Swearing

Xin Rong

Xin Rong

Killed by Dissertation
Joined
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I was just wondering if anyone else noticed that no one hardly swears at all in buffy besides the occational ass or p*** from spike but never any proper ones; although a lot of the time they imply swearing or mime it e.g. in sanctuary when faith calls faith a s*** or in doppledanged when vamp willow gets staked it looks like shes about to say f*** and i know there are more, sometimes involving buffy.
I cant see why they couldn't just have swearing in it, not that i it bothers me to watch one without swearing its just if these programs are 15 or sometimes even 18 then why cant they have a little bit of swearing in them, not over the top like on shameless.
 
Shameless isn't over the top if you ever meet "those kind of people". Had a little incident in a tattoo parlour recently but thats a different story.

Anyway, yeah theres not much, but sometimes its quite harsh. I guess its to fit into the time slot, or maybe the characters just don't swear that much. Some people aren't too fowl mouthed.
 
Buffy and Angel are shows that dabble in, among other things - necrophilia, rape, overtly gay characters, S&M, murderous teenagers, torture, gruesome monsters, child murderers ... and Giles did, of course, declare that the entire base of Christian mythology was a fairy tale in about the first half hour of the show. They can get away with all that stuff. Swearing, on the other hand, is different. You can't quantify violence or horror or implied blasphemy. You can count how many f-words there are though. So swearing is still taboo, even for Buffy. Certainly, it would make sense for Spike or Faith to yell the air blue at times, but it would have gotten the show in more trouble than necessary.

Although in fairness, because Spike's baser vocabulary is British in origin, he gets away with gestures and swearwords that would be unthinkable in a British or Irish show before the watershed...
 
er is no one from America? you can't really swear on network television and in order to doso you have to follow insanely strict guidelines. so its that simple not that I think Joss would allow them to swear pointlessly either. As if the lesser :eviltongu use of profanity took away from the show...bah.
 
Yeah there are I think 7 words you can't say on tv. The standards board is also much tougher on 8 o'clock shows than say a 10 o'clock as kids are still up at that time. 🙂
 
Yes and if there was a lesson to be learned by the South Park movie, it's that violence is good, but cussing warrants war with otherwise peaceful nations 😀
 
Buffy Summers said:
Yeah there are I think 7 words you can't say on tv. The standards board is also much tougher on 8 o'clock shows than say a 10 o'clock as kids are still up at that time. 🙂
Click to expand...

Ooh can we guess them?

Was only joking, nobody guess them (well out loud).

Anyway being English it always seemed like Spike was allowed to swear a lot, seems odd to me you don't know what the 'W' word is. Oh and the fact Spike gave the finger in Hush, and was then used in the credits for ages.
 
This is one of the things that are so irritating about TV but in a way also kinda.. charming..? Making TV shows is like making movies except that there are all these rules you have to follow. It's gotta be 42 minutes, you can't swear, you can't have too much violence or sex (often not much at all).. and so on. God they're making it so complicated for the TV show makers, hehe..
 
Right 🙂 I mean, they said the w word in the Crocodile Hunter movie. My jaw about dropped to the ground when I heard that. That's all I need - my nieces and nephews going around repeating that one...
 
Oh we know what the 'W' word is, and the 'B' word and alll the words. I guess those words are acceptable on North American TV though 😀
 
I know that once in awhile i'll hear a word, but you also occasionaly hear those words on other shows also. I agree, buffy already pushes the envelope, so what's a few words.
 
I think its funny as hell... It's stupid to try and stop them from adding the occasional "cuss"... Its supposed to be as real as possible, and they are on average 21 years old (by season 6-7)... So they are obviously going to be a little loose on the vocab... I could understand Dawn NOT swearing as much... But like Spike... Classic... I laugh everytime he swears, and wish he'd do it more... The sensors just have to face it... Like 95% of kids these days learn to swear my the age of 8... And thats what the disclaimers are for before each episode... Explicit Language... Hello??? You don't like swearing, don't watch... Simple 😀
 
I like the fact they dont swear full-on...it'd just be, inappropriate, lol...

Dont you find it annoying when you're watching something, and every 2nd word is *Fu...you know the one!*
 
I mean they use the word Bitch, which is usually the curse word I tend to use much. I'm not really big on the F word unless you piss me off. 😀
 
In my opinion, the creators of the show are very smart to avoid the typical "cuss words". They pride themselves on the quality of the writing, and they should. Sure, many people find that language offensive, and fair or not, some parents will stop their kids from watching when they hear language, while they may not have noticed the very adult themes running throughout (some of the kiddies may miss them too)

The biggest thing for me is, cursing is a weak form of expression. These words (especially F--- ) used to mean someone was really angry. In the past decade, it's been used so much that it's not shocking anymore. Now people use them like exclamation points to show that they're really serious. Now we judge how mad/serious/mean someone is by how loud it is and how many times they use it.

English is a remarkable language with a word for nearly every feeling or occasion. Sure it's easy to insert f---ing or G--D--- in front of a word to show you mean it, but I think the Buffy actors are more than capable of showing through the writers carefully crafted script exactly what they intend for us to see. If anyone thinks that the characters in Buffy/Angel (or anyone for that matter) NEED to curse; that it would make them more real, then I think you need to expand your vocabulary.
 
I've always appreciated the fact that Buffy/Angel didn't have much swearing. It's a very nice change compared to all the other shows you might watch. In fact, come to think of it, alot of sci-fi shows don't have too much swearing.

I'm trying to get out of the habbit of swearing at all, but it's hard when everyday we hear some sort of swearing.

I agree with some previous posts, the writers were awesome, not having to add cussing to the script, where they put in funny quips and half cussing instead.
 
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