# Assistant principal fired for reading "I Want a New Butt!" to second-graders **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 10, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857 "2022-03-10T22:23:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/41 "2022-03-11T20:42:09Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > What’s insane with that is that is they had no problem _showing_ her pregnant, or making it a humorous plot point that she couldn’t get out of the chair she was in. You just couldn’t _say_ it. I’m not an expert on 50s TV. In the “Riccardos” movie, they suggested the common approach when an actor got pregnant was to hide her growing belly behind furniture/baskets of laundry. I wonder if pregnant women as a visual gag happened AFTER Lucy’s pregnancy? ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/42 "2022-03-11T21:07:13Z")
The reason it’s not cool to say something that’s bad “sucks” is that it has its roots in virulent homophobia. One of the major things that homophobes think they know about gay men is that they do oral on other men. And to them ('phobes) that’s a _ **bad thing** _. So saying something sucks as a negative compares it to gay men implying that they are a negative thing as well. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/43 "2022-03-11T21:20:58Z")
I’ve read books to kids about the following: farts, butts, underwear, toilets, excrement, pee, and other things not coming to mind at the moment. Maybe those things aren’t inherently funny, but they’re kind of low hanging fruit. I also love Beavis and Butt-Head, but would not show it to students. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/44 "2022-03-11T21:26:06Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Me, I just wanted to know why all the cooks looked like Oliver Hardy. Sendak himself said they’re also meant to look like Hitler. (Which casts a whole new light on the “Mickey cake” scene…) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/45 "2022-03-11T22:07:56Z")
We need an etymologist here. Growing up, I thought “sucks” was short for “sucks farts”. I have to leave for the weekend in a minute and my Google Fu is weak. But, I have seen other Dopers post that same understanding. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/46 "2022-03-11T23:05:48Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > (And I don’t understand what you mean by 2d-3d string words.) That’s because I neglected to explain. I should have, because they’re just my personal terms. Sorry about that! First-string words would be the words considered obscene: _ass_, for instance. Second string would be the words that aren’t quite genteel but are in common public usage now: _butt_, _bum_, etc. Third string the ones you could have said to Aunt Bea at the Mayberry Missionaries Society: _derrière_, _bottom_, _sitter_, etc. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > In the “Riccardos” movie, they suggested the common approach when an actor got pregnant was to hide her growing belly behind furniture/baskets of laundry. I wonder if pregnant women as a visual gag happened AFTER Lucy’s pregnancy? No, there were gags on _I Love Lucy_. They didn’t hide her behind props because there was no need: her pregnancy (even though they didn’t use the word) was part of the plot line. You just weren’t supposed to see more than a hint of baby bump, so Lucy wore voluminous smocks, long the style for pregnant women. Here’s a short clip from the show. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/47 "2022-03-11T23:12:28Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I taught high schoolers, who, when I started out in the early 90s, recognized that “sucks” was inappropriate. (One of the science teachers made them substitute “lacks pressure.”) By the time I retired 6 years ago, that had changed, and probably half the teachers used “sucks” in the classroom. I often say, “inhales bodaciously.” ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2022, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/48 "2022-03-11T23:33:25Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Growing up, I thought “sucks” was short for “sucks farts” As a kid, I thought it meant the part of the cartoon where a character suddenly morphs into a lollipop i.e., sucker, and back. I had no idea it was a bad word. Suddenly, when I was about 10 or 11, my mother started getting her back up about our use of the word and I was totally mystified. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/49 "2022-03-12T02:40:59Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > No, there were gags on _I Love Lucy_ . In the Riccardos movie, the discussion took place right after she announced her pregnancy. They said the couldn’t mention or show it. If the movie is accurate in this respect, the gags you refer to followed Lucy/Desi’s refusal to go along - and paved the way for others. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/50 "2022-03-12T03:18:29Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > if Huey Lewis comes by, don’t invite him in, Not even if he axes politely? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/51 "2022-03-12T03:40:52Z")
Back then, it was tabooooo to show, mention, or even give any hint of pregnancy on TV. Remember, Lucy decided to break that taboo, and it was totally scandalous at the time! It was also taboo to show them in bed together, and IIRC they broke that taboo also. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/52 "2022-03-12T04:11:55Z")
