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The other F-word

Posted by David FG on May 02, 2006

In Reply to: The other F-word posted by ESC on May 01, 2006

: Last night (April 31, 2006) I had CNN on as background noise. Imagine my surprise when I heard the commentator say that something would "go over" "like a f*rt in church." Since when did it become OK to use the other F-word on television?

: I doubted my hearing. Maybe she said "art in church." But I googled and found several instances of the phrase being quoted on CNN -- "fart in church" cnn. I am appalled. Simply appalled.

:

I am frequently surprised by the puritanism of the Americans. 'Fart' would be totally unexceptionable this side of the Atlantic. Indeed, after the so-called watershed, when viewers are deemed to be adult, there are no words which are not allowed: though some are less frequent than others. Radio has no watershed, and the talk station, BBC Radio 4 (which has much comedy and serious drama) sometimes broadcasts programmes with 'bad' language at any time of the day.

'Fart' and the like are considered extremely mild forms of oath and would not even (I am sure) be noticed over here.

I don't wish to be insulting, but British broadcasters treat viewers/listeners as mature adults who won't fall to pieces if they hear a 'rude' word or two.

DFG

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