I really enjoyed the show.

It reminded me of being in elementary school in the early 70s. During assembly we would sing songs. One song I'll never forget was, "I Like to Teach the World to Sing" by the New Seekers. These lyrics always stood out:

I'd like to build the world a home
and furnish it with love

We kids got a kick out of singing, "furnish SH*T with love!"

Seems to me that using the term profanity to cover obscenity, scatology and profanity degrades the language.

Uh-Oh Lilly,
Your comment sounds like something the Tucson shooter, Jared Loughner said: `What is Government if Words Have No Meaning?' All words have meaning, isn't that the definition of a word? It is just a cheapening of the culture to say, as the character on this show said, that using profanity is a substitute for saying "you know what I mean?" That is absurd.

I'm not a fan of using the f word as adjective, verb, adverb ... and there are most certainly times in conversation when the term is out of place, offensive and dehumanizing (thank you, Lily). One interaction is burned into my memory - on an overnight in a sacred space I called over one young man to speak with him privately (because his behavior was becoming disruptive). As he walked toward me, he said in a brash voice 'What the f do you want, b****?' I was wearing my clerical collar and we were in a sacred space. Call me old fashioned, but that was just over the top and totally inappropriate.

It's understandable that the words themselves, when deprived of all meaning, no longer seem profane. The line is certainly crossed when words--even innocuous ones--are used to insult a person or a group of people. Dehumanizing others should still be unacceptable in society, whether it is done with racial/ethnic slurs or comparisons to, say, female dogs and prostitutes.

How did I know this character didn't have children. Childless people have such radical rigidity to their world views when they don't experience culture with anyone else in mind but themselves. Look at Youtube comments on music from the 50's,60's,70's & 80's and see the self described teenagers commenting on how superior the music of those periods are compared to their own time, today! We have not turned into a culture accepting of profanity but a culture of prurient man-boys with adolescent interests.

How did I know this character didn't have children. Childless people have such radical rigidity to their world views when they don't experience culture with anyone else in mind but themselves. Look at Youtube comments on music from the 50's,60's,70's & 80's and see the self described teenagers commenting on how superior the music of those periods are compared to their own time, today! We have not turned into a culture accepting of profanity but a culture of prurient man-boys with adolescent interests.

PS bloody and bollocks raise no eyebrows on this side of the pond, but are unacceptable language in Ireland & the UK.

Also--Bono's use of f'ing is not surprising: it's common currency in Dublin and hads pretty much lost any shock value a decade ago.

regarding the guest's example of acceptable grammar there's a backlash to all that overuse of the grammatical formation of "he and I", too. Now many people, including network news anchors and public officials, make the ignorant mistake of using "...... and I" all the time, even when the "I" is an object in the sentence, rather than the subject, in which case it should be "..... and me". That, to me, is even more upsetting than the dropping the f-bomb.

great point amy

Let's not forget Bette Davis' famous line on meeting Norman Mailer at a party, shortly after the publication of The Naked & The Dead: " So, you're the writer who doesn't know how to spell____. " (fill in the real word.)

Not related to music but a scene in the hangover movie where they are gambling by counting cards and the b.cooper character is yelling F.you and generally carrying on in an over the top way. Can u really act like that in a casino in vegas?

1. Black comedians talking "white" is probably their most common joke. It's the other way around that's become forbidden.

2. When I was a kid (70s) the N word was tossed around freely and in the worst way. Today, here in this very integrated (unlike when i was a kid) town in NJ, literally it is not used. my 10 year old doesn't know it. I am VERY HAPPY about this, consider it a major, unspoken success of our generation.

okay okay, it is principal instead of principle. i can be a bit of an idiot also..

Sorry! But cocaine is bad for you anyway, then again, so are gumdrops...

I'm not sure I have a big problem with people using curse words/phrases articulately.

However, I find that kids today don't seem to know how to modulate their language (register) based on their audience. They don't get more formal with older people, or in the workplace, etc. That's what is missing and can be very jarring at times.

