So am I an old fuddy-duddy now?

[LovebirdsFlying]

Maybe I always was. My mother was calling me one of those when I was as young as nine or ten years old.

I realize certain words don't have the same impact on the younger generation that they did on us when we were growing up. Those words lose their punch when they get used often enough. I'm sure its a generational thing. I remember that to my grandfather, "crap" and "guts" were rude vulgarities that shouldn't be said on family television. Oh, if he could hear some of the words that are being flung around now....

The younger set in our household--a daughter not quite thirty, a nephew in college, and an eighteen-year-old honorary granddaughter about to come and stay with us for a few months--seem to enjoy television shows that feature a lot of profanity. I mean as many as three or four f-bombs within the space of a minute, and it's just casual conversation, not some high-drama fight. My daughter and nephew watch those shows in their rooms where I can't hear it, but honorary granddaughter isn't going to have a "room." We're going to have to section off part of the living room to make her space. The solution is probably to ask her to use headphones when she's watching videos on her electronics, but I'm starting this thread because I want to vent about something else other than just the crude language.

It's the entire concept of insult humor, and/or pranks, and/or arguments played for laughs. I just don't get it. Maybe it's having grown up in a severely dysfunctional family, but what's so doggone funny about listening to people fuss and yell and put each other down? One bit of dialog I just heard a few minutes ago, I've also heard in real life. "Get out of my business!" -- "You ain't got no business!" If this were between a parent and a child, the parent would most likely answer, "What you do is my business," but this is two people of equal station in life talking to each other. When I heard that exchange in real life, it was between two clients of the same social services program. "How can I possibly be getting in your business? You've got no business for me to get into." What does that even mean? I take it as, "You don't matter. You're too young, too poor, too stupid or whatever to reasonably expect privacy. Your boundaries don't count, and I'll cross them all I want to."

To the younger set, this is "entertainment." It isn't what my husband or I would choose, although I don't think it would bother him as much as it does me.

Is that kind of thing divided across generational lines at your house? Do the younger people find it funny while the older people find it disgusting?

 

[bluegreysky]

I don't like too much swearing or gross stuff like gore and puke either.
It really depends on the storyline and the acting though.... I will occasionally watch a movie that has lots of violence or swearing or some sex because I like the story or the actors.
It's not that I love swearing. You take the good with the bad I guess.
I saw "Southpaw" in July, which is about a pro MMA fighter so lots of that kind of stuff.
I saw it because I like Jake Gylenhaal, the star of the movie.

 

[annafullofgrace]

I'm 35 and I find that stuff distasteful. So does my husband. It didn't bother us as much when we were in our early 20's and late teens, or maybe we just didn't notice it so much. I dunno. Now, it just seems unnecessary and people looking for attention.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I'm more and more finding myself not wanting to see movies with alot of swearing. If a movie needs the F word said 100 times then I don't want to see it. For example I loved the movie The Rock (with Nic Cage and Sean Connery). But watching it now I can't stand all the swearing. In the new avengers the S word was used near the beginning. It was a bit off putting since I didn't think they would try to cross into that territory. Guts? I don't mind. I watch Walking Dead, Dexter....etc. Though I won't watch horror/slasher movies because its guts for no real reason other then shock value. After seeing real life "guts" online the hollywood stuff never makes me feel sick. Do I think guts, swearing...etc need to be in a movie to make a good movie? Of course not. I'd prefer more movies had G/PG ratings. Pranks I don't mind as long as it isn't hurting someone/something (like a cat) in a bad way.

It does all have alot to do with how you were raised, even when but only to some degree. My grandfather liked the three stooges. My dad did. I do. Where as I know someone my grandfathers age who didn't care for them. And their daughter (my dads age) says they are horrible and disturbing. Even things like the old Loony toons she finds horrible. Though as time goes on with technology, newer generations seem to find less and less distasteful. There was a 7 year old whos dying of cancer whos wish was to survive a "zombie outbreak". So local cops gave him a toy gun and helped hunt down zombies with him. The zombies being locals who had scary zombie make up on. This kid LOVES Walking Dead tv show. Really?!? Why is a 7 year old watching Walking Dead? Even if my kid was 17 I wouldn't let him watch it unless I was sure he was matured enough.

 

[LovebirdsFlying]

I'm not a prude about swearing. In fact I'm actually pretty liberal-minded about some words. I wouldn't use them in front of someone who would be offended, or where it's against the rules such as on CF, but I don't have a problem with those words myself. As long as they don't take the name of the Lord in vain, or directly insult a person or group of people, I don't mind it. Why is one word proper and correct just because its etymology is Latin, and another word for the same thing is considered profane and vulgar because it comes through the Anglo-Saxon? I can't make a Biblical case against blunt terms for biological functions BUT it will definitely start disgusting me if someone overdoes it. I don't understand using a word that sends "anger" signals, when you're not angry.

What really stirs me up is the insult humor. That, I just never did find funny. I grew up in the 1970's, when it was all over the television, but I never did see what was so hilarious about Fred Sanford calling Lamont "you big dummy" while Esther is calling Fred "you old fish-eyed fool." I certainly wouldn't have needed to turn on the television to hear people demeaning and disrespecting each other.

