Frazz by Jef Mallett for November 16, 2021

“Little Pitchers have big ears”, and even bigger mouths.

And signs with “bad words” on them are just cardboard and ink.

speaking of the lowest common denominator. Can’t do a like on this one.

Vowels and consonants are just air.

There is another four-letter word that begins with the letter “f” – and a kid that age would get in a lot more trouble if they used that word!

If it’s just vowels and consonants, why were you so eager to say that word?

It isn’t just air, it’s the sulfur and brimstone that people object to

Did she just fart in someone’s general direction?

Calling a fart a fart shouldn’t get you in trouble. Calling someone a fart is impolite, even if the description is accompanied by pompous or other words of admiration.

It’s okay to fart in church. Just don’t ask the Pastor to pull your finger … in mid-sermon.

She must be the type of person to who thinks she can say anything as long as she adds “no offense”

If it was “just air”, it wouldn’t have its own name.

She got in trouble for saying “fart”!?!?!? Holy guacamole, Batman, why??? Unless she was offensive in how she worded the sentence?

Not mine, thank you.

Are we all on “Wheel of Fortune”?

I have yet to convince my wife that I have the ability to control when I “let one go” when I’m asleep in bed.

If you need to Fart make sure it’s an SBD!

Words are so much more than just the sum of their Consonants and Vowels.

They mean a lot more. And they mean even more when you put them into sentences.

Just claim that you were quoting Chaucer

Words mean what they mean because a society chooses to use them that way. And which words are socially unacceptable (there’s no such thing as a “bad” word) changes from generation to generation. When our language developed, people could have just as easily decided that the string of sounds f-a-r-t referred to a domesticated canine, and the string of sounds d-o-g referred to stinky air from a particular source.This is why I didn’t try to shield my kids from “bad words” (for one thing, it’s impossible unless you’re hermits). Instead I told them, “time and place, and respect other people.”

“Booger” John Caravello

I’m trying to imagine either this strip or the subsequent conversation occurring over on Comics Kingdom.

this one stinks

Yes and learn to discretely crop dust…..

A future First Amendment lawyer.

The young lady left out the most important part: a “word” is a form and function (“meaning”) pairing. It’s the function part that causes problems, especially if the meaning in question is taboo or just indelicate.

Anyhow, that means that bear “ursine animal” and bear “endure” are different words. So too are run “a score in baseball” and run “a small stream”, as well a run “a damage in a stocking” and run “a sequence of like things (a run of bad luck, say)” and run “a trip via surface transportation”, and many other different words that happen to be spelled run.

How do you punish a kid for saying fart? That’s like the least offensive of the supposedly offensive words.

Frazz just got hoisted with his own petard.

Words represent things, they are not things. So the idea of “bad” words is ridiculous to an adult society.

If people don’t want cetain words used in front of them, because it offends them, they should stop doing some of the things that make us use those words! …. things that are more offensive than any word could be!