# Expletives in the Service of "Toughening Up" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 11, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733 "2025-07-11T12:09:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/1 "2025-07-11T12:09:33Z")
Allan Sherman (1924-1973), the song parodist responsible for “Camp Granada” (“Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah!”) and a lot of unfortunately forgotten gems. The year he died, Playboy Press (Hefner was a friend and a fan) published **The Rape of the APE** , in which “APE” stood for “American Puritan Ethic”. It was a history of the national sexual revolution and his own. He tells how boys entering the Army were awakened out of state of naivete by the Army’s calculated vulgarity. Called out of bed by the shout “Drop your cocks and grab your socks!” , he wonders “Did someone here have a Dirty Mind?” He gleefully learns that _everything_ in the Army is obscene, “part of the toughening-up process”. So even the Official Status reports are obscene SNAFU – Situation Normal, All Fucked Up JANFU – Joint Army-Navy Fuck Up FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition … and so on. I had never considered it that way, when I first read the book. I had heard of, and later seen, the Army instructional cartoons about “Private SNAFU” (made by Chuck Jones and other animators from the Warners Brothers cartoon studio). When they introduce the character, a voice-over explains what the letters stand for, and each lights up at the time “Situation…Normal …All…” and the “F” quivers as the voice delays at least half a beat — the soldiers wonder If They’re Actually Gonna Say It – and then uses the euphemistic “Fouled” instead of “Fucked”. Sherman explained in his book that “they cleaned it up for the folks back home.” I didn’t realize until years later that a lot of common expressions were similarly “cleaned up for the folks back home”, and it wasn’t until long afterward that I learned that I’d been hearing truncated and cleaned up expressions all my life, often unaware that there had been a deeper meaning. **For the Birds** – the whole expression is “Shit for the Birds”, a phrase apparently beloved by drill sergeants in the 1930s and 1940s, according to sources I’ve checked. The phrase relates, I am told, to birds pecking for edible undigested bits in animal turds. I’ve seen some corroboration for this, but I’m not going into detail. Suffice it to say that I’ve heard the apparently nonsensical phrase “for the birds” my whole life without realizing that it was a roundabout way of calling something “bullshit”. “In your hat” – a truncated version of “[Go Shit] in your hat”, a way of insulting someone who has annoyed you. We discussed this on the Board almost twenty years ago - ["In Your Hat"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-hat/343655) – Again, a nonsense phrase to the Unenlightened “Sad Sack” – a term for a poor old soldier, common in World War II (Google N-gram viewer shows the phrase “taking off” around 1940). But in its entirety it’s “Sad Sack of Shit”, which somehow seems more likely as a military description of a down-on-his-luck soldier. During the war, Sergeant George Baker drew a comic strip for the service newspaper **Yank** showing the adventures of a character he called “Sad Sack” (based on real-life Ben Schnall. I wonder how he felt about the resulting fame. In the strip, the character is not named.). Some of these were decidedly not for home consumption, as when Sad Sack watches a very scary Army film about the dangers of VD (not shown), and puts on a glove before shaking hands with a woman. It’s pretty weird to think that I grew up reading a Harvey comic book (the same people responsible for publishing Casper the Friendly Ghost!) about the exploits of Sad Sack meant for kids. Who clearly didn’t know the entire phrase. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2025, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/2 "2025-07-11T13:38:06Z")
Took me years to learn the full version of “…and the horse you rode in on!” > [@CalMeacham](#): > > I had heard of, and later seen, the Army instructional cartoons about “Private SNAFU” (made by Chuck Jones and other animators from the Warners Brothers cartoon studio). When they introduce the character, a voice-over explains what the letters stand for, and each lights up at the time “Situation…Normal …All…” and the “F” quivers as the voice delays at least half a beat — the soldiers wonder If They’re Actually Gonna Say It – and then uses the euphemistic “Fouled” instead of “Fucked”. Sherman explained in his book that “they cleaned it up for the folks back home.” One of the Private Snafu shorts introduced his two brothers, Private Fubar (see OP) and Private Tarfu (Things Are Really Fucked Up). Somewhat confusingly, another short about Navy life from the same producers featured a “Seaman Tarfu” - presumably named as a play on the old-fashioned use of “tar” to mean “sailor.” ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/3 "2025-07-11T13:44:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > So even the Official Status reports are obscene Those terms were never part of any official status. It was always an inside joke for the military. By the time I was in the Army vulgarity was used as punctuation. The most common adjective was “fucking.” During the WWII era that was not the case. I remember seeing a couple of the real life soldiers portrayed in _Band of Brothers_ complain that there was way too much cursing in the show. They said they never talked like that. They certainly cursed at times but they were much more likely to say words like “damn” and “hell” rather than saying fuck. That’s why something like SNAFU was particularly effective as a joke at the time. