Friday, March 5, 2010

Explicit Warning

If you haven't heard I'm going to be on Slash 2 podcast tonight at 4 p.m. PST. This is another first for me because it will be my first explicit podcast. In honor of this momentous occasion I will now explain the difference between Profanity, Vulgarity, and Obscenity. Bet you didn't even know there was a difference. Be warned, I will use naughty language in this post.

Profanity: To qualify as a profanity the word or phrase has to be blasphemy like God Damn It or Jesus Christ. It originally was used to describe anything that was older than the church. For example if a building was described as being profane then the build was built before the church.

Vulgarity: A vulgarity is a harsh sounding word that replaces a proper word. Instead of using penis we'd use cock, or instead of breasts we'd use tits. It was originally used by upper class British society to describe the language of the commoners. Vulgarism litteraly means "mean folk talk".

Obscenity: These are the fun words that 13-year-olds playing Halo on xbox live love to use. To be and obscenity the word needs to refer to a sexual act or one's progeny; like fuck, bitch, and bastard. The Catholics are to thank for this one. It was originally used to describe paintings with nudity so that the church could remove it from being publicly displayed.

And now you know... CBS cares....