It’s often said that cursing is an indication of inarticulateness, that a person swears only because he suffers a paucity of vocabulary, a position I heartily disagree with. Often (well, sometimes) when I curse, I’ve put as much thought into that choice of word as any other choice of word and I’ve heard too many articulate and well-bred people curse quite effectively. My position is that using a particular category of word is not, in itself, sufficient evidence upon which to convict the speaker or writer of ignorance. I do agree, though, that complaining to your girlfriend that the little fuck shits her goddamn pants every fucking time she sees a big fucking dog, in front of the little girl, is grounds enough for immediate forced sterilization.
Stephen Fry, who is currently in Mexico filming a documentary, has come to the rescue of my thesis. I (and half the population of the Internet) follow him on Twitter because he is funny and brilliant, in both the intellectual sense of the word and the broader British slang sense of the word, and his frequent little tweets put a smile on my face throughout the day. That he is articulate and well-read cannot be denied, and yet he tweeted this:
Director just casually dropped a bombshell. I have to ride a mule tomorrow. A thousand boiling arses. Two hours up a mountain. Buttery fuck.
Perhaps that was funnier at 2:36 AM when I read it, or not as funny to someone who has heard that term before. I apparently don’t get out much, because I cannot recall ever seeing or hearing it. I can dream of few things more enjoyable than having a few drinks with Stephen Fry.
