A few years ago I saw a comedian named Stephen Hughes, (he's an Aussie but I didn't hold that against him.) this was at a festival, during the day and there were quite a few children watching. He started the gig by drawing attention to the young audience and saying "I don't usually get many kids at my shows... maybe because I say 'Cunt' a lot...". Some in the audience gasped but most, (including me) roared with laughter. That set the tone for the show, the theme of which was 'Offence is relative', what offends one person won't necessarily offend someone else. Stephen Hughes didn't offend me at all that day, he was hilarious and absolutely correct.
The other day I had a couple of bottles of beer and whilst I was in this enlightened frame of mind a picture of Ricky Gervais appeared on my Facebook wall with the caption "Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right". Now I agree with this statement but I find RG smug, irritating and just not funny. Normally I would delete something like this but maybe because I'd been drinking? I decided to comment with "Just because you're rich doesn't mean you're not a cunt". I thought this was ironic and funny and a few people seemed to agree with me. However a few others didn't, ironically they took offence to my use of 'cunt'.
My use of such vulgarity gave one poster an excuse to take the moral and intellectual high ground. My use of that naughty little word obviously means I'm ignorant and have a poor vocabulary, I've been prejudged! It didn't cross these peoples minds that after reviewing several options I carefully selected that word for effect.
I have to confess that I do like to push the boundaries of offence but then so does many of the things I enjoy; music, literature, art I suppose? I'm not offended by a word, without context it means nothing. I'm not offended by sex, swearing, drugs and violence on TV but I am offended by TOWIE, boy bands and David Cameron.
Try this quiz, I only scored 58/70 so I must practice more.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/how-sweary-are-you?utm_term=.nxBBgnzEV1#.nfXvO46ZMg
The other day I had a couple of bottles of beer and whilst I was in this enlightened frame of mind a picture of Ricky Gervais appeared on my Facebook wall with the caption "Just because you're offended doesn't mean you're right". Now I agree with this statement but I find RG smug, irritating and just not funny. Normally I would delete something like this but maybe because I'd been drinking? I decided to comment with "Just because you're rich doesn't mean you're not a cunt". I thought this was ironic and funny and a few people seemed to agree with me. However a few others didn't, ironically they took offence to my use of 'cunt'.
My use of such vulgarity gave one poster an excuse to take the moral and intellectual high ground. My use of that naughty little word obviously means I'm ignorant and have a poor vocabulary, I've been prejudged! It didn't cross these peoples minds that after reviewing several options I carefully selected that word for effect.
I have to confess that I do like to push the boundaries of offence but then so does many of the things I enjoy; music, literature, art I suppose? I'm not offended by a word, without context it means nothing. I'm not offended by sex, swearing, drugs and violence on TV but I am offended by TOWIE, boy bands and David Cameron.
Try this quiz, I only scored 58/70 so I must practice more.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/how-sweary-are-you?utm_term=.nxBBgnzEV1#.nfXvO46ZMg
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