swear, etc.
- Vulgarity, on the other hand, is simply coarse or common language, most commonly referring to bodily functions involving elimination or copulation.
In English, we have the unique situation of having an entire group of words which are considered "dirty" or vulgar and another group of words which mean the exact same thing which are considered polite. This is a linguistic artifact of the Norman Conquest of England. Before then, they spoke Old English which grew out of Anglo-Saxon, a Germanic language. When the Normans assumed rule, they brought Norman French as the courtly language, which resulted in this two levels of language we still have today as the French blended with the Old English to create Middle English.So its dirty and vulgar to sh-t or say the word, but its clean and proper to defecate or speak of defecation ... even though both refer to the same activity and substance. Either way, ya gotta wipe and spray some air freshener, especially after buffalo wings or a Chicago hotdog!
I could go on and on and cite many other examples- most of the forbidden monosyllables are of Germanic origin, and they all have French equivalents in English which are considered proper. Yes, the "c- word" is of Germanic origin. Should you care, the details can be read here.
But my point isn't to demonstrate my command of linguistic arcana, its just to point out how juvenile and asinine it is that we get so worked up over words relating to bodily parts and functions... they're just WORDS people, no harm is done by their utterance. If you don't like them, don't use them (fill in the double entendre of your choice here, *grin*) but it just speaks so well to my point that we're a nation stuck in adolescence that this is even a news story!
Now, a bit of fun on the subject. This song was done in the 80s in all seriousness as an educational tool. Below the video is the description from the youtube poster, so if your panties are too tight or twisted, or you haven't had a good sh!t in a while, you probably don't want to watch the video, much less read the lyrics. So if you are p!ssed off by such things... don't watch or read... but do DO your colon a favor, and get a bit more fiber in your diet!
(And yes, I knew of this song long before the Fonda flap... I was a huge fan of Dr. Demento in the 80s!)
From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DzS_hCg6bQ
This is a version of the "Proper Words Song" aka "Down In Front" performed by Chris Wallace in the cult '80's Video "Strong Kids, Safe Kids" with added fun of having the lyrics scroll along the bottom in case you want to sing along!
Here the lyrics outside the video in case you wanted them:
Penis. Is what boys have down in front.
Penis. Is the word though it seems blunt.
All boys have a penis, so no matter what you've heard,
remember that penis, is the proper word.
Vulva. Is what girls have down below.
Vulva, when shes naked it will show.
All girls have a vulva, so no matter what you've heard,
remember that vulva, is the proper word.
Both boys and girls have breasts,
each person recognizes.
They're found upon our chests,
and grow to different sizes.
Our anus, is a useful thing indeed.
The anus, gives relief in time of need.
We all have an anus, so no matter what you've heard,
remember that anus, is the proper word.
So don't be appalled,
'cause that's what they're called,
and each of them's a proper word!
