Friday, June 20, 2008

I'm Dreaming of a New MSM

Swiped from the Evolutionary Middleman:

(alt. video link)

Posted by bjkeefe at 2:48 PM
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh, nice. For some reason I find it 10x more shocking when Americans say the c word than when Brits/Aussies/Kiwis say it.

Y'all are usually so polite; relatively speaking of course...

6:46 AM, June 21, 2008
bjkeefe said...

I do know that cunt is less verboten in other English-speaking countries than in the US. Weird how that works.

I remember long ago that the adjective bloody was considered a swear word on par with, say, fucking, or so I was told by British kids I was hanging out with. Is this still true, do you know? And is it, or was it, as bad a word for Aussies and Kiwis to say?

3:32 PM, June 21, 2008
Sherry Sea from Austin said...

Thanks for passing on, Mr. Keefe. This was too funny.

In response to what Alastair said, it's less shocking when Aussies say the c-word because Aussies say it all the time. Or maybe that's a false impression I get from my husband, who spent some time on oil rigs with Aussies, who, as far he could make out, said "Some cunt" whenever you or I would say "Someone".

4:32 PM, June 23, 2008
Anonymous said...

Sherry, I'm sure that the population of an oil rig from any given nation is not representative of that country's population at large, but noneless there is some truth to what you're saying.

In a similar manner it can be a bit disconcerting to visit America in person, after a lifetime of consuming American cultural exports such as movies and tv shows, only to find out that not everyone is slim/funny, ethnically inclusive, wealthy, and with a good set of teeth.

Getting back to the oil rig, it should be acknowledged that there is a large section of the Australian population that is in the habit of using "cunt" as a speech marker, at least when they're not using some variant of "fuck" instead. Similarly there is a large section of society who would feel slightly awkward, if not downright offended, at the mention of either of these words (although both can now be heard on free-to-air TV broadcasts with surprising regularity).

Brendan, I don't know about the past, but these days using "bloody" is barely even regarded as swearing. I mean there was a recent Victorian government ad campaign with the straightforward messsage "drink and drive, you're a bloody idiot". Australians are nothing if not direct...

Although come to think of it, the phrase "where the bloody hell are you?" did cause some hand-wringing as to how it might be received, as it was a slogan advertising Australian tourism to the UK market (and elsewhere perhaps?). The perceived problem was that it might offend the delicate Poms (although it didn't, in the end).

Thinking back to my childhood, I can't remember "bloody" ever being regarded on the same level as "fucking". The former was liable to be heard on television, but definitely not the latter.

So I dunno, maybe this is one of the many blink-and-you-miss-it differences between Aussies, Kiwis and Poms? For example, I think Poms are, or were, a lot more likely to use "bleedin'" instead of "bloody", but whether this was out of politeness or some other reason I have no idea.

11:43 PM, July 01, 2008
bjkeefe said...

Alastair:

Thanks for the follow-up.

I did always have the impression that you Aussies spoke more directly and plainly than your erstwhile colonial overlords.

Sherry:

What brought you by this site, if you don't mind my asking?

10:29 AM, July 02, 2008

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