# It's a Wonderful Life: "He's making violent love to me, mother!"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [December 30, 2022, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355 "2022-12-30T20:12:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/21 "2022-12-31T01:47:56Z")
I’m glad to see so many people here using the term “pitching woo.” That’s exactly the term I substitute in my head when I read “making love” in an old book.
Though I hate to admit it, people are in some ways right when they talk about coarsening the language. So many once innocent terms now get sniggered at because they’ve taken on connotations of sex or drugs that would have baffled people 100 years ago.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/22 "2022-12-31T03:04:18Z")
It’s [Gresham’s Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gresham's_law) applied to language.
The “bad” drives out the “good”.
The upside is that, today, women have no problem telling their doctors the difference between appendicitis and an ovarian cyst.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/23 "2022-12-31T04:02:10Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> The upside is that, today, women have no problem telling their doctors the difference between appendicitis and an ovarian cyst.
That’s hysterical. 🙂
And on other woo fronts, no actual sex is involved\*:
> **[Let's Make Love](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Make_Love)**
>
> Let's Make Love is a 1960 American musical comedy film made by 20th Century Fox in DeLuxe Color and CinemaScope. Directed by George Cukor and produced by Jerry Wald from a screenplay by Norman Krasna, Hal Kanter, and Arthur Miller, the film stars Marilyn Monroe, Yves Montand, and Tony Randall. It would be Monroe's last musical film performance.
> The plot revolves around billionaire Jean-Marc Clément who learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue. After going to the theatre, he see...
\* I’ve never seen the film, but from the wiki plot summary, I don’t even know how the title fits either definition
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### Author:  [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/24 "2022-12-31T04:06:04Z")
Oh Gawd, no! She’s saying something like, “He’s down on his knees saying how he’ll love me forever and ever,” but expecting that her mother will understand that of _course_ he isn’t _really_ doing that, because it would be rude, but hoping that her little joke will get George out of his grumpy mood.
If the Hays Office thought for a moment that she means what you’re thinking, the movie would never have been released.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/25 "2022-12-31T04:08:31Z")
I’ve heard of someone who fantasizes about Bigfoot. Surely that would be ‘violent’. I mean, its not like he’s bringing flowers and shit.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/26 "2022-12-31T05:15:18Z")
Well, not the flowers…
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### Author:  [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2022, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/27 "2022-12-31T05:33:58Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> In the 1940 Three Stooges episode [“Boobs in Arms”](https://youtu.be/1lyJtwhg-pg?t=164) Moe advises a woman whose husband is neglecting her to “get somebody to make love to you”.
He said Boobs!!!
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/28 "2023-01-01T05:48:34Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#):
>
> I’ve heard of someone who fantasizes about Bigfoot. Surely that would be ‘violent’. I mean, its not like he’s bringing flowers and shit.
Women fantasize about all sorts of weird stuff. I’ve read fantasy/sci-fi romance with everything from tentacle creatures to orcs to spider-people. It doesn’t really do anything for me personally, but I’ll still enjoy the book if it’s a nice story. Sometimes they will surprise you. And yeah sometimes Bigfoot totally does bring flowers. What do you think he is, a monster?
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/29 "2023-01-01T08:07:37Z")
Based on the mother’s reaction, she could very well have said, “I’m going down on him, Mother!”
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### Author:  [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/30 "2023-01-01T09:48:59Z")
You’d be surprised at the connotations “baffled” will have in 100 years!
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> That’s hysterical. 🙂
Connotationwise, 100 years ago? Yes, literally.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/31 "2023-01-01T17:40:01Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#):
>
> You’d be surprised at the connotations “baffled” will have in 100 years!
Try the third definition right now on UrbanDictionary!
Probably, 100 years in the future UrbanDictionary will be as revered as the OED. (Which also has surprises there.)
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/32 "2023-01-01T18:10:20Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#):
>
> If the Hays Office thought for a moment that she means what you’re thinking, the movie would never have been released.
Are you sure about that? Potter gets away with the theft of $8,000.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/33 "2023-01-01T18:46:58Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> Try the third definition right now on UrbanDictionary!
And the first definition on Urban Dictionary helpfully tells us that “baffled” means a combination of “confused” and “baffled”.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/34 "2023-01-01T18:56:37Z")
Going to do as I do and assume the screenwriters were literate enough to knowingly drop a double-entendre in a place where they thought they could get away with it.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/35 "2023-01-01T20:30:44Z")
No question that screenwriters always tried to sneak double-entendres in.
But the term “making love” was ubiquitous in that era. I can’t remember a single use I thought was intended as a double-entendre, and one would be glaring to a 21st century sensibility. It always surprises by being such an innocuous term that it takes a modern reader or viewer out of the scene.
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### Author:  [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/36 "2023-01-01T21:36:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> But the term “making love” was ubiquitous in that era. I can’t remember a single use I thought was intended as a double-entendre, and one would be glaring to a 21st century sensibility.
This.
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### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/37 "2023-01-01T21:38:16Z")
From _The Mummy_ (1932), our heroine says “Don’t you think I’ve had enough excitement for one day, without a strange man making love to me?”
That’s in response to the nerdy hero simply talking about how fascinating she is.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/38 "2023-01-01T21:40:38Z")
I always liked the scene with bathrobes after George and Mary fell into the pool.
It was sexy and kind of sweet at the same time.
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### Author:  [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/39 "2023-01-01T22:01:28Z")
From December 1952 “I Love Lucy”
Ethel:Oh, we ought to do this more often.
Fred: Oh, boy, I love to dance, but I haven’t danced in a while.
I’m a little out of condition.
Ethel:A little out of condition? He puffs so much, it’s like dancing with a steam engine.
Fred:(laughs) Steam engines always puff when they’re pushing a heavy load.
EthelIs that so? Now, listen, Fred…
Lucy: Now, now, now, wait a minute, you two, no bickering.
I’m having a wonderful time.
I don’t want anything to spoil this evening.
Ethel: We’re not bickering, that’s how **we make love**.
In modern terms, what seems like mean teasing to Lucy is how Fred and Ethel show affection for each other.
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### Author:  [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2023, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-hes-making-violent-love-to-me-mother/977355/40 "2023-01-01T22:27:44Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> I’m glad to see so many people here using the term “pitching woo.” That’s exactly the term I substitute in my head when I read “making love” in an old book.
What does a Chinese baseball player have to do with anything?
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