Megathread: PNNK & ŽNKT (Warning: 18+) - The psychology and impact of profanity among Americans

Nicholas King said:The whole thing about this non-nutritive garbage is pretty clear to me—basically, this shitty parable just amplifies the message of sheer stupidity they’re trying to push, and honestly, that isn't even the worst part about how crappy it is.

But, if we're strictly talking about maximizing the impact, getting aggressive and crude 😬 wouldn't the intended message be even more potent if it were handled differently? It feels a bit like saying, "Your nose is... rather large!"—I mean, sure, you could probably make it much stronger, much better. Or, you know, much more offensive. Not to mention the entire barrage of colorful retorts that such a "nuisance of a gesture" inevitably invites.

Nicholas King said:The actual reason for this thread will come a bit later, but first, let’s look at some general patterns regarding how Americans swear.

I don't really feel like dissecting the semantics of every single common profanity—that would be an incredibly tedious task, much too long. However, there are a few potent examples that actually force one to pause and reflect for a second.

So, do people actually think about the swears they utter? Is there some psychological component (let’s not even get into the background 😬) when choosing a specific insult, or do we just blurt out the first thing that pops into our heads without any real consideration of what we are actually saying?

For starters, take the notorious "suck my dick" (or alternatively, "stick it up your ass") that you constantly hear coming from macho types and homophobes: do they honestly believe that "the one doing the sticking" is somehow less gay than "the one receiving" (and we're talking about guys who would rather lose a vital internal organ than be perceived as gay—or at least want to maintain that impression 😬), or do they simply fail to process the literal meaning of their own words?

And here we go, slowly approaching the reason for the topic: yesterday, I had the pleasure of reading on a forum that I am, Quote, "annoying as hell". Let's ignore the context for a moment—it's truly irrelevant and uninteresting (one might say, terribly annoying 😁)—but the phrasing itself is quite intriguing: why, exactly, would a penis be considered "annoying" (implying it requires great effort; that it is exhausting—according to Merriam-Webster)? 😕

I once heard an explanation for the common phrase "stupid as hell"—the explanation was, admittedly, kindergarten-level (the idea being that a dick is stupid because it cries when it's having its best time 🤦), but it was an explanation nonetheless. What kind of explanation could exist for the "annoyance" of male genitalia—specifically such massive annoyance, given that the compound phrase is used as a much stronger figure of speech than "you're very annoying", "you're indescribably annoying", "you are soooooooo annnoyyyyying" or any other way to describe someone's immense exasperation? Nothing comes to mind for me, absolutely nothing.

I haven't been able to Google anything particularly meaningful on the subject, so I'm left wondering: if you were to encounter an association linking a dick to "annoyance," would you view it as a completely accidental and unconscious choice devoid of meaning, or do you believe that when people are swearing (and it's safe to assume we swear when our self-control is diminished), they occasionally stumble into a Freudian slip?

I don't know who this guy thinks he is, but he's definitely blowing his own horn. Honestly, I've seen more substance in a bowl of alphabet soup. Typical. The user says:
No, not everyone can pull that off. Only a handful of people actually have the guts. And if they tried? They’d just end up cursing at everyone. To hell with them. 🙂

nimblemarlin26 said:They probably put as much thought into their actual ideas as they do into the specific phrases and syntax they use. It’s all just surface-level fluff.

I don't know who this guy thinks he is, but he's definitely blowing his own horn. Honestly, I've seen more substance in a bowl of alphabet soup. Typical. The user says:
No, not everyone can pull that off. Only a handful of people actually have the guts. And if they tried? They’d just end up cursing at everyone. To hell with them. 🙂

Back in high school, I overheard a friend of mine losing her mind. She clearly lacked a sophisticated vocabulary for cursing, so she just started screaming at the top of her lungs: "Go screw yourself... just screw yourself all the way!" 😬

Matthew Castillo5 said:Nicholas King, did you actually bother putting an explanation for those abbreviations in the thread title?

On a different note, look, I’m not going to sit here and lecture anyone about swearing when they're genuinely pissed off—even if the language gets pretty colorful. But when someone isn't even angry, and just starts dropping F-bombs or invoking God just because they feel like being obnoxious... well, honestly, that really rubs me the wrong way.

Personally, I don't mind if someone lets out a few choice words when they're genuinely angry—even if the profanity is particularly foul. But if someone isn't even upset and just starts swearing—especially using God's name—simply because they feel they can... well, that really rubs me the wrong way.

Matthew Castillo5 said:Nicholas King, did you actually bother putting an explanation for those abbreviations in the thread title?

On a different note, look, I’m not going to sit here and lecture anyone about swearing when they're genuinely pissed off—even if the language gets pretty colorful. But when someone isn't even angry, and just starts dropping F-bombs or invoking God just because they feel like being obnoxious... well, honestly, that really rubs me the wrong way.

Nicholas King said:I didn't 🙂.

Personally, I don't mind if someone lets out a few choice words when they're genuinely angry—even if the profanity is particularly foul. But if someone isn't even upset and just starts swearing—especially using God's name—simply because they feel they can... well, that really rubs me the wrong way.

