Calling a Kid the "C" Word

MovieBob

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Calling a Kid the "C" Word

If you're going to say nasty things about a nine-year-old, you have to do it right.

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Tireseas_v1legacy

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Wow, this really stuck a stick in your craw. It's not often we get a special video or article from you outside of a major release.

On topic, I agree that it was an extremely poor choice and believe that the Onion really should have not posted the tweet. I personally despise Twitter both as a concept and in practice and it's this kind of digital catcalling that hardens the cement of my opinion. While the best satire is indistinguishable from the real deal, the problem is that this was a case of an unacceptable phrase (the US version of the word "****") combined with a completely unacceptable target (youngest actress ever nominated at 9-years-old, black, girl, etc.). Quite literally, anyone else in that audience in LA would have been a more acceptable target than her, even if it would dull the satire.
 

JoJo

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To be honest this is all a bit of a storm in a teacup but yeah, the joke just doesn't really work. That said, about the bullying charge I doubt the girl would have ever known about it if the media hadn't made such a fuss, come to think of it I wonder if she even knows now? I've got a sister of a similar age and she doesn't use twitter or the news online, I suppose her parents might have to tell her though... that would be an awkward conversation.
 

JaredXE

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Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.
 

SilverUchiha

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"The indignation of a pie in the face is only funny if the face belongs to someone with dignity..."

Was this an intentional quote of Krusty the Clown, Bob? And should I start calling you SideshowBob now?

OT: This is the first I've heard of any of this. And, yeah, I honestly think that people trying to be funny through Twitter or other online facets with the minimal context stuff like Twitter provides doesn't really work... especially for stuff like this. There's so little effort and you really have to read between the lines thoroughly to really get at what they're saying. In short, delivery is everything, and trying to deliver a good joke through Twitter doesn't always come off great.
 
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JaredXE said:
Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.
A) No she didn't.
B) SHE'S FUCKING 9! Do you make it an habit to go around insulting 9-year-olds?
 

Baldr

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ShadowKirby said:
JaredXE said:
Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.
A) No she didn't.
B) SHE'S FUCKING 9! Do you make it an habit to go around insulting 9-year-olds?
Even the author wasn't exactly calling her that, it was satire.

Here a more important question: Were any non-feminist onion readers offended?
 

Mr Cwtchy

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ShadowKirby said:
JaredXE said:
Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.
A) No she didn't.
B) SHE'S FUCKING 9! Do you make it an habit to go around insulting 9-year-olds?
I call my six year old nephew a little git when he's acting like one(not to his face obviously). So yeah.

OT: It's difficult to consider the big deal about the word chosen, as like the article said in the UK '****' is just a general, quite strong non-gendered insult.

Far as The Onion's conduct goes, they clearly crossed a line in an attempt to be funny and outrageous. Not much else to say.
 

josemlopes

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Isnt calling a girl a **** the same as calling a boy a dick? Of course none should be said to a kid but yeah, I know that a lot of boys are dicks from my school experience, hell... even I was a dick.

More on-topic: Its amazing how some people cant take a joke, and if the girl finds out about this then it was proably through adults that could actually explain the joke and that it is a "fake" sentence.
 

NiPah

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Baldr said:
ShadowKirby said:
JaredXE said:
Here's my question: Was she a ****?

I ask this because honestly, if she behaved in a way that would classify her as a ****, then in my opinion there is no problem saying it.
A) No she didn't.
B) SHE'S FUCKING 9! Do you make it an habit to go around insulting 9-year-olds?
Even the author wasn't exactly calling her that, it was satire.

Here a more important question: Were any non-feminist onion readers offended?
Why would feminism even get tied into this? I mean I know it's the hot topic these days but it offended me. Now don't get me wrong, while the joke is offensive I wouldn't call for it to be deleted or censored.
The other issue, apart from it's offensiveness, was the issue of how well it worked as a joke, what I got from Bob and the Onion's statement was that it just didn't work as a joke, again I wouldn't censor or delete it, but to me it's unfunny, offensive, and not really a good parody (albeit I see the thought behind it).
The Onion isn't perfect, flops like this will happen, I know I've told my share of jokes I wish I could take back, thats just life in the world of cutting comedy, sometimes you go to far and you look like an ass.
 

TwistedEllipses

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For my international readers, in the U.S. "the C word" (which I understand to be common to the point of casual use in the UK) is for whatever reason considered to be just about the worst anti-female insult one can utter.
Wait, what?
Maybe I'm not representative of the U.K. but I'm pretty sure it's treated as the worst swear word over here too. I'm not sure where Bob got this impression...

...oh yeah, I forgot about Jim and Yahtzee. They undermine my point somewhat.
 

hentropy

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Good satire holds a mirror to reality, and in the case of things like the Daily Show, uses actual examples from reality to make its points, mostly because the news media they're satiring is really that bad. No matter how bad the entertainment media is to fully-grown actresses, they would NEVER be that bad to a little girl... and that's where The Onion's style of comedy often goes wrong, I know they deal in extremes but it's a very easy line to cross, and many times even good comedy of that sort isn't really all that great or worth it.
 

cwmdulais

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from South Wales here and calling someone a **** is considered pretty horrible over here as well. stop generalizing entire countries bob!
 

halobolola

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Personally, i have no issue with the word, in fact i probably hear, say it around 8/9 times a week.
On the other hand, i would say it was bad taste to call a 9 year old girl it.
 

blalien

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josemlopes said:
Isnt calling a girl a **** the same as calling a boy a dick? Of course none should be said to a kid but yeah, I know that a lot of boys are dicks from my school experience, hell... even I was a dick.

More on-topic: Its amazing how some people cant take a joke, and if the girl finds out about this then it was proably through adults that could actually explain the joke and that it is a "fake" sentence.
The two words technically mean the same thing, but they have different connotations. The c word is, for some reason, a much, much worse insult to call someone than a dick. Don't ask me why, but that's how it works. You can argue that words shouldn't have connotations and people should only work with their literal meanings, but that's not how society operates. We decided that the c word was going to be really bad, and so it is.

Also, I'm tired of the whole "can't take a joke" defense. It's such a lazy get-out-of-consequences-for-what-you-said card. If somebody says something vile and offends people, they should own up to it. I know what the Onion was trying to do, but they screwed up and they were right to apologize.
 

WoahDan

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MovieBob said:
Calling a Kid the "C" Word

If you're going to say nasty things about a nine-year-old, you have to do it right.

Read Full Article
The severity of 'c***' is a regional thing, most parts of the UK consider it to be one of the strongest swearwords around ( though none consider it to be quite as bad as in the US, to my knowledge), but there are a couple of areas in the southeast where it is used as casually as you have heard.

As to the article itself, whilst the article is correct in that the Onion should have made it clearer that it was a joke, people really need to take the context into account before they get mad, especially on the internet.
 

Weaver

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Kids are cunts all the time. Are you going to tell me through your childhood not one kid was a ****?
 

knight steel

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But don't we call young boys "dickheads" all the time yet **** is unacceptable?
Don't get me wrong I hate it when any person demeans someone else and think the twitter is in the wrong.
Also the fact of her age shouldn't factor into it,insulting anyone should be looked down upon.
However I do find the double standard between swears interesting.