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/4 "2025-07-11T13:52:15Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Those terms were never part of any official status. I’m quoting Allan Sherman. Blame him for the inaccuracy. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/5 "2025-07-11T13:55:26Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > During the WWII era that was not the case. I remember seeing a couple of the real life soldiers portrayed in _Band of Brothers_ complain that there was way too much cursing in the show. They said they never talked like that. They certainly cursed at times but they were much more likely to say words like “damn” and “hell” rather than saying fuck. Hmm. Tell that to Norman Mailer. His 1948 WWII novel _The Naked and the Dead_ is apparently filed with the use of the word “fug” and “fugging”, which was his euphemism for “fuck”. There’s even a story (recounted, IIRC, in _The Rape of the APE_) that when he was introduced at a party, the woman said “Oh, you’re the young man who doesn’t know how to spell ‘Fuck’”. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/6 "2025-07-11T14:57:16Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > > [@Loach](#): > > > > During the WWII era that was not the case. I remember seeing a couple of the real life soldiers portrayed in _Band of Brothers_ complain that there was way too much cursing in the show. They said they never talked like that. They certainly cursed at times but they were much more likely to say words like “damn” and “hell” rather than saying fuck. > > Hmm. Tell that to Norman Mailer. His 1948 WWII novel _The Naked and the Dead_ is apparently filed with the use of the word “fug” and “fugging”, which was his euphemism for “fuck”. There’s even a story (recounted, IIRC, in _The Rape of the APE_) that when he was introduced at a party, the woman said “Oh, you’re the young man who doesn’t know how to spell ‘Fuck’”. Never met him. I did meet Bill Guarnere who does mention it in his book. I’ve seen enough accounts from veterans of the time to feel it’s pretty well established that modern WWII movies show much more cursing than was common at the time. No doubt they cursed more than was normal in civilian life but much less than what we are used to. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/7 "2025-07-11T15:28:43Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I’ve seen enough accounts from veterans of the time to feel it’s pretty well established that modern WWII movies show much more cursing than was common at the time. No doubt they cursed more than was normal in civilian life but much less than what we are used to. A quick survey of the internet finds sites saying that they swore a lot and others saying the opposite. No doubt it varied with people and groups, but I suspect people swore more than they say, or even than they recall. Horace Bixby’s complaint about his portrayal in Twain’s _Life on the Mississippi_ (besides the unwanted publicity it brought him) was that he didn’t swear the way Twain portrayed him. But I don’t buy it. This is what Twain remembered him for – i can’t see him making it up. > [@](#): > > [https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ncq2Tuur8l8](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ncq2Tuur8l8) > **[Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/BandofBrothers/comments/1aewq3s/did_us_soldiers_during_wwii_curse_as_much_as_bob/)** > **[Do American armed forces use as much swear words as we see in the war films?](https://www.quora.com/Do-American-armed-forces-use-as-much-swear-words-as-we-see-in-the-war-films)** > > Answer (1 of 31): I recall an incident in the motor pool when I was a private. A fellow tanker banged his hand while working on a roadwheel and let out a stream of profanity - a very common occurrence. The tank commander, a Sergeant noticed the... > **[The etymology of ‘f\*ck’ and the war that popularized it](https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2021/03/12/the-etymology-of-fck-and-the-war-that-popularized-it/)** > > “If I hear another f\*cking G.I. say ‘f\*cking’ once more, I’ll cut my f\*cking throat.” Notable quote from this last one: > [@](#): > > _“_ One new recruit James Nichol recalled that in basic training he ‘was still very nervous of the F-word (frig being the current substitute, but I avoided that, too),’” Kelly wrote. But a sergeant in Nichol’s training company impressed the young recruit with the word’s “repetition, if not invention. I lay in my bunk one evening and counted the number of times ‘f\*ck’ occurred in his conversation. It occurred every four and a half words, though I was counting mentally and might have missed some.’” And this was from WWII. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/8 "2025-07-11T16:26:06Z")
I think there is a distinction between enlisted men and officers. Enlisted men swearing has always been part of military culture (hence expressions like “cursing like a sailor”). But officers are expected to be more gentlemanly and refined, in theory at least. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/9 "2025-07-11T16:28:13Z")
There is no doubt there was more swearing amongst young men going off to war in the 40s than they were used to before they were in the military. Enough so it was noted by various writers as being unusual. It follows that their incremental change in behavior when they returned home led to where we are now in the language. That still doesn’t mean they spoke the same way we do now. ---
