# When did movies regularly start to have bad language in them? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 23, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101 "2012-06-23T21:27:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/1 "2012-06-23T21:27:35Z")
And what was considered bad language in movies before this (whenever it was)? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/2 "2012-06-23T22:02:29Z")
The various censors and regulators (the Movie Code, the Legion of Decency (for Catholics), the state censors) lost most of their power in the 1950s. By the 1960s, filmmakers started using more nudity, violence, and “bad” language. Foreign films led the way because they were shown mostly in small, specialized theaters to audiences who weren’t about to complain. Hollywood saw this and wanted to follow. It didn’t happen overnight, and not all in one movie. It was something here and something there and a bit of something over yonder until by the 70s most of the taboos were broken. The MPAA rating system started in 1968. I’m not sure what you mean when you ask what was considered “bad” before this. Damn obviously was, because there was such a fuss when Rhett Butler says, “Frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn” in Gone With the Wind in 1939. Do you mean what euphemisms were used instead? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/3 "2012-06-23T22:12:37Z")
I can tell you that M_A_S\*H (1970) is reportedly the first major studio film to use the word “fuck.” From it’s [Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH_%28film%29): “In his director’s commentary on the DVD release, Altman says that MASH was the first major studio film to use the word ‘fuck’ in its dialogue. The word is spoken during the football game near the end of the film by ‘The Painless Pole’ when he says to an opposing football player, ‘All right, Bud, this time your fucking head is coming right off!’ The actor, John Schuck, has said in several interviews that Altman encouraged ad-libbing, and that particular statement made it into the film without a second thought. Interestingly, the offending word was not censored during a late-night broadcast of the film on ABC in 1985; subsequent broadcasts of the film on network television have the word removed altogether.” ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/4 "2012-06-23T22:21:01Z")
I was going to say, “after Mel Brooks hit his stride but before Richard Pryor,” which would be the 70’s. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2012, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/5 "2012-06-23T22:47:43Z")
Not quite bad language, but PSYCHO (1960) was the first movie to actually show a toilet. (A clue was torn up and flushed.) ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/6 "2012-06-24T00:03:34Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I can tell you that M_A_S\*H (1970) is reportedly the first major studio film to use the word “fuck.” > > From it’s [Wikipedia entry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASH_%28film%29): > > “In his director’s commentary on the DVD release, Altman says that MASH was the first major studio film to use the word ‘fuck’ in its dialogue. The word is spoken during the football game near the end of the film by ‘The Painless Pole’ when he says to an opposing football player, ‘All right, Bud, this time your fucking head is coming right off!’ The actor, John Schuck, has said in several interviews that Altman encouraged ad-libbing, and that particular statement made it into the film without a second thought. Interestingly, the offending word was not censored during a late-night broadcast of the film on ABC in 1985; subsequent broadcasts of the film on network television have the word removed altogether.” Ironically, another “war film”, but completely different tone from MASH, that featured lots of bad language that come out around the same time is “Patton”. In fact, when it was shown on network TV in late 1972 (really big things back then, when top movies would first be broadcast on network TV), much was made on how it was considered vital to the portrayal of Old Blood and Guts to allow most of the naughty words in (although they edited out the opening monologue when he mentions “shoveling shit in Louisiana”. Ironically another conservative icon who pushed the envelope was John Wayne, facing off against Robert Duvall in “True Grit”. Wayne later sheepishly said that in those circumstances, he couldn’t say “Fill your hand, you illegitimate so and so”. And I don’t think The Duke used much, if any, profanity in subsequent films. ---
**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:** [June 24, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/7 "2012-06-24T01:01:55Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Not quite bad language, but PSYCHO (1960) was the first movie to actually show a toilet. (A clue was torn up and flushed.) Maybe\* a \*toilet. But in 1958 [No Time for Sergeants](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052005/)had a whole row of them. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/8 "2012-06-24T01:13:04Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Maybe\* a \*toilet. But in 1958 [No Time for Sergeants](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052005/)had a whole row of them. Wasn’t there one shown in _The Crowd_ (1928)? But that’s a whole other thread . . . Forgot! There was lots and lots of foul language in _What Price Glory?_ (1926) for lip-readers to enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/9 "2012-06-24T02:04:39Z")
Just an anecdote, but when I was about 13 my mother wouldn’t let me go see a movie because it was dirty. The movie was ‘The Moon is Blue’ and the ( **only** ) dirty word was ‘virgin’. Interestingly, I didn’t see that movie for many years after that and it was hilarious. Sorry I didn’t see it then. Bob ---