Having said that I think it's stupid- I remember years ago watching the great PBS series "The Story of English" in which they said that all the dirty words like f***, p***, S*** were commonly used by the English inhabitants, the Angles and the Saxons. Then when the Normans invaded they made the words taboo and replaced them with fornicate, deficate etc in an attempt to exert control of and to suppress the natives through class. As I remember (and I may be wrong) the Normans also pushed the indigenous people into the area now known as Wales. And the name Wales is the gallic word for foreigner.

Is profanity use a substitution for lack of song writing craft, a race to the bottom? Where does this lead, pornography?

that principle was an idiot,how about "no pain" instead of "cocaine" but "gum drops"?,was he a reta....-oh never mind,thats one of the forbidden words too, oooh oooh....

This message board won't let me say f--k. WTF?

I find that as a child of the 70s I still catch myself wanting to say that something/someone is "retarded" and even worse saying "that's gay" when I said it I didn't even know what gay meant. These days it is best to always think before you speak.

why do we go after single words not after the ideas behind those words?

I'm dealing with this right now in the realm of theatre. Last week I saw the play, which the theatre marquee writes as "The Motherf**ker With The Hat." When I wanted to tell friends about having enjoyed it, I suddenly found myself stumbling over how to say it. I'd come out with "The MFer With the Hat," which initially makes no sense because neither I nor my friends use this language so it's not the first thing that comes to mind. So the focus then becomes my embarrassed repetitions until the person gets it.

re: Louie, Louie
There was an F bomb yelled in the background just before the start of the second verse ("Three nights and days me sail the sea..."). If you listen on headphones, you can clearly hear it way off-mike. So, it was not in the 'lyrics' at any speed, backwards or forwards. But, its funny thinking of the authorities scouring the lyrics and missing the bomb.

It's just so cheap and easy. It is an attempt by some lame a** trying to prove he (or she) is bad a**, trying to prove their street cred. How about being creative instead? Cee LO's song is good enough that he didn't need to do it. I think it's as good with Forget You.

I actually don't think the f-word in songs is that big of a deal. I have 2 kids (6 and 9) and I feel capable of teaching them to speak well, without using profanity, and letting them hear those words on occasion in a song or a movie. They are smart enough to understand the difference between using bad language for artistic effect as opposed to insult someone. By the way another song I like with prominent use of the f word is I'm in Love with You by Jared Even.

hey john mc-could you please tell crazy nicole gelinus [fellow manhattan institute flunky] to go f--k herself.....

Country artist Jack Ingram has this song called "Love You" in which he substitutes the word "love" for the f word, and it very cleverly works ("love you, love this town, love this mother-lovin' truck that keeps breaking lovin' down").

Personally, I got no problem with the f word, in music or otherwise.

best comment gets tickets to "The mother__ in the Hat"

In 6th grade, our end of year show included a band of some classmates and older students. They played Eric Clapton's "Cocaine", just before going onstage the principal got wind and made them change. Well the could play the song, but had to use "Gumdrops" instead....next time you hear the song, use that word...quite a laugh to this day.

Don’t forget Pearls Before Swine “(Oh Dear) Miss Morse”
If you need a morse code translation:
Chours:
Dit Dit Dah Dit (F)
Dit Dit Dah (U)
Dah Dit Dah Dit ( C)
Dah Dit Dah (k)

Chours:
Dit Dit Dah Dit
Dit Dit Dah
Dah Dit Dah Dit
Dah Dit Dah

For the linguist, what is it about the 7 dirty words that gets people going when their synonyms can be use on the radio without the FCC going nuts? At the Supreme Court's oral argument on the FCC v. Fox case, Chief Justice Roberts tried to pin the argument on the F-word being "graphic." In fact, if graphic means it paints a picture, the F-word is far less graphic than the acceptable clinical synonyms, which can really get into the detail. It seems to be an exaggerated example of taste, with the old Anglo-Saxon words being "crude," while the French or Latinate words are OK. All Things Considered talks about all the concepts and things, usually with an advisory, so it isn't the concepts or things, it's just the words. Why?

