I don't give a stuff

[Federico Escobar]

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, Paul, but a character in the now
defunct show "My Name is Earl" would always say "snap" whenever
real-worlders would say "shit."

F.



On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 1:24 PM, Paul Frank <paulfrank at post.harvard.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU>
> Subject:      I don't give a stuff
>
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>
> In the Aussie TV soap Neighbours (episode 6033 and going strong), the
> word "stuff" is used instead of "fuck" in all cases when real-world
> English speakers would say "fuck" or "fucked": I stuffed up; stuff
> you; I don't give a stuff, and so on. Is there an equivalent and
> equally versatile euphemism on American television?
>
> (In the unlikely event that you're wondering: Yes, I watch Neighbours.
> It's the only TV show I watch, and I watch it every day with my
> daughter. Is it trash? Yes. It is fun? Yes. Is it a waste of time?
> Hell no. When my mother was dying of cancer in Amsterdam many years
> ago, she got hooked on The Bold and the Beautiful. We spent her last
> few weeks together, so sometimes I ended up watching this show too. It
> used to irritate me to no end that she was wasting precious moments
> watching undiluted drivel. When I finally told her that I absolutely
> hated every minute of the The Bold and the Beautiful and suggested she
> watch something else, anything else, she said, "I'm the one who's
> dying here and if watching a silly show once a day gives me some
> pleasure in my last few days in this godforsaken planet of ours, why
> the hell shouldn't I?" Impeccable logic. I ended up enjoying quite a
> few episodes of the Bold and the Beautiful with my mom. And now I
> enjoy Neighbours with my daughter [my wife Véronique refuses to watch
> this crap]. But I digress...).
>
> So what's the American TV equivalent of "stuff" and "stuffed" with all
> its declensions and semantic permutations?
>
> Cheers,
> Paul
>
> Paul Frank
> Translator
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> Espace de l'Europe 16
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> paulfrank at bfs.admin.ch
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