No, it was _Mary Kay and Johnny_ in 1948. > **[Mary Kay and Johnny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_and_Johnny#%3A%7E%3Atext%3DMary_Kay_and_Johnny_was%2Cwrote_it_into_the_show.?wprov=sfla1)** > > Mary Kay and Johnny is an American situation comedy starring real-life married couple Mary Kay and Johnny Stearns. It was the first sitcom broadcast on a television network in the United States. Mary Kay and Johnny initially aired live on the DuMont Television Network before moving to CBS and then NBC. > Plots centered around a bank employee and his "zany, but not dumb" wife and the problems that they encountered. Much of the activity occurred in the couple's apartment in Greenwich Village. > A rev... > [@](#): > > Mary Kay and Johnny was the first program to show a couple sharing a bed, and the first series to show a woman’s pregnancy on television: Mary Kay became pregnant in 1948 and after unsuccessfully trying to hide her pregnancy, the producers wrote it into the show. On December 31, 1948, the Stearns’ weeks-old son Christopher appeared on the show and became a character. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/53 "2022-03-12T04:15:25Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > No, it was _Mary Kay and Johnny_ in 1948. Aha, that’s news to me. I had never heard of this. Despite this, was it still considered scandalous when Lucy and Ricky followed in their footsteps? ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/54 "2022-03-12T05:31:24Z")
Very few households had TV’s in 1948, so rules were more liberal: only 37,000 owned TV’s in a population of 145 million. By contrast, the _I Love Lucy_ episode in which Little Ricky was born, had 144 million viewers out of a population of 163 million. Mary Kay and Johnny was a 15-minute show, aired at a time when TV censorship was in its infancy. The no-shared-beds policy wasn’t in place yet. Lucy and Desi of course got around it by pushing two twin beds together. Arnaz and Ball were trailblazers in many ways. As has been said, the network execs didn’t want a pregnancy written into the storyline. Desi Arnaz, who was a superb businessman, [wrote the following](https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/i-love-lucy-how-desi-arnaz-won-the-battle-to-get-lucille-balls-pregnancy-in-the-sitcoms-storyline.html/) to Alfred Lyons, the Chairman of the Board of Philip Morris, the show’s chief advertiser: > “I guess it all comes down to you,” Arnaz wrote in his letter to Lyons. “You are the man who is paying the money for this show and I guess I will have to do whatever you decide. There’s only one thing I want to make certain that you understand. We have given you the number one show in the country and, up til now, the creative decisions have been in our hands. Your people are now telling us we cannot do this, so the only thing I want from you, if you agree with them, is that you must inform them that we will not accept them telling us what not to do unless, in the future, they will also tell us what to do. > > At that point, and if this is your decision, we will cease to be responsible to you for the show being the number one show on television, and you will have to look to your people, to the network, and to the Biow Agency for that responsibility. > > Thank you very much for all you have done for us in the past. Almost immediately, the anti-baby cries died down. Years later, Arnaz found out that Lyons got the word out in a memo from England, which read, > ‘To whom it may concern: Don’t f\*\*\* around with the Cuban! Signed, A.L.,'” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/55 "2022-03-12T06:00:08Z")
🤨 yeah… Not really buying that. That sounds more like a false etymology created afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/56 "2022-03-12T06:39:45Z")
when I grew up sucks was shorthand for “that sucks a dick” and therefor bad but when did I realize it had become common? when cartoon network who at the time was owned by the most liberal man on tv ted turner aired the infamous “ed edd n’ eddy” and during a first season episode the ring leader asked the other a question about " why don’t we try … (I forget what) and the smart one says no we cant do that cause of (I again forgot why) and the being leader eddy goes " well that just sucks" Then a few weeks later the Disney all cartoon channel started a show called yin yang yo ! which proceeded to say the word 1-2 times an episode (the show was split into 2 episodes) apparently after that, all bets were off and I even started hearing the word in normal tv shows … ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/57 "2022-03-12T06:55:22Z")
Having last lived in America in the spring of 1990, I really can’t say what is common sense anymore, but as a teacher it kind of depends on the class. I have a third grade class I teach once a week which would go absolutely crazy about that book and would make them unable to focus for six weeks after. On stories like, it, you wish you could hear the whole story. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/58 "2022-03-12T12:24:59Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Little kids find all manner of things amusing that I’d just as soon be omitted from the schoolroom Even within a classroom, context matters. This was a “special occasion”, a read-aloud by a “special guest”. It was understood to be a fun time, a sort of brain-break. In this context, the AP is a sort of “fun uncle” role, making this sort of thing exactly appropriate. The fact that it’s just a little bit out of what would normally be done is what makes it thrilling, and gets kids excited about reading. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/59 "2022-03-12T15:03:34Z")
I suspect the Principal wanted the AP out for other reasons. It’s like the business world - if they love you they’ll keep you even if you bully, steal or harass. If they hate you, you’ll get fired for “Creating a hostile work environment by walking too loudly and intimidating Secretary Snowflake.” ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857/60 "2022-03-12T16:19:59Z")
My first thought is that he should have read the lyrics to [I Want a New Duck](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOL2q8leiLw) instead. But then the ASPCA would be calling for his firing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/assistant-principal-fired-for-reading-i-want-a-new-butt-to-second-graders/960857.md?page=4)