Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 468 with our very special guest – birthday girl – Nina Matsumoto!!!
Ian, David and Nina talk: technical details; hearing about chicken is better than no chicken; Chinese restaurant clichés; otherwise, it’s a great movie; crab petting; exploding whales; Homer’s mother; deadbeat dads; we are fam; popular sharks; shoe movies; sexy dismembered leg; the problem with horror films; watch One Cut of the Dead, says Nina; no swear people; whoops, I’m a racist; the no swear nation; translating context; manga yeesh; repression makes it worse; mayoral peanut; baby nuts; dental shame; in praise of the Shaw Brothers; why can’t we be friends; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; drummer girls; tweenage campers; cat pill experts; contrarian lust; gay panic; Billy Connolly love; phony baloney Kid Rock, inanimate carbon rod; and, finally, no more fuzz.
Thanks for listening.
Question of the week: How do you feel about swearing? Are you a swear bear or never indulge?
Sub-question of the week: What’s a movie that sounds like it could be a martial arts movie, but isn’t?
Here’s a little song by Victoria Wood:
This is pretty long and some of it well nigh indecipherable, but here is Billy Connolly with The Last Supper:
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I think there is also a financial element to the term “deadbeat dad” as in: “The deadbeat dad refused to pay child support so the government garnished his wages.”
We also order from ChongQing on occasion, the occasion being there’s a pandemic and we don’t want to dine out at a restaurant in person. They have this super nice delivery guy. When I was a kid, our family went to the restaurant that used to be at that location. It was called “Renfrew Drive-In” which was weird because it was neither a drive-in nor was it on Renfrew Street. It featured both a western menu and that great North American cultural mash-up, the Chinese smorgasbord. They had a cool Chinese dragon sculpture and a taxidermy moose head on the wall. Someone once put sunglasses on its face and a cigarette in its mouth. It was funny enough to make Orange Crush come out your nose.
I think swearing is okay, but I’d never be the first one to swear in a new social or business situation. Always read the f***ing room. A movie that sounds like it could be a martial arts movie? “Kicking and Screaming.” That’s pretty much the action and dialogue directions in every martial arts script.
Yeah, f… me but I love swearing. There’s something liberating in it. And I think that’s the main problem. It’s all about morality and respectability. You should contain yourself, behave yourself.
One more time we can see the social classes appearing. The upper class has a knowledge of how use different type of vocabulary regarding the situation and the purpose of what they say. The lower class are more down to earth and tend to express basic things in a basic manner. They call a cat a cat and do not tend not create distanciation with bodily functions and some of its subsequent matters.
I was quite surprise to ear that Japanese do not have swearing, because I know that they have insults, like baka or baka yaro (idiot).
But in Japanese you’ve got different levels of speech corresponding to different levels of politeness, a low level for family, children and close friend, one high for stranger, college and superiors and one for important personalities.
So the differentiation of speech levels is part of the Japanese culture and above all you must behave and not show your feelings, thereby it’s logical that’s impossible to swear.
So swearing or cursing ? You swear an oath or you say a profanity. In the second one there’s a superstitious element. If you curse you are putting a spell but to no one in particular… which is a very bad thing, it’s bad luck for everyone. The same, do not swear outside a social ritual (the oath), because it’s regularly associated with vengeance (I swear to kill you), which is a bad thing too. And too big commitments outside rituals are seen to be a perjury in the making. You should stay reasonable at all costs.
And for the vocabulary, I was alway amused by the consonance shifting in the English language, like shoot or the Hoover Dam of the Madagascar penguins (But it seems that there’s no such thing for the F word).
But in fact, in french, we had the same with god shifted to blue, (dieu to bleu) like in morbleu, parbleu, sacrebleu. For example the first one is « Mort de Dieu » (God’s death).
And you can find an other form of homophony in Franquin’s Gaston Lagaffe comics, where when Prunelle is upset by you know who, he tend to cry something like Rooooondddddjjjjooouuu (the spelling varies) which translate into « nom de dieu » (roon-de-djiouu) which is literally, or should I say symbolically, god’s name.
And last but not least, Canadians, the free ones according to Charles de Gaule, our American cousins of the beautiful province of Quebec who are using religious vocabulary like tabernacle, christ, ostie and calice.
Personally, I quite like « Bordel à queue de pompe à merde » I don’t know if I can translate it. Otherwise, here the equivalent of the F word is Putain (prostitute not to write the W word), Best swearings have few syllabus like orders in military, this way they are more efficient. As I watch a lot of American content I tend to use the F word quite often and the phrase F… me (as you saw in the begining) but I like shoot too and since The Wire I use clay Davis’s ShhhhiiiIIIIIeee…. in cases of incredulity.
The addition of Nina was a nice feature, and as always keep up the good wooor… fun.
I just saw this tweet and though it fit in well with this discussion:
“People also forget that you can make almost anything sound like a curse word in Japanese just by changing tone of voice. Sarcasm, anger, feigned obsequiousness, etc. can all transform even the most polite forms of Japanese into deadly weapons.”
