And then the sun itself will turn us all to sand

[sovay]

Spurred by a gloomy desire to know what the hell movie Spike Lee's era-defining Do the Right Thing (1989) lost Best Original Screenplay to at the 62nd Academy Awards, spatch and I just spent the last hour reading Oscar nominations and results from 1990 onward, an activity punctuated by frequent cries of "[X] was robbed!" "[Y] should have been nominated!" and "That was poop!" I had forgotten how many years I had opinions about. I've seen even more of those movies now. I have more opinions.

The answer to our original question, by the way, was Dead Poets Society. My opinion about that is: "That was poop!"

Comments

[sovay]

I want to know if your poop expletive was prompted by rachelmanija's recent entry, or whether it would have been the expletive of choice anyway.

It's a reference to The State's "Tenement" sketch, which I would link if I could find the original on YouTube; the conceit is that it's a hard-hitting, unvarnished, Arthur Miller-esque drama of working-class life which the cast is being obliged to perform in a G-rated version for TV, so that among other euphemized surrealism one character gives vent to their existential angst with a great howl of "POOOOOOOOOOOOP!"

[choco_frosh]

There's a hilarious scene by Frye and Laurie where they've been forced to invent their own swearwords to make the sketch safe for television. I couldn't find a full video off-hand, but on the other hand I did find Frye musing more generally on the subject of swearing:

On the joys of swearing

[sovay]

There's a hilarious scene by Frye and Laurie where they've been forced to invent their own swearwords to make the sketch safe for television.

Okay, that's brilliant.

On the joys of swearing

"The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just fucking lunatic."

[ethelmay]

I remember my mother telling me when I was a kid that gangster movies in the days of the film code had to employ all sorts of snarling accents in order to disguise the fact that their "swear words" were things on the level of "My stars!" and "Heavens to Betsy!"

[sovay]

I remember my mother telling me when I was a kid that gangster movies in the days of the film code had to employ all sorts of snarling accents in order to disguise the fact that their "swear words" were things on the level of "My stars!" and "Heavens to Betsy!"

I once read that David Milch started writing Deadwood with period-accurate minced profanity like "tarnation" and "consarnit" and had to give it up because, as he told the interviewer, to a modern ear it just sounded like Yosemite Sam.

[asakiyume]

Hilarious--I hope they were playing it at least a little for laughs.

[sovay]

Hilarious--I hope they were playing it at least a little for laughs.

Oh, yeah.