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Colorful Language
By Paul | August 17, 2009
I’ve often referred to the comics page as the last bastion of Victorian thought, but even I am still baffled from time to time at what you can NOT say on the comics page. In the strip below, what I really wanted Poncho’s line to be was “Crazy sonnava bitch.”
It worked especially well within the context of the faux war-era setting surrounding it. But I knew of course that I couldn’t get away with that line on the comics page. So I made it “crazy som’ beech.” Euphemizing an already mild curse. My editor warned me it might cause a problem, but I truly believed in this day and age who would really care about a passing substitute for a mild cuss like that? Well, one paper refused to print it straight away. I got word of that and we agreed to change it to “crazy fool.” Nice and boring.
After getting that news I sat down and ate some food watching an old ep of The Simpsons. Ironically it had to do with Homer having a “potty mouth” and Flanders calling him on it. When Flanders confronts him he says he understands Homer’s position, asking who among us doesn’t sometimes “pull a boner, go off half-cocked, make an ass of one’s self.” Wow. I couldn’t say “boner,” “cocked”, or “ass”, no matter what the context. Here is a prime time show that ran 15 years ago and has run hundreds of times since (and just for fun happens to be about a man of church trying to make a point about the use of bad language), and it’s miles more lenient than the medium of free press. How sorry am I for attempting to corrupt the fragile young minds of the world with my sailor talk. (This is, of course, assuming anyone under the age of 20 is still reading newspapers.) I do apologize if anyone’s child has stumbled upon my little blog here, and has had their eyes burned by the word “beech” and embarked forthwith on a life of irredemption and bad fashion choices. Lord deliver us all from H E double hockey sticks. (Can I say that?).
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Comments
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August 17th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
Its a shame that people get offended over something like that when you can go into any store or walk down any street and hear children who can’t even read, use language that would make a sailor blush. (no offense to the Heros in uniform serving our country).The sad part is they are usually with their parents.
Keep up the good work Paul. Its good to start the day with a smile after reading PC in the morning.
This adventure reminds me of a good Lee Marvin war flick.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Paul, your rant has been approved by ~this~ Pooch Café fan, anyway.
(Sad to say, but if you believe anyone under the age of 20 is ~reading~ period, you’re an optimist. This latest experience of yours is yet another example of why newspapers are dying - in large part due to the clueless nimrods running ‘em…into the ground.)
-Doug
August 17th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I don’t think George Carlin ever spent much time thinking about ‘beech’ when he was making his infamous list…
August 17th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Paul, what can be said? There is such filth and perversion on regular TV as we’ve become desensitized. How does “beech” compare? It’s absurd!
The Simpsons do push that envelope all the time. The double entendre and innuendo is constant. Don’t even bring up Family guy. I rarely do this —>
and Family Guy has made even me blush a couple of times.
But I think the issue here is the comics. The comics are still seen as The Funnies. I think ppl associate them with younger readers, which I don’t believe to be true, but I think ppl still see it like “swearing” in a room full of kindergartners.
That being said, that’s kind of their problem. It’s an art form and if their ignorance will not allow them to understand that, what can you do?
I personally loved it. Poncho stepped out of the box while saying something totally in step with his character. Pooch Cafe is never boring. Like The Simpsons, it’s forever fresh and funny.
I certainly don’t think you have to apologize for any of it. Geez, let them read some of the old Robert Crumb stuff if they want to freak out, and I don’t mean his “Keep On Truckin’” stuff either.
Lulu
August 18th, 2009 at 1:28 am
You should hear my five year old… where she picked it all up from I’ll never know.
August 18th, 2009 at 2:24 am
Actually, I think it works better as “som’ beech” - gives it a nice Texas drawl or something which I can just imagine coming from Platoon or Apocalypse Now.
But yes I think the whole “[ video games | movies | comics | whatever ] are corrupting our children!!!” argument gets a little over-used.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:04 am
I am in full agreement with these comments. Compared to other strips, yours is incredibly mild. Personally, I’d be more concerned with my (fictional) children seeing Bucky beating up on Satchel constantly and Rat being such a jerk to Pig.
And I’d be horrified if my kids ever read Family Circus or Marmaduke, but that’s just me.
August 18th, 2009 at 5:08 am
people are odd about stuff like that, everyone thought Michal Jackson was experimenting with the occult because there were Zombies in ‘Thriller,’ what do they say about Vincent Price!