 

[counJS]

My son likes to watch youtube a lot and there are a lot of videos on there that insult other people or are vulgar. I would use it as a teaching time, to get a conversation with them started about why they think it is funny and if they think it is still funny if they are the object of the joke. Maybe you can provoke some thought on it.

 

[Dave-W]

What really stirs me up is the insult humor. That, I just never did find funny. I grew up in the 1970's, when it was all over the television, but I never did see what was so hilarious about Fred Sanford calling Lamont "you big dummy" while Esther is calling Fred "you old fish-eyed fool." I certainly wouldn't have needed to turn on the television to hear people demeaning and disrespecting each other.

And nobody did it better than William Shakespeare back in the turn of the 17th century.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I watch some youtubers who swear alot when they play games. I don't mind as long as it isn't super overboard. Though I don't watch ones who tend to use Gods name in vain every other sentence. Their swearing isn't affecting me so for me its ok. Though as said I've cut back on how much I will put up with.

 

[Messy]

Insult humor is totally funny. Don't watch television but irl sooo funny. It's men humor. It's only funny if the other thinks it's funny.
At the office it goes on and on. It's a way of showing you like someone.
It is Dutch humor. Insulting with a bit of truth in it, but it's meant totally friendly.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

Thats a good point. Men and women often differ on what they find funny. For example we recently were at a friends house. We watched a video compilation of funny cat videos. Like when a cat is curious about a fish tank, then accidently falls in and jumps out all wet and runs away. Well in the videos there were a few of a cats trying to jump onto something but failing and either falling or just clinging on then letting go (rather short falls). Myself and the other guys, even my parents found it hilarious. But the wife of our friend said "Oh thats so terrible, thats not funny at all! Those poor cats!". Maybe its because she didn't understand cats fall on their feet and usually don't take damage from falls, especially short ones. But none the less to her it was offensive.

Someone we know on FB wants to do a prank on their wife who just had a baby a few weeks ago. He wants her to walk in the room and as she does he will drop a "fake" doll baby on the floor (like it fell from his arms) and be like "OH NO!!!". To me thats obviously not funny. I think to most that isn't funny. Its not only offensive but its destructive to a new mother. May be a prank but no one would do that to their wife.

 

[LovebirdsFlying]

What's even worse is when the target of the prank gets upset, and that only makes the perpetrator laugh harder because that's exactly what the perpetrator wants. I once saw a prank video where the boyfriend is telling the girlfriend to close her eyes and stick out her tongue, leading her to expect he's giving her some kind of sweet treat. Instead, he snaps a mouse trap on her tongue. She's hurt and angry and saying "I hate you," but the more she cries, the more he laughs. He finds her pain amusing. To me that's not funny, and it's definitely not love. It's sadistic. I have to wonder how long she stayed his girlfriend after that. It would be an instant deal-breaker to me.

There is an America's Next Top Model video posted on YouTube that shows a model falling a couple of times during her strut. It always struck me as funny, but then someone told me she had actually hurt herself. The video didn't show that. I didn't think it was funny after finding that out.

 

[LovebirdsFlying]

PS. I would have laughed at the cat videos, and I love cats. As long as they didn't get hurt.

 

[Messy]

I wouldn't watch that stuff. Awful. That is not funny.

 

[Kol]

Men can get rough around their friends sometimes, and its from our need to assert and try our confidence. I've noticed that streak in some assertive females too.

Foul language is mostly for teenagers I think. It shows a loss or lack of control. If I read aloud I feel stupid reading curse words but only because it seems stupid to me.

Completely understand your feelings though, Love bird.

 

[akmom]

I don't like that line of humor either. I'm 31. Neither does my husband nor our co-workers and friends. This conversation has come up before. Honestly, I don't know who watches that stuff. Cheap filler programming, I guess.

 

[heatedmonk]

If it's fuddy duddy I'm all for it. Television and movies now aren't what they use to be. Television especially. It's either full of evil, voyeurism, as in so called reality shows, or stupidity. Like, "Two and a Half Men". Lord, please! How low can Ashton Kutcher go? And after Charlie Sheen!

Notice how programming now is exploiting the occult more and more? That or stupidity , as in so called comedy that's at kindergarten level, or voyeurism. Where it's all drama,drama, drama. Now, I saw the other day there's a show called WAGS. Wives and Girlfriends of Sports stars. I like sports but I don't think I'd like my lady acting like that.

I saw a sticker the other day on a minivan. KILL YOUR TELEVISION BEFORE IT KILLS YOU. There was a picture of a brain with a TV sticking through it.


Someone's awake. It reminded me of that Carpenter classic, They Live. Great movie.

 

[DaisyDay]

I think it's a matter of personal taste. There's stuff from the Roman times that's utterly vulgar that a lot of people would find hi-larious today. When I was a child I totally hated the Three Stooges, but I have a little more appreciation now (but yuck). But I think Buster Keaton's physical humor is brilliant - it's not messy or mean. I don't like mean humor.

As for language, it really depends on the situation. I don't like vulgar language played for shock-laffs like when little kids or old ladies are inappropriate - especially little kids.

That said, I was once listening to a movie my husband was watching and it was just awful - f this and f that. But when I saw the movie myself, I didn't notice because it was appropriate to the action. It's one of my all time favorite movies now - Trespass.