It’s true — Japanese doesn’t need swear words, because you can so easily convey contempt/disrespect with how the language is used, in a way that isn’t translatable in English. Which is why in Japanese-English localization, English swear words are used to convey the rude/disrespectful tone in the original language.
(Thanks for enjoying my appearance!)
I’ll echo the sentiment of those who’ve honored comedian Sir Billy Connolly on the last episode. I’ve been keeping up with Connolly’s well being lately and sadly he’s fighting a battle with Parkinson’s disease. I sincerely hope we can see an end to these diseases that rob the brilliance and spark from our ability to perform, no matter what it is. Connolly announced his retirement from the stage just this month due to the decline he’s experienced from Parkinson’s.
You see, Sir Billy Connolly and I have one connection in this world, we both share the same birthday which is today, November 24th. I’ll forever be connected with Connolly and always think of him on this day. So Happy Birthday to Sir Billy Connolly, keep fighting and Thank You for all the years of brilliant laughter.
Hey chaps,
On the topic of swearing, I’ve had an on-going debate for years about how strong the word ‘turd’ is for everyday use. I think it is as closer to ‘sh*t’ that poop, but many others disagree. Thoughts?
I am not a massive swearer, but I picked up the term ‘crap-hound’ from an obscure scene in the film Local Hero and I find it is an fantastic all purpose, inoffensive curse.
I think ‘On Golden Pond’ sounds like a perfect martial arts movie.
Mick
The only person I know who uses the word “turd” is my mom — as in “A raccoon left a turd on our lawn!” I don’t hear it very often as a personal insult. More common would be “you piece of crap” or “you piece of sh*t.” I don’t know you’re just a piece. Maybe that makes you even less than whole. Increasing order of coarseness, I’d say: doodoo, turd, poop, poo, crap, sh*t.
Turd feels pretty mild to me. Louise’s ordered list seems right on target.
I don’t consider turd to be a swear word at all.
A few films that could be martial arts movies, but aren’t:
Knives Out
Das Boot
Midnight Cowboy
And, with just a little linguistic jiggery-pokery:
The Violence of the Lambs
It Happened one Fight
Raging Bully
Schindler’s Fist
FIRST, thanks so much for the sticker! It looks really cool Dave, just got it since I shipped it to my parents address.
Similarly to Nina, I never curse. When I was young I was definitely a “super ruler follower” type, you know the type that would tell the teacher that they forgot homework. (I don’t remember actually ever doing that, thank god). While I definitely grew out of that phase, the not cursing thing stuck. I also have acted in several plays which required some curse words to be said, but never anything too vulgar. I actually didn’t audition for a play because I knew the script was full of curses. In part because it would’ve made me uncomfortable, but also because the play itself wasn’t very funny or enjoyable to me.
Several times in my life people have been very shocked at my not cursing, they usually find out when I’m reading something out and censor the words. Most notably was when a group of my friends and I were playing some game where we each added a word in the story. You had to recite the story perfectly, then add your word. Anyway, it’s pretty obvious but when it came my turn I skipped over the curse word someone added. That would not do! No, my friends were stunned at the notion that I’d skipped over this word and saw an opportunity for a more fun game, to get me to curse. It was at this moment I realized that after not cursing, I almost physically couldn’t curse. It was very bizarre. After a couple minutes of them begging me to curse, and knowing that they would only stop if I did so, I tried to but it was like my brain didn’t know how. I eventually did it, but I really had to force myself to. I’m glad that happened because I saw I had a legitimate fear of cursing, which I don’t think is too good. Anyway this story ends with no character development because I still never curse, but I try to be less harsh on myself now, like if I accidentally read out a curse word.
Anyway I’d just like to wish all the American listeners well, hopefully your holiday is (was) safe and still enjoyable. (It’s blessing in disguise for me, I don’t have to hear my relatives complain about Biden or rattle off conspiracy theories)
I come from a family of swearaholics, mainly Italians, so I grew up around it…especially Dad in the car. His word of choice was “C***SUCKER!” This being the case, we weren’t allowed to swear growing up, it kind of became tolerated with age. It’s not uncommon for anyone to swear now in my immediate family, even my Mom does it and she’s pretty good. I had to cut back, waaaay back during my first marriage because my first wife was not the swearing type, she referred to swearing as “Wordy Dords.” I know, it sounds as annoying and it was. Much of this behavior was because my kiddos were young and we were doing our best to set a good example. When I met my second and current wife Susan, you’d have thought that she’d invented swearing she was so good at it, so it’s back on the table around our house now. To give you some context, if I were Indiana Jones, my first wife was like Willie Scott in “Temple of Doom” but I moved on and am now married to Marion Ravenwood from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” That’s about the most accurate description I can give to describe the demeanor of wife #1 and wife #2. My son, who will be 21 soon, does not swear, nor does his girlfriend. He doesn’t mind hearing it, but it’s just not in his nature to talk in such a way, not unlike Nina describing her decision not to swear. My daughter lightly swears, if that’s a thing, and at the age of 24 can get a bit salty when she’s trying to make a point. So I guess my first marriage paid off in a way and our decision to keep the language clean had somewhat of an effect.
