OT: No, I'm not funning with Wilson

[Wilson Gray]

Ain't dat a bitch, G? Because the fact that I fully understood your
question is precisely what made me feel that you were just having fun
with me! I tend to forget that our individual experiences of life are
*individual*! My thought was that, given that you know as much about
this question as I do, your asking it of me is some joke whose point
evades me.

IAC, this is merely an extension of that "bad means good" thing. A man
who would rape his own mother - since mothers are stereotypically
good, she naturally wouldn't be cooperating in this despicable act -
is as morally bad as you can get. Therefore, something that's a
motherfucker is among the best, if not *the* best, that there is.

Of course, it all depends upon context, since the words retain their
full negative import. If I say,

"Damn, G! That's a *motherfucker*!"

are we discussing the fact that Oxford is granting you an honorary
doctorate? Or are we discussing the fact that a member of your family
has been killed as the result of friendly fire in Iran? Of course, I
wouldn't react with those words in either case, being too boojie for
that kind of out-of-social-context crudity, but my point is clear.

OT. There was a TV ad for Jeopardy in which there's a white guy
dressed in a costume that resembles an alphabet-block "G" and a black
guy dressed in a kind of elongated alphabet block with the word
"MONEY" on it. As they fall into step, the white guy rhetorically asks
something like, "Hiya doin', Money?" and the black guy rhetorically
asks in reply, "What up, G [= 'gangsta']?"

What up, G?
-Money


On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard<gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â OT: No, Â I'm not funning with Wilson
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This is 99% off-topic. --- Wilson is certain I'm funning with him, and =
> the more I assure him I'm not, the more  certain he is that I am.  I was =
> merely intrigued by his use (and not just his, of course) of the term =
> "muthafukka" to indicate something truly excellent. Â And in all =
> seriousness I was wondering how this semantic development occurred.
> =20
> Â  Â Anyway (and this is the OT) part. Â I've been told I bear some =
> resemblance to Woody Allen, and for a while I wore glasses which by =
> chance were identical to his. Â In 1992 I was walking along 59th Street =
> in NYC (this was about the time that the Woody Allen and Soon-Yi scandal =
> was  getting a big play in the newspapers), and a park attendant coming =
> from the other direction saw me and said (absolutely no joking here): =
> "Woody Allen, get the hell out of here." Â I just walked on without =
> saying anything.
> =20
> Â  Â On a lighter note in this vein, every morning I bought the NY Times =
> at the corner newspaper stand on 57th Street, and the fellow who worked =
> there was certain that I was Woody Allen. Â And the more I told him I =
> wasn't, the more certain he was that I was joshing him. Â This went on =
> every day for several months.
> =20
> Â  Â So one of the lessons I've learned in life is that when someone is =
> certain he's being joshed, denials will be taken as additional evidence =
> that joshing really is going on. Â So to Wilson (aka W., aka "Money"--and =
> Wilson is free to explain how he got this nickname), I say: Â Okay, I =
> really was funning with you.
> =20
> Â  Â (But actually I wasn't).
> =20
> G. =20
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Wilson Gray
> Sent: Sat 6/27/2009 1:05 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Jenny Agutter (was went walkabout ) (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>
> Admit it, G. You're funning with me!
>
> -W
>
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 11:37 AM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard<gcohen at mst.edu> =
> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
>> Subject: Â Re: Jenny Agutter (was went walkabout ) (UNCLASSIFIED)
>> =
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> No I wasn't messing with Wilson. Â I was just wondering how the French =
> =3D
>> term he used could have acquired the meaning "something really =3D
>> excellent." I know that Wilson didn't invent the term or its varied =
> =3D
>> usage.
>> =3D20
>> Anyway, please consider my question merely musing. =3D20
>> =3D20
>> G.
>>
>> ________________________________
>>
>> Message from Wilson Gray, Thu 6/25/2009 9:02 PM
>>
>> G, I don't think that total command of the dialect is required. Of
>> course, I could very well be leaping to an unwarranted conclusion. You
>> never know. Or are you just messing with me?
>>
>> <snip>
>>
>> -Wilson
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard<gcohen at mst.edu> =
> =3D
>> wrote:
>>>=3D20
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> =
> wrote:
>>>
>>> =3DC2 <snip>
>>> =3DC2 That movie is - if y'all will pahdn ma Fraynch - a muthafukka!
>>
>>> And how does this French term describe something favorable?
>>>
>>> Gerald Cohen
>>>
>>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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