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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Simple Life: Road Trip

17:58 / 13.05.05

Anyone watching this? Paris just fell off a horse and then fed some monkies, and then some old cowboy mooned them.

They have no money, a bad trailer and have to get across the states, doing various jobs to pay their way.

20:47 / 13.05.05

And it's all 100% bullshit. I've only seen one episode (the one in which they had to work at Burger King), but I'm astonished at how blatantly everything in it is staged for the camera. I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised, given who's involved, but while other "reality shows" have a certain plausibility to them, this one is so obviously scripted and manufactured.

David Cross has a great bit talking about The Simple Life, describing it as a show about "two rich, whiny, selfish, spoiled, hateful cunts."

I guess that isn't really a joke, but it's funny when he says it.

04:47 / 16.05.05

Which leads right to this, from The Onion:

Replacement Socialite Cunt Sought for Simple Life Cast

NEW YORK—Due to the falling out between Nicole Richie and Paris Hilton, producers of Fox's The Simple Life are continuing their search for the perfect spoiled, no-talent socialite cunt to step in for Richie. "It shouldn't be too hard to find another vapid, muddied cum-dumpster perpetually drunk on the jizz of trust-fund himbos," producer Jonathan Murray said. "Any million-dollar Bambi with a vast inheritance and no ambition will do, though gutter-sluts with coke-fueled pasts will be given special consideration." Murray added that "it doesn't matter if her pussy rattles when the wind blows—we can fix that in post."

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:41 / 16.05.05

I prefer the Onion on their less rampantly, dribblingly misogynistic days, myself.

15:35 / 16.05.05

Jeezus. I couldn't find that on the Onion, wonder if they've taken it down. I'm not an Onion fan on a good day, but that's just fucking offensive.

16:07 / 16.05.05

It doesn't read like the onion.

Regrettable Juvenilia

20:24 / 16.05.05

This is true. Maybe it's all rakehell's own work?

22:44 / 16.05.05

Ta Dah!

Vaguely off-topic, I don't think I fully understand the American translation of 'cunt'. I get the impression that it's at least as taboo a word as it is in the UK (I've known Americans to be shocked at how liberally it is used here), but they seem to use it in circumstances that would make even the sweariest Brit blanch. For example it seems to be way more commonly applied to women. In that respect 'twat' seem to operate similarly (and is that quite a strong curse in the US?). The English don't do that so much do they?
There's a thread on 'cunt' in the headshop isn't there. Anyone remember if the intercontinental nuances were discussed there.

Tom Tit's Tot: A Girl!

00:08 / 17.05.05

Being an American in Britain for the last five years, I can say that I've actually had this conversation a number of times.

Cunt is a much more offensive word in the the US, therefore people who use it are often trying to appear edgy or controversial. It's coming into more common usage in the US, perhaps because it is considered taboo. I mean, who's really offended by "Fuck" anymore? Okay, many people, but not me.

Cunt is used more often in the UK, and even sometimes in a friendly way, from my experience. I live in Scotland. I gather that's it's less common useage in England/Wales, but I may be wrong there.

Cunt is considered a very mysogynistic word in America. However, in the UK I know a few women who prefer it to any other term for the female genatalia. I suppose it's in the usage, because they still take exception to the term used in a hostile manner.

I use it more often than I ought, because coming from a country where the word is considered offensive bordering on verboten to a country where it's less offensive, makes a person want to use the word all the time.

So, yeah.

Still hate Paris Hilton. Disappointed in The Onion.

01:26 / 17.05.05

And in the US, if you were going to call someone a cunt, would it more likely be a man or a woman (or neither)? If The Sopranos is anything to go by, both 'cunt' and 'twat' always seem to be directed at women (although maybe one of the Sopranophiles will correct me on this).
In the UK I don't hear people call women cunts as much (and not just for chivalrous reasons, I don't think). Here 'twat' is very much a playground term (not a million miles from 'twit', as is mentioned in the childhood misconceptions thread), and used primarily between boys or the boyish, as far as I can tell.

Tom Tit's Tot: A Girl!

11:33 / 17.05.05

I think in America you'd find it aimed at women most often, but that anyone who used it around other people would find themselves quickly removed from the situation. Like I said, it's the one word that is still properly taboo in the states.

Really, maybe it's just because I'm from the MidWest.

I once called someone a cunt in character on a US-based Role Playing Game, it was all in character and my character was from a type of character that is renowned for being the most foul-mouthed in that game. Someone had destroyed an important keepsake of his, and he chased them around yelling abuse at them. One use of the word "cunt" nearly had me kicked off of the game, although the fact that I used "fuck" half-a-dozen times whsn't even an issue.

Yeah, mysogynistic and a big deal in the US, fairly common and less offensive in the UK, I believe.

ONLY NICE THINGS

14:00 / 17.05.05

There's a thread in the Head Shop about this - google for it if you're not at work. Or, you know, you work in a swearitorium or something.

Basically, as Tom Tit says. US - misogynistic, metonymic, used to describe women. UK - abusive, declarative, more unisex, sometimes descriptive. But there's more to it than that.

14:24 / 17.05.05

Shakespeare thought it was funny.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:32 / 17.05.05

Christopher Marlowe died in a brawl. What's your point?