MGoBlog's Colorful Open Michigan Game Threads - WARNING: Inappropriate Language

Submitted by CooperLily21 on

(Below contains information provided by a very good friend, someone who is much more proficient in counting, charting, and general attention-paying than me.  Credit should be given where credit is due (to him) and criticism should be given where criticism is due (also to him).  I consider myself to be a mere conduit of information because he was too Notre Dame (read: chicken) to post this himself and apparently wants to remain anonymous...).

We are a colorful bunch.  From all different walks of life and across the globe, we gather to learn, discuss, and follow Michigan football in the Fall.  We read and then watch and then read some more.  Some of us even read WHILE we watch.  And so it goes every week in the gameday open threads.  Aside from the love (and sometimes hate) we all have for Michigan, we have at least one more thing in common . . . our use of curse words.  That is the topic of this thread:

In the Akron open threads, we contributed 131 "fuck"s to the discussion (113 in the first half, 18 in the second half).  That number was bested in the UConn open threads, which saw 165 "fuck"s (118 in the first half and 47 in the second half). 

The use of "shit" trailed our clear preference of the word "fuck" (as "shit" is clearly not as effective as "fuck" in certain situations requiring a more nuclear reaction).  We had 59 "shit"s in the Akron threads and 46 "shit"s in the UConn thread

Interestingly, the use of "suck" was much more prevelant in the UConn threads (102 in the first half, 12 in the second half) than in the Akron threads (65 in the first half, 5 in the second half), which is interesting because one might hypothesize that Michigan sucked equally in both games.

The use of "damn" in the two threads was pretty consistent, it only being deployed 23 times during the Akron game and 20 times during the UConn game.  However, much more alarming is the increase in the use of "put in Morris" from the Akron thread to the UConn thread - almost 20 more people want to see Gardner replaced this week than they did last week (25 versus 8, respectively).

For your viewing pleasure, below are exceprts of open threads from the past two weeks:

 

Akron:

UConn:

 

What, you may be asking yourself, does all of this mean?  It means we are a very colorful bunch.  Colorful and extremely NSFW, NSFMrs.K, and NSFChildrenUnderTheAgeof16.  So, on behalf of all you fathers that let your young children read these threads:  

Hey, shitheads, please stop fucking swearing in the goddamn open game threads or they're going to put in Morris, which might very well suck!

MGoBoard
Football
open threads
shit
NSFW
fuck
2013 Akron
2013 UConn
cursing
NSWMrs.K
suck
put in Morris
damn

mGrowOld

September 23rd, 2013 at 3:32 PM ^

I was good in the game thread (had to go back and check) but I do admidt to contributing 10 fucks and one fuckity in the game day Heiko thread.

Do those count?

Joined: 10/04/2010

MGoPoints: 213348

StephenRKass

September 23rd, 2013 at 3:37 PM ^

Nothing new under the sun. This just is the way some people talk. My son has played football four years now . . . he's the middle linebacker for his middle school team. Some of the coaches on some of the teams are pretty raw in their language. And yes, it is all over the schools. He went to a parochial school until this year, and I think the locker room there was worse than his current public school.

As regards myself, and my wife, I really don't care what other people write. Everyone is different, and needs to suit themselves. Boobie pics are a bit more obvious. I also appreciate when paint pics prominently focusing on male genitalia are appropriately flagged. I guess I wouldn't like audio files that were pretty raw, and would want them flagged too. However, I rarely listen to those here, so it doesn't really matter.

Addendum:  Here are a couple factoids you may find interesting from the Bible on offensive language.

  1. In Galatians, Paul is dealing with some people insisting that you really have to be circumcised (to be a Christian.) He writes, in Gal. 5:12, (loose translation) "Why stop with circumcision? They should go the whole way and cut their balls off."
  2. In Isaiah, the author is talking about the good things we do (righteous acts.) He writes in Isaiah 64:6, describing so called good acts, (again, loose translation,) "Our best efforts are worse than used, bloody, maxipads."

My point is that even the Bible authors used pretty raw language to get their point across (and so, I'm not surprised that mgousers are pretty raw with their language in expressing their frustration.)

Final observation:  when you overuse a word, it ceases to have the same effect. IIRC, Brian observes this principle, and shows judicious use of the F word in what he writes. By reserving its use to extreme situations, frustrated fans show self-control, and their rare use of this and other words is stronger by way of contrast with their usual language. Where would I condone such word usage? Well, the Horror qualifies. So would a last second loss to Ohio or MSU, where we should have won, but were robbed by the refs or by a monumental judgement error. Say, for instance, Gardner threw an interception in the endzone against Ohio in the last minute of the game and we lost because of it. That would be worthy of such language. Scratching out wins against Akron & UConn? Not in the same league.

Joined: 07/15/2008

MGoPoints: 23105

ChopBlock

September 23rd, 2013 at 11:06 PM ^

The last paragraphs are fascinating. We're fine with sex now, but death, disability, and race are the new areas of high offense? I tend to believe that. Fuck fuckity fucking cunt. But dare somebody say "nigger", "chink" "polack", "retard", etc, people get offended.

Not to say which of the above words are right or wrong, but it is fascinating that, even as our language gets more free in some areas (sex), it gets more constrained in others (race). Does swearing cease to be swearing if it ceases to be offensive? And if so, do people who think "yeah  I'm fine with swearing" really mean it? Would they be OK with talking about "niggers"?

And it gets even more interesting. In some languages and cultures (I'm thinking particularly of peninsular Spanish), you can use pretty much any word you want (,"mierda" is pretty fucking mild), and swearing consists of obscene descriptions. "I shit on your mother's grave" is a fun and horrifying one. Here in the states, references to crapping on a grave would be considered vile and tasteless, but not "swearing" per se, unless you used the magic "swear word" referring to defectation, shit. 

Language is fun, is it not?

Joined: 12/11/2011

MGoPoints: 2912

One Inch Woody…

September 23rd, 2013 at 6:04 PM ^

Honestly, there's no reason to swear out of surprise from this point forward.. The language will definitely be toned down in our upcoming losses. By now we know that this team is not good and will lose numerous games that we previously thought were winnable

Joined: 06/25/2011

MGoPoints: 1434

Smash Lampjaw

September 23rd, 2013 at 8:13 PM ^

with such language is that it gets added to the spell check dictionary, and appears later in some unintended locations. By that I mean that when I see them in unexpected contexts I assume it is someone's auto fill acting up. Sort of digital Tourette's. There must be a Reddit thread about this.

Joined: 11/10/2011

MGoPoints: 2370