Dig this from the early fifties:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oKGc9xK2uU

My dear adorable and talented fingerstyle performer friend Carla Ulbrich has the best take on it: "If I Had The Copyright On The Word F**k"

http://www.carlau.com/music-40.html

Without restrictions shaping art we wouldn't have that classic tune 'Shaving Cream'. Need anyone say more?

On Harry Nilson's "Son Of Schmilson" album, the song "You're Breaking My Heart" . . . you're tearing it apart . . . so f**k you. And, that's exactly how WNEW-FM edited for airplay . . . in perfect time, you could hear the f, a beep, and the k. I was driving in my car when I first heard it and immediately made a U-turn and headed for the closest record store.

What year is it? Pareles is just realizing that the *F* word has shock value? No longer.

What bothers me about it is that songwriters aren't clever anymore. Even Heavy Metal artists used to be able to employ metaphor in their lyrics. Now, it's just blatant, in your face and BORING!

Don’t forget Pearls Before Swine “(Oh Dear) Miss Morse”

"(Oh Dear) Miss Morse"
By Tom Rapp

Oh Dear, Miss Morse,
I want you,
Oh yes, I do,
I want you.

Chours:
Dit Dit Dah Dit
Dit Dit Dah
Dah Dit Dah Dit
Dah Dit Dah

I just want to state that sometimes cutting out the f word on a recording can make it sound even more crass. I heard the "clean" version of Kanye's Monster before hearing the "real" one. I honestly thought he was singing "“I’m a-need to see ya pee ya pants at the concert."

I almost forgot about it, until I read John Schaefer's blog post.

to stephanie from westchester- a lot of girls think they have a right to a boys body these days. we don't like talking about this,it is not, gender code p.c., but the imposition of sexual will and desire, on someone else, is not a one way street,my dear. it ain't, 'ozzy and harriet' no more,in case you've not noticed.

"lets move before they raise the f**king rent" remember the group, 'free', wayback when-'all right now'......

how about imagined profanity,or imagined "lewd" imagery [ie louie louie]. or profanity in the service of certain political ideas vs. others. not all f-bomb are created or treated equally. i do think that the gratuitous and silly over use of the word today,has made it lose its power and bite. anyone who uses it in speech from moment to moment, generally has a toilet bowl vocabulary,and a pe[e] pod brain. i don't need it in music at this time,it's just such an infantile contrivance at this point.

I had no idea that the "tonight" song was Enrique Inglesias. I assumed it was some one-hit club/latino-ish hip hop wonder to be forgotten in a year and only remembered on compliations advertised on television for people who still buy CD's. I am stunned.

Is Indie rock to blame for this sudden acceptance of the word? After all, take the following bands getting attention over the last few years:
Holy Bleep (promoted by Rachel Ray!?), Bleeped Up, James Bleepin Freedman, Bleep Buttons, Bleeping Eagles, Bleeping Champs...

Thanks guys for covering the "F" phenomenon. As a parent of twin 13 year olds and a 10 year old who are addicted to z100 this issue is all too present in our household and car. As much as we try to teach them that it is inappropriate language, the ever present use of it either explicitly in lyrics, alternate versions that barely hide it, and on cable make this an almost impossible task. We have discussed how CeeLo Green's version is kind of funny since that isn't a usual response to losing a girlfriend (contrast Bruno Mars incessant whining about women) and certainly not used with that retro sound but Enrique's song is just crude. Try explaining THAT scenario to your kids. Let's see, you go to a club, you meet a nice looking woman and you say to her, "tonight I'm F'g you"?????? Wow. Now that's a great lesson in behavior for boys. Unfortunately, by the constant use of the word in pop music, we are giving it an everyday legitimacy it shouldn't have. I know there are bigger issues with teens than this, but this is still part of teaching them how to behave properly in the real world. Let me add as well that Rihanna's catchy S&M is equally without any purpose (other than toughening her image) and engenders another interesting conversation with young teens. It almost makes the F word conversation easy! What's a music-loving parent to do?