Calling a Kid the "C" Word

[Loonyyy]

Maybe if people realised it was The goddamn motherfucking Onion, rather than reacting to a Poe, we'd have some sense from it.

Im assuming that all those flinging their poo at The Onion over this probably don't actually follow The Onion on twitter but instead have seen the retweeted message from someone who has.

Indeed. Any journalist who has done that has failed in their journalistic integrity. They're responsible for what they publish. When they get hoodwinked by a Poe, they should make it clear. Apart from that, general idiots misunderstanding it getting to that point is a bit beyond my comprehension. They'd have to see it from someone, and that someone should have made it clear. I'd expect people like The View, bored, stupid people who spend their time on daytime television, both watching and making it, to fall for this. And those people generally don't follow The Onion, because self-awareness is a trait that would make them suicidal.

Really, I think the biggest problem here is people like Bob here taking it seriously at all. To take the tweet, or any criticism of it seriously is just silly.

I think the only real "bad" part about this whole thing is the fact that The Onion deleted their tweet. Sure, they can tweet later on saying they're sorry if they feel they overstepped the mark but I hate it when people cover up like that.

Definitely. It makes them look weak, and like they're unwilling to stand behind their words. Being satirical comedy, those words aren't exactly a battle-standard to hide behind, but when they delete it, it's as though they tacitly acknowledge and validate all of the criticism. And that criticism is flat out wrong.

 

[Phuctifyno]

Can anyone link a video of whatever it was that led to the Onions comment? I dont know whether they said it because she was smug, or dumb, or what, and I really would like to know...

Absolutely nothing at all. She seems to be completely innocent. That was the joke. If she had done something to make the insult seem in any way real, there would probably be less controversy because the offended parties would be obviously in the right.

 

[Dhael]

If you cannot figure out why the word "****" has such a vitriolic meaning in the states, you need to do a little more research.

Though the reaction is kind of hypocritical, given how sexist personal insults tend to be.

Agreed, from what I've read so far I don't think the Euros in the community understand just how bad an insult "****" is in the US. It's damn near blood-feud level and has no positive context. You can't use it when joking among close friends and you will lose friends if you do, even if they aren't the target of it. That's how serious it is considered in the US.

I know that in the UK it can be used in a similar context that "shit" is used in the US. Little shit, Little **** and such. But, it simply doesn't have that context in America. It is all bad, all the time. It is simple the very worst possible thing you can call someone, male or female. You can go on a long rant about every single thing you hate about a person and it still wouldn't be as nearly insulting as just calling them a "****." It's just a cultural thing.

 

[itsthesheppy]

A perfect example of how, while nothing is immune to humor, if you're anything less than a master of your craft, expect to get pilloried.

If you want to tell a rape joke, go for it. But if you fuck it up, you're going down, burning. And you'd deserve it.

It's like cliff diving. If you're good at it, you look like a boss. If you suck, you're hamburger spattered on the rocks. Well deserved, either way.

 

[azriel2422]

Very, very, objective and well said.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Calling a little kid a ****? Really?
Good job. It's blunt, kind of effective in its simplicity but I'd much prefer some creativity. No "wretched scum-weasel" or "mewling quim"? Come on! Loki up this *****!

 

[maninahat]

I think this was about as diplomatic as anyone could be, when describing a situation as touchy to both sides as this. Good work Bob!

There was a comedian who used to call her 4 year old daughter a "little shit", but you immediately knew through the telling of the joke, the context, and the fact that he was obviously a loving father, that he didn't really mean it. Twitter lacks the opportunity to easily develop that understanding, so it's no wonder that the joke completely blew up in their face.

Related (viewer discretion advised)

 

[PrototypeC]

Not that I didn't read the whole article, because I did, but as soon as he said that The Onion retracted it and apologized it was enough for me to say it was bad. The Onion is very self-aware and this is the first retraction of theirs I've ever heard of. If they concluded the joke wasn't worth making and did harm, and removed it, that should be the final word.

I love the Onion, and I certainly don't think less of them for such a small thing. It's over, let's forget about it.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Every time I see "C word" I die a little inside.
because dick and dickhead are perfectly acceptable and they are exactly the same thing.

The extent of the hateful things you're allowed to say about women is held down by a Glass Ceiling. A Glass Ceiling that we'll have to break through if we ever want to see any true gender equality!

Why doesn't the burden of proof ever lie with the audience (Not necessarily to "get the joke" but) to at least differentiate between a joke and a statement made with real malice.


Apologizing for a joke also caries the unfortunate implication of suggesting there was something there worth apologizing for.

