Maureen Rogers over at Pink Slip has an inspired post on why, at times, there is not substitute for a well-placed obscene word. I’ve talked about Why I Call Them Assholes here, but Maureen makes the best argument I’ve seen about the emotional wallop factor. Don’t miss the complete post Sugar-Honey-Ice-Tea for gems like this (Maureen is someone who can REALLY write):
The thing is, when it comes to the sheer brilliant pungency of using the impolite words, the substitutes just won’t do.
He’s acting like an anus? No way.
She’s full of excrement. Yawn.
Go have intercourse with yourself. Not quite there.
As
for asshole? To quote my dear cousin Barbara who once and only
once used the word in front of her exceedingly polite, proper, and
genuinely kind mother, my beloved Aunt Margaret, "sometimes you just
have to call an asshole an asshole."
Accept no substitutes: jerk don’t work.
Good stuff, huh? I suspect that there will be media outlets that will insist that I use the words jerks (although I was impressed to see that the Today Show labeled me as the author of "THE NO AHOLE RULE"), and yes, we have had a few media outlets turn us down because of the dirty title. But offending a certain percentage of people can be a good thing. I once heard Chris Bangle — the head of design of BMW — say that if you don’t offend about 20% of your customers and potential customers with what you do, you aren’t doing something that is interesting or creative enough. And change of any kind does not happen without making a lot of people squirm.
Leave a Reply