August 18th, 2009 at 5:41 am
When I was younger, my dog Champ was a son of a bitch. Buba, my other dog, was a daughter of a bitch. So cartoon Poncho must be the son of a cartoon bitch and his sidekick, the one in question, must also be a son of a cartoon bitch. People should stop bitching about nothing and get serious. Whew, sometimes I wonder…….ain’t life a bitch!
August 18th, 2009 at 6:29 am
^^^
nocats brings up a good point. If your kid is still wondering where Jeffy’s dotted line is going, you have more problems than pseudo profanity!
Lulu
August 18th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Having worked in all male service and engineering departments for millennia, very little profanity offends me. I can out-cuss just about everybody. Why such a harmless and non-profane statement was refused print is much more offensive to me. Bitch is NOT a dirty word, as Kathy Baker so clearly points out. As a professional Grammar Bitch, I consider it a complement. Paul, never apologize for being funny. We need funny.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:10 am
I agree that ’some beech’ is funnier, anyway. Anyone who saw “Smokey and the Bandit” will remember Jackie Gleason (a comic god!) and his hilarious portrayal of Sheriff Buford T. Justice, a Texas County Sheriff who chase Burt Reynolds from Texarkana all the way to nearly the east coast. He freuquently referred to those in his way, as well as the Bandit, as a ’some beech’.
I especially loved the line ‘I’m gonna BBQ your ass!”
Anyway, I’ve found that phonetically spelled and grammatically corrupted curse words are often funnier than the real thing.
IMHO, of course.
August 18th, 2009 at 10:32 am
Man what is the world coming to. I know you cant Paul but I can tell them to pound sand
August 18th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Whats the big deal… I go crazy on the beech all the time….
Don’t worry Paul, you were dead on with the commentary and our fighting people would not mind the comments either…
August 18th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
dollysmaid: In my company, the tech writers are probably the most profane, outstripping the engineers and QA people by a long shot. I think it’s the crappy help authoring software that regularly crashes, the opaque answers we get from engineers, the team members deciding to only get around to reviewing the docs ten minutes before the software CD needs to be burned….So yeah, not easily offended here!
August 18th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Everyone is so correct. Paul, I’m glad to see you push the envelope as far as you believe is possible. Ranger, I remember George Carlin saying he always wanted to be on the panel with Johnny, Doc, and Ed and when the camera wasn’t focusing on him, mouthing ‘I hope all you f***ing lip readers are watching.’ (ha, look at me, editing my words, too) Maybe Paul could try a subtle background experiment.
August 19th, 2009 at 7:58 am
There’s nothing.. really.. that means “Crazy som’ Beech” should be taken out.. I agree with nocats, for some reason, you don’t get away with some stuff that you should. Compared to almost everything else..
August 19th, 2009 at 8:52 am
After reading everyone else’s comments, I have nothing I can add except, right on, Paul–I really dug your rant!
Do you ever see the Unnecessary Censor bit on Jimmy Kimmel? Funny as…H E double hockey sticks!
August 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
and tech writers are usually grammatically correct in their profanity. . .
August 22nd, 2009 at 1:33 am
I thought is was typical Poncho. Give a listen sometime to Blake Shelton singing ‘Some Beach’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCltaFVDmsM
August 26th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Nice strip. Ever consider assembling a master list of words or terms you can’t use in your strips, for the sake of amusement? I’d like to think that it’s a fluid interpretation of context, but I doubt that’s the case given the long history of the funnies in the dailies.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:14 am
Hi Paul. This is Matt W.
First, what a great series of strips. This is seriously some of your best work, from inception to finish. Yowza.
Second, Poncho’s an actual son of a bitch. I know censors have no sense of humor about themselves, but still…
Third, I think “crazy som’ beech” is pretty hilarious. It has a great ring to it. “Crazy fool,” of course, isn’t funny at all. I wish editors could remember that humor strips are supposed to be funny.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:38 am
Thanks for all the encouraging words, guys. I do indeed try to push boundaries here where I can. The Rosa Parks of comics? Nah, just watching too much South Park. Matt, it is important to note that my personal editor, Mr Glynn, is not responsible for the narrow-minded thinking that makes this necessary, it’s just part of his job to flag potential problems, but we’re all more at the mercy of the comics page editors of papers, who allow themselves to be dictated to by a whiney, letter-writing minority. Ah well, the wheel keeps turning…