Offensive

I have a pretty high tolerance for 'offensive' behavior and speech. I'm a huge proponent of people speaking their minds and letting their thoughts and ideas come out no matter how vile or repugnant you take them.

This is why when I stumble on a new, 'extremely offensive' word, I get all giddy and laugh at how people take things a little too seriously.

Today's word? Twatwaffle. Oh yeah. Let that roll around your jaw for a bit. Isn't it awesome?

I'll be honest, I'm not the offending type. I'm not an asshole, I'm not House MD, I'm not the jackass "Computer Guy" you may know, I don't think I would ever say anything that would deliberately offend anyone. I keep my bad language to myself and my friends.

But people's reaction to offensive material is very interesting to me.

True Story:

I'm a big movie fan. Now this has been dampened in the past few years due to the wife and kids, but that's okay. Point is, in BK times (Before Kids) I went to movies all of the time. Weekends I would see 2-3 or more. I'm not too proud (or embarrassed) to see a flick by myself. What do I care? I'm there for the flick and I don't like talking during a movie anyway.

So there I was, watching American Beauty, which would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Screenplay (deservedly so). A truly amazing flick, wonderful script and characters and situations.

Then, in the middle of it, someone drops the C-bomb.

"Cunt!" one character says to another.

And from behind me, an older couple immediately stands up and simply leaves the theater.

And all I could think was...What? From that? You were okay with the fucks and the goddamns and the sex in the hotel as the wife is cheating on her husband, but the C-word gets you up and out?

Did it push too far? Was it good that they left before the man-on-man kiss happened? I mean, damn, they could have thrown up on me or something had they not gotten out while they still had their dignity.

I don't know. Probably don't want to know. Just another social enigma, a social sensitivity that is cranked up far too high for my mere soul.

I'm not a fan of word jail and I'm a fan of speaking my mind. Quentin Tarantino broke out of word jail with his films and their judicious use of the word "Nigger," which (unfortunately) rips our racial fabric along each seam. People seem to violently react to those two syllables, regardless of their tone and their meaning. The real irony is that it word jail makes saying the words more fun, not less.

It's insipiring to me that language and nudity are seen as no big thing to Europeans, while it's depressing when we Americans spot the brown area of the areola on CSI and we're on the phone with our congressman.

So after twelve years we've finally made some headway into progressive thinking in Washington. Hopefully in the future there won't be some wayward nipple to distract people from the real, scary issues, and a few bad words won't cause networks to shutdown or pay hundreds of thousands of dollars thanks to a few syllables running together.

But, you know, that's the hope.

The time is near
To come forward with whatever killed your spark