Tuesday, August 10, 2004
swearwords
swearwords: n. word considered obscene or blasphemous.when angry, count four. when very angry, swear - mark twain
strange. i've never hesitated to count till four before swearing. my first swear word was fuck and i was eight then. my mom chased me round the house with a cane and i didn't utter the word until my late teens. in fact, i never knew i was a swearer until my ex art directors imitated my identifiable form of swearing: FUCK. i cursed alot when i was a suit. advertising makes you short tempered. in fact, it made you nasty.
in the creative department i say fuck. in the media corner, i say "ta ma de". fortunately, i had very civil workmates in the production and studio departments (fairly unusual i should say). in the accounts deparment, i DO NOT swear at all cos i'm always late in submitting claims. so, i guess i'm bilingual after all. i can curse in malay too (of which i learnt from my previous account director who swore at EVERYTHING).
it was kinda hilarious looking back cos i'm pretty sure my tow kay GM would be mortified to discover this crude side of his sweet demure suits. but that's also cos he's never been subjected to the silly whims and fancies and worse yet, stupidity of certain clients. then again, i had a cool client who cursed more than i did. he says fuck more often than not but in a sociable way.
for instance
to express dismay (fuck...downward inflection)
to express joy (fuck! brightly)
to express anger (FUCK! show finger)
to express surprise (fuck...ala "no shit" lean backwards, slow and steady with deep breaths)
fuck is the universal word for swearing. we've even created hand gestures in case we cannot hear the swearing. eg, when u're in the car and wanna curse the moron who almost scratched the paint off your sides. what do you do? give him the middle finger. or slam your fist into your palm. or if u're still ladylike in that situation, simply use a v- shaped peace gesture but flash it with the back of your hand facing the receiver. you can use the word or gesture any where in the world and still be understood (and punched in the face). isn't it simply amazing? Its global yet local.
i used to and still wonder about the person who first coined the word fuck. how did he or she create such a significant word that could release our daily frustrations and anger? how fascinating it would be coining swearwords as a career. maybe retired or jaded copywriters should experiment with that. i think they'll have plenty of unleased potential. till then, i'm mighty happy swearing fuck.
bee wrote this at 9:36 PM
