# Gratuitous profanity in movies and other entertainment **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 14, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836 "2019-12-14T00:33:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/1 "2019-12-14T00:33:17Z")
While we’re on the “gratuitous” theme, how about profanity put into a movie or some music just to kick the rating to a higher level, or get a “Parental Advisory” label? The best example in this from a movie was “The Pursuit of Happyness” where Will Smith’s son dropped an F bomb just to give this otherwise PG-rated movie (for adult themes) a PG-13 rating so people would be more likely to see it. And from music, the biggest one that comes to mind was from the hair band Warrant in the early days of labeling; they had a track called “Ode To Tipper Gore” that consisted entirely of profanity in an effort to get it stickered. (I tried to start this thread yesterday, and got a 404 message instead.) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/2 "2019-12-14T00:40:50Z")
[Student Bodies](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083133/) From IMDB: _In a cutaway a man explains that in order for a movie to achieve an R-rating, the most popular MPAA rating, the film needs graphic violence, sex and nudity. This film has none of that so the producers have asked him “to take this opportunity to say ‘fuck you’.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/3 "2019-12-14T00:44:32Z")
The garage shootout in “8 Million Ways To Die” with Jeff Bridges was immediately preceded by an incredible volley of profanity from the warring parties. At the time it was far and away the winner for most F\*\*\* YOU!s in a movie scene, and may never have been equaled. ---
**Author:** ![bizerta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@bizerta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizerta)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/4 "2019-12-14T12:15:33Z")
I don’t know if I’d call it gratuitous, but Barbra Streisand’s “Do us a favor and just f\*\*\* off”, in The Owl And The Pussycat, was so totally unexpected that it made the scene most memorable. So I rented the DVD about 3 years ago only to find that Columbia removed that outburst. With the outburst removed, the following scene didn’t really make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/5 "2019-12-14T15:14:52Z")
Rain Man has been criticized for Tom Cruise’s profanity. Definitely not needed in the storyline. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/6 "2019-12-14T15:33:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Rain Man has been criticized for Tom Cruise’s profanity. Definitely not needed in the storyline. I don’t remember it much but some of the language was to illustrate his sleazy character. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/7 "2019-12-14T15:34:27Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [Student Bodies](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083133/) > > From IMDB: > > _In a cutaway a man explains that in order for a movie to achieve an R-rating, the most popular MPAA rating, the film needs graphic violence, sex and nudity. This film has none of that so the producers have asked him “to take this opportunity to say ‘fuck you’.”_ I remember that one. It should be excluded under the comedic effect clause of the original thread. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/8 "2019-12-14T15:35:30Z")
Possibly at the time, it might have been this line from some old movie: “Frankly Scarlett, I don’t give a damn!” ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/9 "2019-12-14T15:39:46Z")
Nitpick: Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn. All the other “damn” and “hell” words in the book were not used in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/10 "2019-12-14T15:42:33Z")
the _Transformers_ animated movie worked in an [“oh shit”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItLgYuDaqMQ) which presumably helped it get a PG rating. The movie is cheez-ball now, but when we were 10 years old sitting in the theater we were like “he did _not_ just say that!” ---
**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:** [December 16, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/11 "2019-12-16T02:41:16Z")
[Midnight Run](https://www.theaceblackblog.com/2018/09/movie-review-midnight-run-1988.html) was heavily laced with profanity from beginning to end. I thought it was well into gratuitous territory. But what do I know? Maybe it was a realistic portrayal of how those people talk. The movie was all about some mobsters, bail bondsmen, and competing skip-tracers. Maybe that’s normal everyday talk in those lines of work. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/12 "2019-12-16T03:38:23Z")
For the opposite, one use of “Fuck _that!_” was overdubbed (poorly and obviously) into “Screw _that!_” in _Galaxy Quest_, presumably to keep a PG rating, though I’m not sure why since I don’t think it was a movie with a lot of kiddie appeal, being an extended parody/homage of the original _Star Trek_. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/13 "2019-12-16T09:16:06Z")
Planes, trains, and automobiles: [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w7z5wJZ7UgY](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w7z5wJZ7UgY) Funniest scene ever. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/14 "2019-12-16T10:11:53Z")
I’m sure _Clerks_ doesn’t break any records, but man, they cuss a lot. Just that one scene with _The Happy Scrappy Hero Pup_… Seems to me _The Aristocrats_ was noteworthy for getting an NC-17 solely on the basis of the swearing. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/15 "2019-12-16T11:24:44Z")
I’m sure Gordon Ramsay is perfectly polite and capable of explaining things to even the most poorly trained kitchen hand / hotelier in an even-tempered non-sweary way. But, if he did that, it would expose the threadbare premise of his shows even more obviously. At least the swearing and the swearing right back generates ‘drama’. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/16 "2019-12-16T11:40:24Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > [Midnight Run](https://www.theaceblackblog.com/2018/09/movie-review-midnight-run-1988.html) was heavily laced with profanity from beginning to end. I thought it was well into gratuitous territory. This is always the first movie I think of when this comes up. This scene is typical of the film: [https://youtu.be/lr2NCwIiKFY?t=60](https://youtu.be/lr2NCwIiKFY?t=60) 7 “fucks” in just 53 seconds, and that’s not even the highest “fuck” density scene in movie. ---
**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:** [December 16, 2019, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/17 "2019-12-16T12:09:05Z")
So whaddya think, **DCnDC**? Is all that profanity really gratuitous, or do practitioners in those kinds of business really talk that way? I’m still wondering about that. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/18 "2019-12-16T12:24:45Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > So whaddya think, **DCnDC**? Is all that profanity really gratuitous, or do practitioners in those kinds of business really talk that way? I’m still wondering about that. WAG: Not that I know any of these people IRL, but if one were to film some of these people for a week and edit all of the interesting parts together, I wouldn’t be surprised if it came back resembling scenes in that film. Still seems at least a bit exaggerated, though. It somewhat surprisingly didn’t even make this list: [List of films that most frequently use the word fuck - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_that_most_frequently_use_the_word_%22fuck%22) ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/19 "2019-12-16T13:30:52Z")
> [@pool](#): > > Planes, trains, and automobiles: > > [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w7z5wJZ7UgY](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w7z5wJZ7UgY) > > Funniest scene ever. I wouldn’t call that gratuitous at all. He’s tired and frustrated and venting, and all his f-bombs just set up the perfect punch line from Edie. The one I’m surprised nobody has mentioned yet was “penis breath” in ET. Wasn’t that specifically to get a PG-13 rating? ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836/20 "2019-12-16T13:36:31Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The one I’m surprised nobody has mentioned yet was “penis breath” in ET. Wasn’t that specifically to get a PG-13 rating? _E.T._ predates the PG-13 rating by 2 years. It was introduced July 1, 1984. The first film to be given the rating was _Red Dawn_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gratuitous-profanity-in-movies-and-other-entertainment/844836.md?page=2)