Sunday 12 July 2009

Psychologists Give Red Light To Swear

As i have mentioned many times before here, i was a massive fan of the programme Buffy the Vampire Slayer and would happily argue with anyone that it was the best thing ever to appear on television. In the show were several British characters such as Spike and Wesley (actually both American but both spoke with perfect English accents), Drusilla (another American but her accent didn't fool anybody) and Giles and occasionally, to reinforce their Britishness they would swear like Brits using words that probably didn't raise any eyebrows in America but led to many 'he can't say that..' exclamations in our living room. The shows musical score composer, Thomas Wanker, also bought a few giggles from those of us with less mature senses of humour.
Now that the psychologists at Keele University have discovered that swearing is a form of pain relief, we have been given the red light to eff and jeff all we like as long as we say that it was in the act of relieving the agony of stubbing a toe, walking into a lamppost or tripping over the legs of a former Estate Agent laying destitute on the street.
It isn't very often that i pull out the big guns of swearing, preferring to stick to their softer and more acceptable cousins such as git and bugger although i do find a well timed 'bad' swearword to be very effective and in some circumstances, and from certain comedians, very funny.
There are some people who manage to cram in more swearwords than regular words into their sentences which isn't very pleasing to the ear but maybe they are constantly in pain, like having a Mariah Carey earworm because that has to be painful. I'd be swearing like a Trojan also if i got her warbling 'Without You' in my brain on a loop.
Now if only psychologists can find some way to excuse some of society's other shady areas such as men who wear their shirts outside their trousers. My hypothesis is that they are just being Thomas's.

1 comment:

Kvatch said...

My favorite was always Bill Murray's, "Mother puss-bucket!"

:-)