What's Up with "Fuck"?
What the fuck can we learn from the word “fuck”? Let’s start with the following caveats that I haven’t carefully vetted: The first English language television use of fuck allegedly was uttered by Kenneth Tynan on November 13, 1965 on a satirical television BBC3, and the first U.S. movie to use fuck was M*A*S*H* released in 1970. According to Collider.com, of the “15 Most Profane Movies of All Time,” the lowest frequency of fuck is ‘One Day Removals’ (2008) with 320 and the highest, ‘Swearnet: The Movie’ (2014) with 935. We know that some form of fuck can and is used as virtually any part of speech. So, when in doubt about what next to say, “fuck it.” Gratuitously using the word fuck broadcasts that your intellect is as impoverished as is literally using “literally” when “figuratively” is warranted. But my point extends well beyond the word “fuck.” Rather, it follows from my previous posting on mega-identity. Saying fuck is much less a...