**Author:** ![urban1a](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47c2d/32.png) [@urban1a](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/urban1a)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/10 "2012-06-24T02:39:21Z")
> [@urban1a](#): > > Just an anecdote, but when I was about 13 my mother wouldn’t let me go see a movie because it was dirty. The movie was ‘The Moon is Blue’ and the ( **only** ) dirty word was ‘virgin’. > > Interestingly, I didn’t see that movie for many years after that and it was hilarious. Sorry I didn’t see it then. > > Bob Missed the edit window. I should have said that that dirty movie was out in about 1953 or 1954. Bob ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/11 "2012-06-24T02:49:08Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Ironically, another “war film”, but completely different tone from MASH, that featured lots of bad language that come out around the same time is “Patton”. In fact, when it was shown on network TV in late 1972 (really big things back then, when top movies would first be broadcast on network TV), much was made on how it was considered vital to the portrayal of Old Blood and Guts to allow most of the naughty words in (although they edited out the opening monologue when he mentions “shoveling shit > in Louisiana”. I remember that TV premier of _Patton_ very well. It was a big event. This is later on than the OP is asking about, but that reminds me of watching _A Bridge Too Far_ on both HBO and regular network TV at the same time in the late 1970s. Maybe 1980. Thanks to cable, network premiers of big movies like that were waning, but for some reason they showed this one in the same month that HBO was. There’s a scene where I think it’s Elliot Gould drives up to a bridge he hopes is still intact. It is still intact. He stops and lets out a sigh of relief. Then it blows up right in front of him. HBO of course kept his original reaction of “Shit! Fuck! Motherfucker!” etc, a long stream of obscenities. Watching the network version, my roommate and I were rolling with laughter as he went: “Oh my! Gosh! Golly! Darn it!” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/12 "2012-06-24T03:51:11Z")
[Anatomy of a Murder](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_a_Murder) (1959) springs to mind. It was a courtroom drama about a rape case. Besides clinical terms, I remember hearing “slut.” Of course, before 1934 there were some too. You can listen for some "son of a bitch"es and "like hell"s in [Hell’s Angels](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell%27s_Angels_(film)), and at the end of this [Flip the Frog](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE7Fxv5h7tA)cartoon from the early 1930s. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/13 "2012-06-24T04:35:12Z")
Everyone is assuming that the OP is referring to Hollywood movies, because not one of the answers addresses any movies not made or distributed in America. Not to say I have authoritative answers, but I find the assumptions interesting. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/14 "2012-06-24T04:40:05Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > Not quite bad language, but PSYCHO (1960) was the first movie to actually show a toilet. (A clue was torn up and flushed.) True, but it must be pointed out people didn’t actually have to go potty until after 1995. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/15 "2012-06-24T04:45:31Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Wasn’t there one shown in _The Crowd_ (1928)? But that’s a whole other thread . . . > > Forgot! There was lots and lots of foul language in _What Price Glory?_ (1926) for lip-readers to enjoy. Lots of really early movies were pretty filthy, that’s why they had the Hays Code. > **[Hays Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code)** > > The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays's leadership, the MPPDA, later the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Motion Picture Association... ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/16 "2012-06-24T05:27:53Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Everyone is assuming that the OP is referring to Hollywood movies, because not one of the answers addresses any movies not made or distributed in America. Not to say I have authoritative answers, but I find the assumptions interesting. Me too. I’ve always heard the British film _I’ll Never Forget What’s’Isname_ (1967) was the first to have the word “fuck” in it. It was a fairly big release, starring Orson Welles, Oliver Reed, and Marianne Faithfull, who got to say the word. “Regularly” as per the OP is difficult to assess, but that kind of language got more and more common from that point on. Meanwhile in America, as late as 1966, _Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf_ had to get special exemption from the Production Code for using such laughable phrases as “hump the hostess.” ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/17 "2012-06-24T05:41:38Z")
_Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid_ (1969) was the first movie I recall hearing the word **shit** in. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/18 "2012-06-24T07:59:41Z")
_Gone with the Wind_ (1939) said “damn.” But I get what the OP means. At some point in the 1960s, profanity became common. Maybe it became common _again_, coming back around from the pre-Hays Code, but I think that’s what he means. Regarding that, a little googling shows me that 1966 seems to have been a watershed year for profanity and explicit sexual content in movie dialogue, with _Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?_ opening the floodgate. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/19 "2012-06-24T08:37:52Z")
In John Wayne’s _The Green Berets_ (1968), the sergeant says “Bastards!” when Peterson is killed by a VC booby trap. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2012, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101/20 "2012-06-24T08:55:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > In John Wayne’s _The Green Berets_ (1968), the sergeant says “Bastards!” when Peterson is killed by a VC booby trap. I saw lots of movies in 1968 that had profanity. Again, it gets back to 1966. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-movies-regularly-start-to-have-bad-language-in-them/626101.md?page=2)