I love dirty words.  Nothing can convey raw emotion and add meaning like throwing a few fucks or shits into the conversation. (For fuck’s sake, I wrote a whole blog on Never enough fucks).

And cussing is good for you. It can make you stronger. And make you smarter.  Our brains store these words in a different place.  When we cuss, a different part of the brain lights up.  Some people with brain damage lose other language, but can still cuss. Fucking good for them.

Most dirty words are just bullshit anyway.  It’s sex or body parts or blasphemy.  For sex and body parts we have “polite words” to cover them up — poop is fine, but shit is shit. And since all religion is bullshit and dangerous, blasphemy should be encouraged amongst the old and young alike — god damn it.

But my dirty word list doesn’t include racial slurs.  Sure they can be a little funny and many have lost their power over time.  When was the last time you got in a fight for calling someone a “Dirty Hun” or a “Dumb Mick”?

Sadly many slurs haven’t lost their power.  It’s only a painful reminder of oppression.

I was reminded of this last month when I saw a little Twitter tantrum over a 6-year-old video with a bunch of comedians (fucking comedians) using the N-word.

Chris Rock caught all kinds of shit for using the N-word, and “letting” Ricky Gervais and Louis CK use it too.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5SD2wnkGybE

Louis CK is a special case.  He made a career out of telling stories about his douchebag thoughts.  When we found out he really is a douche, we banished him from TV.  Now that he’s trying to make a “comeback”, people are looking up all the other crap he has done and “rediscovered” he did a whole bit on the N-word, and found this video.

He should be banished.  Forcing women to watch you jack off is fucking crazy.  If he wants to keep working (I would guess he has plenty of money and doesn’t have to) he can do his own shows and people can buy tickets if they want to see him. But keep his ugly ass off my TV.

Ricky Gervais, said he doesn’t use the N-word, but in the video he used it to say he didn’t use it.  Then giggled like a demented 10-year-old boy sticking a firecracker up a frog’s butt.  But that’s really his schtick. His whole show “An Idiot Abroad” was just Gervais giggling at all the socially unacceptable shit Karl would do. Clearly that’s a personality defect. Some people go to a dominatrix and get their ass kicked —  Gervais gets his kicks breaking social rules.  “Tehe, tehe, I said a bad word…”

Lots of people praised Seinfeld, because he obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with that conversation.

Chris Rock got a shit ton of criticism.  He uses the N-word, and he has a long history and a deliberate use — it’s almost out of a sense of embarassment for how some people fulfill the stereotype.  But most of the crap he got was “allowing” the others to use the word.

I like Jemele Hill (the sportscaster turned Atlantic writer I stole the tweet from).  She knows her shit and she’s not afraid to say it — whether it’s sports or politics or social commentary. It’s great that she let’s white people know they can’t use that word around her.

But it’s not up to Chris Rock to decide what word Louis CK or Gervais can use. If Rock  is not really offended, he shouldn’t pretend to be offended.  His choice.

Those two fucking idiots are full grown men.  They know that racial slurs are different than other dirty words.   Their choice.

We are not talking about political leaders or role models… we are talking about fucking comedians.  Some of them see it as part of their job to push boundaries and strive to offend.  It helps us have conversations like this. If you don’t like it, don’t watch.

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.  Depends on who says it and how.  But in this case I’m with Seinfeld.

There are people alive who can still remember lynchings in their town.  There’s still a huge gap in wealth, education and opportunity based on race (not to mention jail terms and police beatings).  Maybe when those issues are resolved and forgotten we can “find the funny” in the N-word.  It could be like “Hun,”, or “Mick” or “Jerry”. (Remember when we were all trying to kill the Jerry’s?).

So I agree you should not use it, but what happens if you do?  The video is 6-years-old.  What’s the statute of limitations on racial slurs?

Fuck if I know, but it seems like there should be one — especially for people who apologize and stop using it.

I’m not going to even get into people using racial slurs against their own race — that will have to wait for an entirely different blog about all these “dumb micks” in my family.