Shoe by Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly for November 28, 2018

No swearing was aloud.

When I was a kid we listened to classical music by Morse code

Hollywood is the cause the proliferation of profanity in the U.S. When the labels first came out, there was V for Vulgarity. Since they changed that to Adult Language, kids see those movies and think that’s how adults normally talk, so they copy it.

So gradually we become

comfortably numb.

We only had 3 channels, four if the weather was right, and I remember when TBS first came on air. My Dad had one of the first remote controls… a slap up against my head meant walk over and change the channel.

The main reason is a bunch of script writers with very limited vocabularies. Years ago I had a Platoon Sargent who could could describe our short comings, mental , physical and moral, for like a half an hour and never repeat himself or use profanity. I was fascinated by his command of the English language.

Also ‘Roz’, they were in black and white then ! ! ! !

The Hays Code died 50 years ago. By 1970, movies were going nuts with cursing & bewbs. So, Roz is at least 65, still working, still trying to get dates. Shoe can always get sadder – it’s turning into Pluggers.

The profanity of so-called comedians and movie actors reminds me of toddlers running around yelling “poo!” or other naughty words that come into their wee little brains.

Lenny Bruce. Just saying.

Gone with the Wind was the first with, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”.

Would Clark Gable’s Frankly my dear I don’t give a Damn! be the first?

Hollywood believes that all Americans are totally devoid of any class, and they attempt to make the movies realistic by showing characters who are frankly disgusting, the vulgarity being a part of that image. Unfortunately, that gives young people the impression that to be real adults, they need to actually behave that way, so the amorality of the images they present is becoming genuine. There are more varied adjectives, more appropriate to the situation at hand, that don’t begin with “f” and failure to include them in normal conversation doesn’t make you look tough and mature. It just makes you look like you are too stupid to have a vocabulary above the 4th grade level.

I prefer the ones with gratuitous violence. And, tasteful nudity, of course.

How about semi-profanity ?

“When I was a kid, we didn’t have movies with profanity.”

Otherwise known as Hollywood’s Bronze Age.

We had ethics then.

I worry less about profanity in the movies. It bothers me more when some adult is dropping the “F bomb” and other obscenities around kids and women. But then again, some of the biggest cusser’s are these days ARE women. To me, anyone who has to use a string of obscenities to express themselves, proves they have a limited vocabulary, limited intelligence and only belittle themselves with their semi-articulate rants.