# "Fact or Crap" Commercial **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819 "2006-11-10T03:22:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/1 "2006-11-10T03:22:45Z")
The other night Mrs. Know and I were watching “Millionaire”. Among the little commercial promos at the end of the show was one for a game called “Fact or Crap?”. OK, sounds like fun…until they cut to the next shot…of a family with 2 small children playing the game. Mrs. Know’s jaw dropped to the floor, and I just remember thinking, “that’s just _wrong_ !” Query: Is anyone else uncomfortable with the concept of 2 little kids playing a game called “Fact or Crap?”–or am I just getting really square in my old age? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/2 "2006-11-10T03:28:49Z")
I guess you’ll have to explain your objection. Does the word “crap” sound like a profanity to you? To me it sounds pretty mild. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/3 "2006-11-10T03:29:47Z")
Strangely enough, University Games’ own website doesn’t list the game, but according to its [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) description, the game is for ages 12 and up. The [dictionary.com/Random](http://dictionary.com/Random) House Unabridged Dictionary lists “crap” in this sense of the word as “slang, sometimes vulgar: nonsense, drivel.” Seeing as there are no other terms I can thing of that represent falseness except the harsher “bullshit,” “crap” appears to me to be a tamer alternative. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/4 "2006-11-10T03:31:24Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] I guess you’ll have to explain your objection. Does the word “crap” sound like a profanity to you? To me it sounds pretty mild. [/QUOTE] Probably because when I was growing up, it _was_ considered a profanity of sorts. Certainly not something you would utter in the presence of your parents. But I guess that answers my question. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/5 "2006-11-10T03:42:56Z")
[QUOTE=want2know] Probably because when I was growing up, it _was_ considered a profanity of sorts. Certainly not something you would utter in the presence of your parents. [/QUOTE] Remember that even the mildest of profanities were considered socially unacceptable in the olden days. In 1939, controversy ensued over _Gone With The Wind_ in the Hays Office over the famous “I don’t give a damn” line. When the film was re-released in 1971, it was given a G rating. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/6 "2006-11-10T03:49:53Z")
Well, it wouldn’t have been allowed in my house when we were kids, but we weren’t allowed to say “sugar” as a euphemism for “shit”, because clearly we meant “shit” in our hearts, no matter how we dressed it up. So, I doubt I’m a good data point. But certainly, if I were trying to raise kids not to use profanity, I’d count “crap” as profanity and that game wouldn’t be in our house. (I have no intention of raising kids, and if I did have kids I’d want them to use the language to its most full and rich extent, so they’d probably have BBQ Pit vocabularies, but if I _were_ trying to raise them profanity free…) ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fact-or-crap-commercial/379819/7 "2006-11-10T03:51:23Z")
I have that game! Last time we played it my 8 year old wiped the floor with all of us. Basically, someone reads a statement and all the other players race to decide if it’s “fact” or “crap” and hold up their fact or crap sign. So all you have to do, really, is be the first one to hold up your sign; you’ve got a 50/50 chance of being right without even thinking about the question. It makes a fun drinking game, although obviously we send the 8 year old to bed first.