Redacting the D-word

[Wilson Gray]

I was able to read the cite without a problem, but I wasn't amused by
the "joke." It just wasn't funny to me. "Different strokes," as they
say. Unless it wasn't the point that the joke should be funny outside
of the world of the play.

-Wilson

On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 11:36 AM, Benjamin Zimmer
<bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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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: Redacting the D-word
>  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>  On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 10:43 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>  >
>  > The NYTimes today has a story headlined "All Those Foul Words Are
>  > Tennessee Williams's".  See
>  > http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/23/theater/23cat.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=foul+words+williams&st=nyt&oref=slogin
>  >
>  > The current production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", with James Earl
>  > Jones as Big Daddy, uses the foul words that were written into it by
>  > Williams for a 1974 revival, restoring "what he clearly meant to say
>  > all along".  They had not been used in the 1950s, because (the
>  > article says) they were too strong for the times.  After Williams
>  > died, the then-executor of Williams's estate would not allow the 1974
>  > text to be used in ensuing productions.
>  >
>  > Among other words replaced, apparently, is "ducking".
>  >
>  > One element present in a 2003 production, with Ned Beatty, Big
>  > Daddy's "so-called elephant joke", has not been used in the current
>  > production.  I wonder what it was; quick Googling doesn't find the text.
>
>  The joke is on pp. 164-5 of this edition:
>
>  http://books.google.com/books?id=c3EU9dfGo7IC&pg=PA164&sig=9Vt27v8qIEvdeD-NtAhMU8ylnyY
>
>
>  --Ben Zimmer
>
>
>
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