I’m thinking of introducing the phrase “Dank farrik!” into my vocabulary. It’s been used in “The Mandalorian” as a type of swear word or phrase a few times. Maybe it’s time to use it around the house for a change.
I’ve always thought some of the 007 films sounded very much like Martial Arts film titles, but not the titles that are shorter single use words like “Dr. No”, “Moonraker”, or “Spectre.” “Live and Let Die”, “Tomorrow Never Dies”, “You Only Live Twice” and “Die Another Day” sound more along the lines of those dramatic Martial Art film titles if you didn’t know they were 007 films. I guess using the operative words “Live” and “Die” in all these titles kind of sets them off giving them that Martial Arts action cue. If you think along those lines I guess all the “Die Hard” films sound like Martial Arts films too, unless you’re already thinking of the brand of Die Hard car batteries. I’ve been in advertising for 30 years, so just shoot me in the fucking head.
“Dank farrik!!”
I GOT MY STICKER! I GOT MY STICKER! I actually got it weeks ago, but I’m not so good at commenting in a timely manner. It is currently residing on my refrigerator until I find a more permanent place.
I was a pretty hardcore non-swearer until well after high school. I didn’t have any issues at all with other people swearing, but I never liked attention, especially negative attention, so the two very memorable occasions when I said a mild swear word like ‘crap’ or ‘bastard’ made me avoid it in any setting. After high school I started feeling like NOT swearing drew more attention, which I didn’t like, but I was stuck. If I started swearing around people who knew me, they’d be shocked and I’d get that moment of negative attention.
Around age 23 I had a major and ultimately permanent falling out with my best friend from high school (she fed my rat to her snake, but that’s a story for another time), and all my other friends had dispersed or generally grown apart from me. Even my band had broken up. I was essentially out of friends, so I got in contact with an acquaintance from the local music scene and asked if I could borrow some of his friends for a while. He said sure, come to Coffee Bean any night, we’re always outside at the back table. So I did, and although it was scary and awkward at first, they welcomed me in and it turned out to be fairly successful. And as an added bonus, none of these people (except the one, who didn’t know me very well) knew I didn’t swear. So… I swore. Not excessively, just naturally in conversation as the need or opportunity arose. And that was that.
Except that I still find it extremely difficult (usually impossible) to swear in front of my parents or and any of their friends who have known me since I was a kid. It seems silly… I turned 40 a few months ago and I still can’t swear in front of my parents? Maybe I should emerge from the pandemic swearing freely and blame it on Isolation Insanity.
Hey peeps-
Really interesting to hear Nina’s take on the no-swears. In a culture such as ours where swearing is used so freely, not to swear is almost an artistic constraint, and I applaud her for sticking to her principles.
Swearing in other cultures is fascinating: In Hindi you might call someone ‘Sala’ or ‘Brother-in-law’ – a terrible insult implying you’ve been sleeping with their sister. Meanwhile Arabic has long and complicated curses involving animals. Over in Germany, there’s a charming list of deliberately pathetic compound-word insults including ‘shade-parker’, ‘gym-kit-forgetter’ ‘tellytubby-waver-backer’ and the all time great ‘sitz-pinkler’ – a gentleman who sits down to pee.
Back in the West, the TV show Deadwood features perhaps the most joyous swearing of the last 20 years. This was deliberately anachronistic, as the writers knew that era-appropriate blasphemies would have sounded tame to modern ears, so swapped them out in favour of sexual swear words. As it happens, the ‘rudest word’ of today’s secular society could be seen as a sort of blasphemy against the ‘origin of the world’, acknowledging and reinforcing its power.
Mung-fu films:
Any film with a number in the title is instantly a kung-fu flick:
– 7 Faces of Dr. Lao
– 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T
– Three coins in the Fountain
– Five Easy Pieces
etcetera.
As an aside, I would love to recommend a marvellous pair of ’80s kung-fu films that combine Peking Opera gags with the peerless choreography of the Yuen clan:
‘Miracle Fighters’ tells the story of a young man falling in with feuding taoist wizards,
whilst ‘Shaolin Drunkard’ follows a drunken priest battling a sort of vampire. Both films are remarkably silly labours of love, with oodles of brilliant ideas glued together by skilled choreography and cinematography.
PS – There are a couple of sequels to those films (and a modern remake) but since these are whacky without invention, they are best avoided. The same team also produced the entertaining but blandly-named ‘Heroic Fight’ which brings the wizarding action into the ’80s in a variation on ‘FX: Murder by Illusion’ by way of (very obvious) homages to Buster Keaton.