# The over-use of "Fuck" (and all its variations) in TV & movie dialog **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2019, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995 "2019-09-10T16:49:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bionic\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/49beb7/32.png) [@bionic\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bionic_man)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/21 "2019-09-11T00:05:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Dozens I would guess. It’s a normal part of my vocabulary; I try to watch it around kids (although I will let it slip around my kids sometimes). With people I don’t know, I will also curb it, but my natural flow of speech is peppered with emphatic “fucks” and their variations. Its lost its shock value if a film dont have curse e words that much more shocking. ---
**Author:** ![shstrang98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@shstrang98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shstrang98)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/22 "2019-09-11T00:48:30Z")
I thought it was rediculously over used in Margin Call. Wolf of Wall Street didn’t seem that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/23 "2019-09-11T08:36:30Z")
I don’t swear at all around my kids but my wife and I, when alone, swear for fun, inventively and offensively. I swear very rarely at work. I swear copiously when playing football. I don’t mind my kids watching stuff with swearing in. I’ve told my kids that I don’t care how they talk with their friends but that they need to have awareness of what they say and where they say it and the consequences thereof. That’s why they don’t hear me say it, it is a lesson from me in the possibility of moderating what you say. When their mother accidentally lets fly (which she has on occasions) they are shocked and surprised, which seems to me to be a good thing. As was mentioned above, I want the words to keep their power and using it as punctuation seems to me to be a dilution of it. I prefer it to be a rare usage and all the more shocking because of it. “always keep a cunt up your sleeve” as my old granny used to say. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/24 "2019-09-11T15:27:55Z")
I don’t think I used the F word until I was in my 30’s! I’m in my 50’s now and use it often. It’s not as taboo as it once was. I don’t use it every day. But when I do use it, it sure seems to make a point. It’s a satisfying word when I use it! My favorite variation of the word is “fiddle-fucking” as in “quit fiddle-fucking around and let’s get going.” ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/25 "2019-09-11T15:38:42Z")
The trend in usage has been toward something like this: > [@](#): > > I went to this fucking bar and saw this fucking blonde and she was fucking stacked so I fucking talked to her and bought her a couple fucking drinks until we got in her fucking car and went back to her fucking place to have sexual intercourse. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/26 "2019-09-11T15:58:05Z")
Personally, I am quite circumspect in public, and especially at work. Believe me, I have no issues with the word, but would rather not use it gratuitously. Of course among friends, and over beers and hockey, I may deviate slightly from my public persona. I started a thread once about the overuse of the word in a pub I frequent. Sometimes kids are here with parents, and sometimes, especially jazz Sundays there are elderly customers. They don’t need to be exposed to that. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/27 "2019-09-11T16:22:37Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I started a thread once about the overuse of the word in a pub I frequent. Sometimes kids are here with parents, and sometimes, especially jazz Sundays there are elderly customers. They don’t need to be exposed to that. I’m on the fence here. If I’m in a bar/restaurant and I’m sitting at the bar, letting an f-bomb drop isn’t a big deal. I’m at a bar. If you choose to bring the kids, either find a table far from the bar, or accept that language may be more coarse than your kids are used to. As for “elderly customers”, as a 61 year old, I say fuck that noise. We’re often the worst. But, yeah, “jazz Sundays” sounds like you go to a classier bar than I do. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/28 "2019-09-11T17:22:09Z")
I’m no prude and have said it many times in my life, but if I’m watching something and it’s used excessively, it can take me out of the story. I think when it’s overused in a TV show or movie, it’s simply lazy writing. Like in _Succession_. The main characters routinely use it, no joke, like every 3rd word during an emotional rant sometimes. I’ve been working most of my adult life in a high stress office environment with professionals; I’ll hear it or use it every now and then, but generally for emphasis. When it’s used in dialogue as frequently as it often is in _Succession_, it dilutes the value of the word and, in my opinion, can ruin the scene. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/29 "2019-09-11T17:44:20Z")
I teach an introduction to computer class to college students. As we talk about operating systems, I show the progression from DOS to Lisa to Mac and to Windows. To introduce Mac I show the Apple [1984](https://youtu.be/axSnW-ygU5g) commercial, which I explain to the students was shown only once during the 1984 Superbowl. I then tell them that a bunch of us computer nerds were at a friend’s house when the commercial came on. Then I say, "When the commercial was over, we turned to each other and said, ‘What the FUCK was that?’ ". It gets the biggest (shocked) laugh of the entire semester. (It’s about the only time I use fuck in my classes.) ---
**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:** [September 11, 2019, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/30 "2019-09-11T17:48:30Z")
I teach high school. Near as I can tell, teenagers use the word as punctuation. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/31 "2019-09-11T17:49:30Z")
In _ **Deadwood** _, the word “fuck” is used 2980 times in 36 episodes, at a rate of 1.56 FPM (fucks per minute). Now who the fuck will dare challenge this stat? ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/32 "2019-09-11T18:02:32Z")
