More bad words

In the early seventies comic George Carlin would list in his act "seven words you can never say on television." The very riff led to a Supreme Court decision which helped establish indecency standards in American broadcasting.

35 years later some of Carlin's seven words look tame, but one -- "cunt" -- still jumps out as highly taboo. At least on this side of the Atlantic.

This morning Jane Fonda, ever the in-your-face revolutionary, shocked millions by dropping an uncensored and completely casual "cunt" on NBC's Today Show during a discussion of her rationale behind doing the play The Vagina Monologues.

Fonda hasn't been the only one getting salty with descriptions of female anatomy. Earlier this week Mark Halperin, a senior political analyst for Time Magazine and ABC News, used the word "pussy" (not one of Carlin's seven) when describing on a satellite radio show what John Edwards thinks of Barack Obama -- and why Edwards might buck current trends and throw his support behind Hillary Clinton.

Last night Halperin apologized for his language, while strongly implying it was his zest for reporting Edwards's words accurately which led him astray.

If this is true, wow. It's one thing to be pimped out by Hillary Clinton, but to be called a pussy by John "I can't go anywhere without my compact and hairbrush" Edwards?

I wonder what Edwards would have said if he knew the word "cunt" had become available?

When bad words go vague

So David Shuster is still suspended for suggesting Hillary was pimping out Chelsea and, while I still see the inappropriateness, I think Hillary's campaign has over-reacted -- even implying Shuster should be fired.

As I mentioned on Friday, I have become so desensitized to pimp and its derivations I may not have immediately recognized what Shuster said as wrong for the airwaves. But there are a few words that those born in the 80s and 90s use regularly -- and without self-consciousness or fear of rebuke -- that are still quite jarring to my vintage 1970's ears.

The first word is "gay." Don't get me wrong, "gay" was about the first schoolyard slur I ever learned. But the way it was used back then was just as that, and to imply that a male was a wuss, or that he had sex with other men, and everything else an unenlightened eight-year old would think comes in between.

These days the kids use "gay" as a casual term of general dislike. It doesn't even have to be directed at a person. Two teenage girls could be discussing whether or not to go to the mall, and one might dismiss the idea as "gay." And this would have nothing to with the mall being filled with homosexuals, or males who acted effeminately and/or were unwilling to participate in daring behavior. In fact, the term gay has become so vague it would be unclear if the teenage girl was expressing her disapproval for the mall, or for the idea of going to the mall. Some will argue that, in a sense, "gay" has been liberated from being a slur against homosexuals, perceived or otherwise. But I suspect it is often still used that exact way. Which actually turns it into a kind of super insulting, super slur.

The other word that throws me -- even more so -- is "retard," which along with "retarded," comes out of the mouths of those under 25 with stunning ubiquity. Not only was I taught growing up you don't use those two words in polite conversation -- even when discussing a severely learning disabled person -- but you rarely heard them in less polite conversation. Yet these days "retard" is frequently used as a way of calling someone stupid. And "retarded," like gay, has become a general term of dislike, as well as a dysphemism for getting high.

I'm just waiting for a young TV reporter or personality to declare that prejudice is "gay" or intolerance "retarded."

A whole different spin on a bad word

In 2006 dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster opened their "Word Of The Year" contest to on-line voters. This led to "truthiness" being chosen. I had no problem with that. The word Stephen Colbert seemingly invented had actually been listed in a few older dictionaries as derivation of "truthy" and, furthermore, Colbert's reintroduction of truthiness really caught on with the public.

It turns out that was just a fluke intersection between prudence and the Internet nut brigade that usually beats unscientific and highly ridiculous results into on-line polls. (Yes, Ron Paul supporters, I mean you.) And this year "w00t" was elected word of the year.

Some of you might remember "woot" from 1990's Pretty Woman, in which Julia Roberts' hooker with a heart of gold character shouts out "woot, woot" during a polo match, disturbing the sensibilities of the upper crust crowd. Others may remember, from the same time period, a popular hip hop tune with a chorus that enthusiastically chanted "woot there it is" over and over again.

Well that musical memory, which I must confess to subscribing to myself, would be slightly off, as the actual interjection in the Tag Team hit is "whoomp," as in Whoomp! (There It Is).

But none of that really matters because the word just elected word of the year isn't "woot," it's "w00t." Yes, those are zeros, not the letter o. Meaning this vowel-less keyboard smashup that on-line gamers apparently taunt each other with doesn't even reach the basic being-a-word qualification of pronounceability.

This would be like if next November the American people elected Lake Erie or normative isomorphism president.

Which is probably isn't too far off from what would happen if we ever held a presidential election on-line.

More fun, my hiney

The New Oxford American Dictionary has declared "carbon neutral" the word (or words) of 2006. The dictionary defines carbon neutral as calculating your total climate-damaging carbon emissions and reducing them where possible.

Carbon neutral is "more than a trend it's a movement," gushes New Oxford. It will be included in their 2007 edition.

They also tap another "movement," "islamofacism," as one of their runner-up words. For better or worse islamofacism (as islamofacism and islamo-facism) is a more commonly used word than "carbon neutral." But it isn't really surprising the dictionary went with the PC pick.

Other runner-ups include "dwarf planet," a word created when Pluto was kicked from the planetary big-boy table, and "elbow bump," which is how the germ-conscious World Health Organization recommends the human beings greet each other. Of all the runner-up words "elbow bump" is the least likely to ever be elevated to word of the year. Or to be spoken by an actual human being.

My favorite runner-up word was "funner." I've been lobbying for its inclusion since I was five years old.