Can’t say the big one? Oh fuddle duddle
By Ivan Morgan
If anyone is going to challenge norms, break new political ground or set new standards, it’s going to be Donald Trump. Love him or hate him, he is the current American President, duly elected, and he is doing things his way. We’ve not seen the like before.
Case in point: A while back he deliberately dropped the “f” word on live mainstream television. The situation between Israel and Iran had clearly tried his patience, and he let the reporter who asked him a question about it know. If you haven’t seen it, Google it. It’s on YouTube. I can’t write here what he said.
Which I have always thought was odd. Banning swear words on public airways and media has always been a mystery to me. Why do we censor certain words? Who are we protecting from “curse” words and so-called foul language? Why? It really doesn’t make much sense.
It now appears the most powerful person on earth can say it publicly, but we can’t.
I understand we have community standards, which apply to this publication, and I respect them. But I also question them.
When I was 12 years old, the then Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, swore on a Newfoundland MP, John Lundrigan, in the House of Commons. Decades later Lundrigan told me he and another MP were heckling Trudeau, and he looked across the House and told him to “Eff off.” Some reporters heard him and made a big deal of it. Trudeau, hassled in a scrum, claimed he said “Fuddle Duddle.” It caused a national sensation. There were t-shirts, and a song.
I remember joking with my mom at breakfast, saying her pancakes were fuddle duddle good. My dad, looking up from his newspaper, cautioned, “Watch it, buster.”
Those of us of a certain generation also remember comedian George Carlin’s famous “Seven words you can’t use on TV” routine, which he debuted way back in 1972. Here we are more than a half century later and I still cannot write these words for fear of offending someone. My question is who? And how many of them are out there? Why are we catering to them?
Twenty-five years ago, I interviewed a prominent businessman who was very opposed to then premier Roger Grimes’ Lower Churchill deal with Hydro Quebec. He was unhappy and kept yelling “It’s a s* deal!” at me. He really wanted to make a point. I was over the moon. What a scoop! Great story. Killer headline. I had visions of “S* Deal” blazed dramatically across the front page. My editor killed it. No way. It’s a community paper. The word is not being used. No profanities above the fold. We went with the asterisks like I have above. I sooked for a week.
And here I am still sooking.
I am told I used the first (possibly only?) swear word in The Herald’s history. I wrote a column calling two badly behaved politicians, who got in a fist fight in the House of Assembly, a pair of a*s.
I was home cooking dinner for my kids when the phone rang (wall phone with a 13-foot cord). It was none other than Geoff Sterling himself. Why did I want to use a swear word in his publication? Taken aback, I told him why. He agreed and allowed it. Go me!
If you watch alternative media like I do, the hosts pepper their broadcasts with these words. Not swearing for swearing’s sake – that’s adolescent. But for emphasis when it’s needed, like most adults do? That’s why the words exist.
If you watch European TV shows, especially from Great Britain, you know they are way over this taboo. People swear when its needed.
Trump said what he said, and no mature adult could argue that it wasn’t the proper use of the word. Has he overturned what I think is an antiquated taboo?
Here in puritanical North America, it’s a scandal if a politician or celebrity gets “caught” swearing on a “hot mic” meaning he or she didn’t know we were listening. The press will try and make a big scandal about it.
Seriously, who gives a … well, you know.
Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com