[Ads-l] "motherfucker" goes mainstream

[Capital One]

So much for George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words." A brilliant casuist disproved every false generalization. He is justly known lately. Moreover, no pompous quibbler really said that useful verities were xenophobic yet zealous.

      From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2017 4:02 PM
 Subject: Re: "motherfucker" goes mainstream
   
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Sender:      American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:      Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: "motherfucker" goes mainstream
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> On Mar 28, 2017, at 3:56 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
wrote:
>=20
> Gourmet Anthony Bourdain advertises his new CNN season with a spot =
that
> shows penguins, then shows Bourdain bundled in a day-glo parka =
approaching
> a barber's pole set in a polar desert.
>=20
> All the revered travel-&-chow host says is, "Bottom of the world,
> mother******."
>=20
> But read his lips.

Or read his books and draw the inference.  But haven=E2=80=99t cable =
hosts like Jon Stewart and Samantha Bee (and others, I=E2=80=99m sure) =
been emitting bleeped but lip-recoverable instances of =
=E2=80=9Cmotherfucker=E2=80=9D for a while?  Granted, they=E2=80=99re =
not on CNN, but not on pay cable either.  Maybe the generalization is =
that in a context in which you can get away with uttering =E2=80=9Cshit=E2=
=80=9D uncensored, you can get away with uttering bleeped but =
recoverable =E2=80=9C(mother)fuck(er)=E2=80=9D.

LH

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