California Supreme Court on Offensive Speech

[Wilson Gray]

By Ben, quoting from _Friends_:

"... words that make your balls jump back up inside your body."

One might rephrase that as:

"... words that get / make you _up tight_." ;-)

-Wilson



On 4/20/06, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: California Supreme Court on Offensive Speech
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On 4/20/06, Baker, John <JMB at stradley.com> wrote:
> >                 9 Of course, explicit sexual references typically were
> > replaced with innuendos, imagery, similes, allusions, puns, or
> > metaphors in order to convey sexual themes in a form suitable for
> > broadcast on network television. For example, "motherfucker" was
> > replaced with "mother kisser," "testicles" with "balls," and "anal
> > sex" with "in the stern.">>
> >
> >         Can this be right?  You can't say "testicles" on network TV, but
> > "balls" is acceptable as a euphemism?
>
> The "Friends" writers did use both "mother kisser" and "in the stern",
> but both "testicles" and "balls" were apparently acceptable on the
> show...
>
> -----
> http://www.friendscafe.org/scripts/s10/1004.shtml
> 1004 - The One With The Cake
> Judy: (to Monica) I remember your first birthday! Ross was jealous of
> all the attention we were giving you. He pulled on his testicles so
> hard! We had to take him to the emergency room!
> -----
> http://www.friendscafe.org/scripts/s10/1005.shtml
> 1005 - The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits
> Phoebe: That woman at the game didn't know what she was talking about.
> Mike, obviously you have balls.
> ...
> Mike: (puts on a fake smile) Where else would lame Mr. No Balls hide it?
> -----
> http://www.friendscafe.org/scripts/s10/1015.shtml
> 1015 - The One Where Estelle Dies
> Monica: Okay, but if we don't get this house, she's stil gonna show up
> wherever we go! I mean, at least if she's here, it eliminates the
> element of suprise. I mean, never again will you have to hear the
> three words that make your balls jump back up inside your body.
> -----
>
> Notably, all of these episodes were in the tenth and final season
> (2003-04), so I guess standards had loosened up by then.
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
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