That's because you're an idiot
Dickhead and dick are first of all not very powerful curse words. Hell, judging from a lot of the Manly Online Brigade of Ha Ha I'm Anonymous it's a god damned compliment.
**** however, isn't. It's just making the connection that the person is a sexual organ that's to be filled by manly cock, so it calms down.(Origin of the word hysteria could be useful for you here.)
Also: It's a 9-year old?! How much of an inbred douchebag, drugged up "bro" do you need to be to not see the flaw in bullying someone that hasn't matured mentally yet?

This is exactly the thing I'm talking about.
Sometimes the burden of proof should be left up to the audience to understand the difference between a statment intended as a joke and one intended to carry malice.

But what if you actually believe what you said is true, what are those implications? That suggesting a whole person is reduced to female genitalia is worse than saying a whole person is reduced to male genitalia.
You're saying that the vagina is just worse than the penis? Period. No further explanation required.
That's sexism.

And calling me an inbred drugged up douche bag idiot is also perfectly acceptable but a comparison to a female body part isn't? You're a boob if you think that.

 

[Klonoa Prower]

Carlin did say it best, 'You can joke about anything.'

However, if the joke isn't funny, it becomes insulting instead, and without context or structure on their twitter post, that's exactly what happened.

 

[SirCreedence]

It's an ironic joke.
They shouldn't have to apologize for a joke that didn't have the intent of hurting the kid.
This is being blown WAY out of proportion, just because someone ironically called her a c*nt and some people don't understand the concept of either irony, jokes or fun.

 

[LadyRhian]

Every time I see "C word" I die a little inside.
because dick and dickhead are perfectly acceptable and they are exactly the same thing.

The extent of the hateful things you're allowed to say about women is held down by a Glass Ceiling. A Glass Ceiling that we'll have to break through if we ever want to see any true gender equality!

Why doesn't the burden of proof ever lie with the audience (Not necessarily to "get the joke" but) to at least differentiate between a joke and a statement made with real malice.


Apologizing for a joke also caries the unfortunate implication of suggesting there was something there worth apologizing for.

That's because you're an idiot
Dickhead and dick are first of all not very powerful curse words. Hell, judging from a lot of the Manly Online Brigade of Ha Ha I'm Anonymous it's a god damned compliment.
**** however, isn't. It's just making the connection that the person is a sexual organ that's to be filled by manly cock, so it calms down.(Origin of the word hysteria could be useful for you here.)
Also: It's a 9-year old?! How much of an inbred douchebag, drugged up "bro" do you need to be to not see the flaw in bullying someone that hasn't matured mentally yet?

This is exactly the thing I'm talking about.
Sometimes the burden of proof should be left up to the audience to understand the difference between a statment intended as a joke and one intended to carry malice.

But what if you actually believe what you said is true, what are those implications? That suggesting a whole person is reduced to female genitalia is worse than saying a whole person is reduced to male genitalia.
You're saying that the vagina is just worse than the penis? Period. No further explanation required.
That's sexism.

And calling me an inbred drugged up douche bag idiot is also perfectly acceptable but a comparison to a female body part isn't? You're a boob if you think that.

I'm surprised that so many commenters here don't get it. 1) Calling someone a **** is worse than calling them a dick because women are less (in the eyes of many men) than men are. Calling someone a woman (especially if they are male) is an insult- or intended to be insulting. Same with "womanly". The only time "mannish" is an insult is to a woman, implying that she can't even be a *good* man. Likewise, "douche" is something a woman uses to clean out their uterus, which is why it's also used as an insult. "Manly", on the other hand, is something to aspire to be. "Act like a man", "Be a man"... a man is something to aspire to be, something good to be. That's why female gendered insults are worse than male-gendered insults.

2) "freedom of speech" isn't the right to be an idiot and say whatever you want, no matter how insulting it is, and be free of the consequences. It just means the government can't stop you from saying it. It does not give you the right to scream or yell, "FIRE!" in a crowded theatre and escape prosecution, nor does it mean that someone cannot sue you, punch you in the face, or allow you to get off scot-free from saying anything that crosses your mind. It's being free of government oppression of speech (barring the "fire in a crowded theatre" types of expression).

3) saying "******" is worse because it has a longer history of being bad is also wrong, as even in the Bible, it comes down on women. Women were held responsible for original sin, being duped by the serpent and so on. Considering the Bible is at least 2000 years old (as more or less currently written- the Hebrew Scriptures are far, far older), I doubt that "******" is a worse insult because of age than being a woman is considered to be.

 

[Mithcha]

Think my view on this can be summed up as "meh". It's the Onion, if I took what they said seriously, ever, my blood pressure would go through the roof.

Far as **** being used in the UK casually, agree with others that it definitely depends on where you are. Where I live, South London, **** is used frequently, it's just another word where the reaction to it depends entirely on the context in which it was used. It's certainly not a default "oh my god I shouldn't have said that" word.

 

[csoloist]

Oh wow, article and whole lotta posts about nothing important.