**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:** [July 11, 2025, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/10 "2025-07-11T16:58:02Z")
Captain Haddock from the _Tintin_ comics used exclamations like “blistering barnacles!” and insults like “ectoplasmic byproduct!” because that was the closest his creator Hergé could get to having him “curse like a sailor” without running afoul of the censors. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/11 "2025-07-11T17:05:32Z")
Now I know. My Daddy was a drill instructor. Anything(animal, kid, driver in the next lane, the redlight) that displeased was a “Shit-bird”. I doubt he ever heard “Shit for the birds” either. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/12 "2025-07-11T17:45:37Z")
@griffin1977 is correct. Anthony McCauliff’s reply to the Germans’ demand he surrender “nuts!” wasn’t bowdlerized: officers were gentlemen and did not use the coarse, mindless Billingsgate of the enlisted men. Patton was seen as a poser for using it, and Captain Bligh triggered his sailors to mutiny with it. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2025, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/13 "2025-07-11T18:24:07Z")
Although American PFC Ernest Premetz who was acting as a translator, was not under such constaints. When the Germans didn’t understand what “nuts” meant. He helped them understand: Premetz saidit meant that “they could go to hell.” “And I will tell you something else,” Harper added. “If you continue to attack we will kill every goddam German that tries to break into this city.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/14 "2025-07-12T01:29:25Z")
I was an adult before I realized that “scumbag” referred to a (used) condom. We had plenty of euphemisms for semen as a kid, but “scum” wasn’t one of them. That expletive didn’t soften due to people leaving things out, but just because people forgot what it referred to originally. Apparently this generation gap generated a controversy among NYT crossword players: > **[Where Did the Word "Scumbag" Come From?](https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/05/word-scumbag-come/)** > > Mondagiriaksita asks: I was told a scumbag was originally a condom. Is this really where the word came from? “Scum” originated in the early 14th century from the Middle Dutch word “schume” meaning foam or froth. There was also a similar word in old... ---
**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:** [July 12, 2025, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/15 "2025-07-12T11:04:35Z")
The way I heard it, the woman was Tallulah Bankhead. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/16 "2025-07-12T12:01:36Z")
When I read “cleaned up for the folks back home”, I thought of the 60s sitcom F-Troop and the Hekawi tribe: > Many moons ago, tribe leave Massachusetts because Pilgrims ruin neighborhood! Tribe travel west, over stream, over river, over mountain, over mountain, over river, over stream! Then come big day… tribe fall over cliff. That when Hekawi get name. Medicine man say to my ancestor, “I think we lost. Where the heck are we?”. “Where the heck are we?” became “We’re the Hekawi” “Hekawi” was originally “Fugawi” until the censors nixed it. mmm ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/17 "2025-07-12T12:14:14Z")
It’s not just the Hekawi Why do you think it was called “F” - troop? ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/18 "2025-07-12T12:30:48Z")
Must not be new. Way back when I was an Aviation Cadet, part of our Cadet knowledge was General Washingtons order at Valley Forge: “The General regrets to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American Army, is growing into fashion, he hopes that the officers will by example as well as influence endeavor to check it, and they will reflect that we can little hope for the blessings of heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly.” Probably took the form of Jiminy Cricket, zounds or Gad more than WTF. My service was during the Korean conflict. I washed out of pilot training so spent 2 1/2 years among the enlisted ranks. Most of what I recall was vulgarity like ‘shit for brains’, ‘don’t know shit from Shinola’, ‘went to shit and the pigs ate him’, ‘got his head up his ass’ and food references like ‘shit on a shingle’, ‘horse cock’, ‘penis butter and smelly’. The most common term of derision was ‘chickenshit’ and most common explicative was ‘sombitch’. Fuck was a verb, not a noun, and MF was only used by black troops. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/19 "2025-07-12T12:39:31Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I was an adult before I realized that “scumbag” referred to a (used) condom. I thought it referred to a douchebag. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/20 "2025-07-12T12:51:02Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > I was an adult before I realized that “scumbag” referred to a (used) condom. I was very surprised when I took a drafting class in college in the 70s that the little bag filled with erasing material that was used for cleaning up mistakes was called a “[scumbag](https://www.draftingsuppliesdew.com/supplies/pads-and-powder?srsltid=AfmBOooTbm4VT4zg8oaqHJe0RSqGtI4tumwhdKv-Qdj0xDialySeHnbw)”. IME, cursing in the military was pervasive, with every possible combination one can imagine. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733.md?page=2)