It’s quite a curious phenomenon, I suppose—this massive group of people who, while literally leaning against a church pew, manage to conjure up the most complex and elaborate blasphemous insults during a heated debate—insults that a simple-minded agnostic or atheist mind probably wouldn't even be capable of dreaming up.

It remains a bit of an enigma to me. And honestly, the moment we touch upon that subject, we find ourselves jumping straight into a full-blown forum war about religion and all that other stuff—which is something I try my best to avoid🙂.

Nicholas King said:I didn't 🙂.

Personally, I don't mind if someone lets out a few choice words when they're genuinely angry—even if the profanity is particularly foul. But if someone isn't even upset and just starts swearing—especially using God's name—simply because they feel they can... well, that really rubs me the wrong way.

It’s quite a curious phenomenon, I suppose—this massive group of people who, while literally leaning against a church pew, manage to conjure up the most complex and elaborate blasphemous insults during a heated debate—insults that a simple-minded agnostic or atheist mind probably wouldn't even be capable of dreaming up.

It remains a bit of an enigma to me. And honestly, the moment we touch upon that subject, we find ourselves jumping straight into a full-blown forum war about religion and all that other stuff—which is something I try my best to avoid🙂.

jadewolf16 said:Honestly, we mostly just inherit swear words and drop them when the timing feels right—they only carry that much punch because you wouldn't dream of using them in polite company, right?

"Screw you!" (What you say to Marina Cilica when she's being a total pain)

"What the hell?" (When Marina Cilica loses her first set against someone like Knittel)

"You ain't getting squat!" (To someone who thinks they're gonna win big on their parlay)

"I got totally screwed" (When my bets at the sportsbook go south)

"Who cares?" (When people ask me about it because the Kansas City Chiefs won a game)

Or maybe it's just that certain phrase sticks with us because of the sheer emotion behind it the first time we hear it. For me, the absolute craziest one was back when I was, like, really, REALLY mad

"God almighty, damn it!"—I heard a famous local football player say that in my hometown for the first time. I was just floored by how blunt and intense it was, so now it’s basically top-tier in my book. And this guy? He was a pillar of the community in a super religious town, you know? Like, he couldn't have picked a wilder way to vent!

James Foster4 said:Even when a woman says, "I just don't give a damn,"

Nicholas King said:The actual reason for this thread will come a bit later, but first, let’s look at some general patterns regarding how Americans swear.

I don't really feel like dissecting the semantics of every single common profanity—that would be an incredibly tedious task, much too long. However, there are a few potent examples that actually force one to pause and reflect for a second.

So, do people actually think about the swears they utter? Is there some psychological component (let’s not even get into the background 😬) when choosing a specific insult, or do we just blurt out the first thing that pops into our heads without any real consideration of what we are actually saying?

For starters, take the notorious "suck my dick" (or alternatively, "stick it up your ass") that you constantly hear coming from macho types and homophobes: do they honestly believe that "the one doing the sticking" is somehow less gay than "the one receiving" (and we're talking about guys who would rather lose a vital internal organ than be perceived as gay—or at least want to maintain that impression 😬), or do they simply fail to process the literal meaning of their own words?

And here we go, slowly approaching the reason for the topic: yesterday, I had the pleasure of reading on a forum that I am, Quote, "annoying as hell". Let's ignore the context for a moment—it's truly irrelevant and uninteresting (one might say, terribly annoying 😁)—but the phrasing itself is quite intriguing: why, exactly, would a penis be considered "annoying" (implying it requires great effort; that it is exhausting—according to Merriam-Webster)? 😕

I once heard an explanation for the common phrase "stupid as hell"—the explanation was, admittedly, kindergarten-level (the idea being that a dick is stupid because it cries when it's having its best time 🤦), but it was an explanation nonetheless. What kind of explanation could exist for the "annoyance" of male genitalia—specifically such massive annoyance, given that the compound phrase is used as a much stronger figure of speech than "you're very annoying", "you're indescribably annoying", "you are soooooooo annnoyyyyying" or any other way to describe someone's immense exasperation? Nothing comes to mind for me, absolutely nothing.

I haven't been able to Google anything particularly meaningful on the subject, so I'm left wondering: if you were to encounter an association linking a dick to "annoyance," would you view it as a completely accidental and unconscious choice devoid of meaning, or do you believe that when people are swearing (and it's safe to assume we swear when our self-control is diminished), they occasionally stumble into a Freudian slip?

I ate your Hershey bar, one square at a time.
Your Hershey bar has enough squares to feed half of Africa.

Michelle Evans said:Are you some kind of representative for Hershey here in the States?

I’m trying to find the right insults to swap into these sentences, but I’m hitting a wall... My creative vocabulary for swearing is pretty stunted since I don't really use it...

I ate your Hershey bar, one square at a time.
Your Hershey bar has enough squares to feed half of Africa.

?

Look, I promise you won't get in trouble if you translate them for me. It's strictly for educational purposes... 😍