Someone at The Onion writes something in poor taste... Big whoop - nobody should really be giving a fuck about this.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

I agree with Bob on one point, the joke was poorly told. If you have to explain a joke, it failed.

I don't think the joke was poorly told. It was painfully obvious to me.

This raises raises more problems than solutions, too. The thing is, if your audience is big enough, there will always be people who won't 'get' it. People who are too sensitive, or too thick, and will react to their emotions immediately. This means that practically every joke has to be explained to someone, somewhere. Should we just not tell jokes then? Or is there a threshold where there are few enough people that it doesn't matter if it has to be explained to them? Where's the line? How was it drawn? On what authority was it drawn?

This line of questioning is both unanswerable and meaningless. The obvious solution is to just do whatever, and if people don't like it, they don't have to listen. Really easy, really effective.

 

[Verlander]

There are a lot of Brits here denying the word ****, but I'd disagree. Maybe it's the area I live in or something, but **** is relatively common.

The REAL difference is that swearing in the UK isn't as much of a societal taboo as it is in America. Oh sure, you don't want to go around swearing at grannies, but even in the most professional areas of the UK, swearing is pretty much standard. Also, we try and be a bit more creative with our insults. Yahtzee isn't alone there

 

[NortherWolf]

Every time I see "C word" I die a little inside.
because dick and dickhead are perfectly acceptable and they are exactly the same thing.

The extent of the hateful things you're allowed to say about women is held down by a Glass Ceiling. A Glass Ceiling that we'll have to break through if we ever want to see any true gender equality!

Why doesn't the burden of proof ever lie with the audience (Not necessarily to "get the joke" but) to at least differentiate between a joke and a statement made with real malice.


Apologizing for a joke also caries the unfortunate implication of suggesting there was something there worth apologizing for.

That's because you're an idiot
Dickhead and dick are first of all not very powerful curse words. Hell, judging from a lot of the Manly Online Brigade of Ha Ha I'm Anonymous it's a god damned compliment.
**** however, isn't. It's just making the connection that the person is a sexual organ that's to be filled by manly cock, so it calms down.(Origin of the word hysteria could be useful for you here.)
Also: It's a 9-year old?! How much of an inbred douchebag, drugged up "bro" do you need to be to not see the flaw in bullying someone that hasn't matured mentally yet?

This is exactly the thing I'm talking about.
Sometimes the burden of proof should be left up to the audience to understand the difference between a statment intended as a joke and one intended to carry malice.

But what if you actually believe what you said is true, what are those implications? That suggesting a whole person is reduced to female genitalia is worse than saying a whole person is reduced to male genitalia.
You're saying that the vagina is just worse than the penis? Period. No further explanation required.
That's sexism.

And calling me an inbred drugged up douche bag idiot is also perfectly acceptable but a comparison to a female body part isn't? You're a boob if you think that.

If the shoe fits. But I actually didn't mean you in particular. Rather the Bro Brigade that come out in force and tell us how absolutely ok and vital to Freedom of Speech it to call a 9-year old a ****.
If that's what Freedom of Speech has been reduced to, a bunch of bro's to pt each other on the back while shouting bullshit then screw freedom of speech.
Also, in our society the female sex is receiving, thus weaker. So when calling someone a ****, you're pretty much stating. "You're weak and 'worthless'"
For example, in Swedish to call a guy "fitta" (****) insinuates they're a weak sub-male. The use of **** in English strikes me as similar.
Dude, you're ok with calling a kid a ****. I'm not the sexist one here. Brat would have done just fine in this joke.

 

[PeterMerkin69]

It's an ironic joke.
They shouldn't have to apologize for a joke that didn't have the intent of hurting the kid.
This is being blown WAY out of proportion, just because someone ironically called her a c*nt and some people don't understand the concept of either irony, jokes or fun.

How? How is the joke ironic? Please, I'd really like to know. Yes, they were kidding; however, the joke consisted of straight up calling a 9 year old girl a ****. Doesn't that strike you as a tad innapropriate?

She's an adorable, well-behaved little kid. There's nothing cuntlike about her whatsoever.

Ironing
Noun
The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Appropriateness doesn't appear to be a prerequisite for irony.

How is that NOT irony?

 

[Hazy]

Carlin did say it best, 'You can joke about anything.'

However, if the joke isn't funny, it becomes insulting instead, and without context or structure on their twitter post, that's exactly what happened.

But it did have content and structure, it just wasn't readily visible.

The joke is that the girl is sweet, innocent, and adorable - she isn't a stuck-up diva, like most of Hollywood's thespians. The joke works because she isn't a ****.

 

[sageoftruth]

Honestly, I didn't even know that we Americans use the word "****". Somehow for me, using that word feels kind of like calling someone "Pendejo", or if we're sticking to UK terms, "Wanker". It just feels out of character as an American citizen, so I've never thought to use it unless I'm impersonating someone from the UK.