I had an instructor that it was almost a nervous tic - she used it in place of the normal “um” or “ugh”. It was very odd and took some getting used to. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/33 "2019-09-11T18:16:57Z")
> [@Evin](#): > > In _ **Deadwood** _, the word “fuck” is used 2980 times in 36 episodes, at a rate of 1.56 FPM (fucks per minute). > Now who the fuck will dare challenge this stat? And yet, the dialogue is fucking Shakespearian. I don’t use it at work, because it is not appropriate in my workplace. I used to use it and an assortment of other colorful words in my off time. I now have kids, and, while I would not care if they used those words, as long as they used them correctly, I know they are not old enough to know when it’s appropriate and when it’s not. So I now use the words only very rarely, when I’m not at work and not around my kids (or other kids). Naturally, one of my kids came home from kindergarten one day spouting 4 cuss words, like a memorised recitation piece. Whoever taught him helpfully taught him how to spell fuck and shit, too. So now I have to enforce their nonusage, because I don’t want my kids to to be the ones spreading them around. Maybe I should have just been teaching them about proper context all along… ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/34 "2019-09-11T18:41:05Z")
I try to use it only sparingly and for good effect. But lately I find myself all too often muttering “fuckfuckfuckfuck” under my breath like Geoffrey Rush’s character coaching up Colin Firth in _The King’s Speech_. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/35 "2019-09-11T19:30:34Z")
> [@Gordon\_Urquhart](#): > > We watched \*It \*(2017) again last weekend in preparation for watching _It Chapter Two_ this weekend (we saw the former when it was in theaters two years ago), and I remarked to my wife that screenplay’s usage of the word “fuck” by boys in their young teens was extremely realistic (and it may not have been in the screenplay; I’ve read that a lot of the dialog was ad-libbed). It starts early, or at least it started early for my friends and me. Maybe so. But for teenagers in the 80s when the film is set, I think it was a bit much. I was a teenager in the 80s. My friends were a little rougher than the Losers Club and we used fuck freely, but my sense is that kids like the Losers didn’t use as much bad language back then as in the film. The film that first raised my eyebrows regarding overuse of the word was the Blair Witch Project. I remember thinking that the characters sounded like morons. Maybe they didn’t have a fixed script and were expected to ad lib and so just fell back on FUCK when they didn’t know what to say. Did not feel natural to me though. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/36 "2019-09-11T19:43:16Z")
I will let Stephen Fry deliver [my counterpoint to the OP.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM) I use the word dozens of times a day. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/37 "2019-09-11T21:29:20Z")
I have yet to encounter a film, TV show or book in which the use of that word seemed unrealistic, or somehow broke my immersion in the work. It seems like something that would come out of disapproval. I mean, even if it seems like a lot of use, why wouldn’t it just be part of the characterization? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/38 "2019-09-11T21:35:47Z")
> [@TGWATY](#): > > Maybe so. But for teenagers in the 80s when the film is set, I think it was a bit much. I was a teenager in the 80s. My friends were a little rougher than the Losers Club and we used fuck freely, but my sense is that kids like the Losers didn’t use as much bad language back then as in the film. I found it a bit jarring myself. When I was a teen in the 60s we wouldn’t have used “fuck” so freely at that age, nor talked about sex, although we would have when we were a few years older. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/39 "2019-09-11T22:06:03Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > I now have kids, and, while I would not care if they used those words, as long as they used them correctly, I know they are not old enough to know when it’s appropriate and when it’s not. So I now use the words only very rarely, when I’m not at work and not around my kids (or other kids). I won’t use them around other kids, but I will sometimes let an f-bomb fly in front of my 5- and 3-year olds. Perhaps that makes me a bad father, but what I find surprising is that they know that it’s not a word they’re supposed to use. Like, I never drilled it into them that it’s an “adult” word or anything like that. Somehow, both my daughters have picked up on the nature of the word and don’t use it. And it’s not like I typically use it in anger, more like disappointment or dejection or punctuation, watching a ballgame and yelling “what the fuck are you doing?!?!” or “what the fuck was _that_?” or something of that nature. It’s pretty fascinating to me how they’ve naturally just figured out there’s words they’re not supposed to say with very little explicit instruction from me (I think maybe once or twice a year I’ve told them not to use a certain word, but it’s always been pretty humorous when they’ve brought it out. Now, the 5-year-old will sometimes ask me “Can we say ‘what the hell’?” and "Can we say ‘what the heck’? And I’m like, yeah, sure, but try not to say either at school. They’ve just somehow developed a sense for it. Kids are smart.) ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995/40 "2019-09-11T22:15:09Z")
I recall Steve Martin promoting _Planes, Trains, and Automobiles_ on David Letterman’s show back in 1987. Dave asked something along the lines of “Is this a family-friendly movie?” Martin replied, “Well, I do say the f-word 21 times. (pause) But they’re all within 37 seconds.” Big laugh. I thought he was kidding until I saw the film. [That’s how you make the word _mean_ something](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWRxPDhd3d0). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-over-use-of-fuck-and-all-its-variations-in-tv-movie-dialog/839995.md?page=3)