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Wednesday 9 October 2013

Is the F-word funny?

The Indoor Writer took a new piece of Flash out for a test run at a local Poetry & Prose Slam event at the weekend. She was lucky enough to be picked (names out of a box) and found herself reading on stage to an audience. Thankfully, she'd rehearsed the piece several times (too many times shout the rest of the family) in the kitchen with a stopwatch to ensure it met the 5 minute rule. She also tried out a bit of acting ...

The reading and the event was a success. The audience actually laughed in all the right places and oohed a few times too. All good. A writing friend commented on how calm she appeared, which is odd because she didn't feel it at the time!

Many of the poems and stories read were written to make an audience laugh. Always a good tip for entering a slam competition. But worryingly many relied on expletives to get a giggle. Now I'm no prude, and the Indoor Writer is not adverse to the F-word in her short fiction or a bit of sauce in her Flash, but it does start to grate with over use. The winning story was very funny and performed expertly by the author, who seemed quite capable of doing a stand-up routine (possibly he does this already?). The material was almost suited to stand-up - the spoof minutes of an office meeting. Anyone who has ever worked in an office environment would have recognised all the in-jokes and truisms. It was genuinely funny and cleverly written. But would it and other pieces have been equally comic without the F-word? Once can be effective and VERY funny, but repetitive use wears thin. Or it does for me.

What do you think?

15 comments:

  1. I have to say, Tracy - I'm not a big fan, which is probably why I don't like a lot of stand up comics.

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    1. It's definitely overused in the stand-up I see on the TV, Wendy.

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  2. I think it's a bit of a 'cheap laugh' to use the 'f' word. And most of the time, it's not even funny. Being funny without resorting to 'bad language' (ooh get me, I sound like Mary Whitehouse), is, imo, the sign of a true comic/writer. So there!

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    1. Have to join you in the Mary Whitehouse corner, Helen, there are more subtle (and skilled) ways to get a laugh

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  3. I think it depends on the context; like any other word, you have to decide if it's the best in that particular sentence. Usually it's the easy option, but just occasionally it's delivered cleverly, or in a context where its absence wouldn't be realistic. But it does get rather distasteful after a while.

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    1. Agree about context, Jenny. Expletives appropriately placed in a piece can be powerful words. It's the lazy sprinkling of such words that irritates me.

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  4. Once at the absolute most, Tracy - then I find it extremely annoying and unnecessary! Well done on reading your own story aloud like that.

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    1. Thanks, Rosemary, it was actually quite fun to do a reading.

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  5. I find the F-word a complete turn off. It's certainly not funny. So well done to you for getting laughs without it.

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  6. I think they should be used in the same way Elmore Leonard recommended exclamation marks - sparingly!

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    1. That's a good analogy, Peter, thanks! (just the one)

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  7. I can't think of a single time I found anything funnier because there was a swear word (or several) in it. There might be situations where swearing is needed for humorous effect , but usually it isn't.

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    1. Have to agree, Patsy. It would be a good exercise for writers to remove the swear words - if the humour/writing is working then the piece should still be funny,

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  8. I think it works if it's unexpected. Overuse just indicates the writer is out of ideas.

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