Common Decency
Great moments in F-bombs: Joe Biden joins an exclusive class
Vice President Joe Biden was certainly not at a loss for words when he described the passing of the hotly contested health care reform bill as a “Big fucking deal." While President Obama looked slightly pained by the description, the comment has generated conversation among media pundits and created an Internet frenzy that almost overshadowed the BFD itself.
While noteworthy, it certainly was not the first time that magic word has been the center of attention. Here are some of the more notable uses of the F-word:
*The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger featured an early use in print. First published in the United States in 1951, the novel remains controversial to this day due to its use of the word, ranking 13th on the list of books most often banned, according to the American Library Association.
*Kenneth Tynan, a British drama critic was the first man ever to drop an F-bomb on live TV in 1965 when he asked, “What exactly is wrong with the word ‘fuck'?"
*Robert Altman’s movie M*A*S*H released in 1970 was the first major Hollywood film to use the F-word even though it was never in the original script.
*Paul Shaffer was supposed to say “floggin” during a sketch about a medieval band rehearsing a song on a Saturday Night Live episode in 1980, but it didn’t come out that way. The incident went largely unnoticed.
*In 1983, the film Scarface featured the F-word a whopping 206 times. It got so bad that in one scene, Tony Montana’s girlfriend asks him, “Can’t you stop saying 'fuck' all the time?”
*Not to be outdone, Martin Scorsese set a new record in 1995 when his film Casino used the F-word 442 times, which comes out to an astounding 2.4 times per minute F-word average.
*U2’s Bono dropped an F-bomb at the 2003 Golden Globe Awards. Rolling Stone magazine reports that 11 Republicans then sponsored a resolution to have the FCC revoke the licenses of TV stations that repeatedly air indecent material.
*In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney told Democratic senator Patrick Leahy to "Go fuck yourself." Ironically, Cheney's outburst occurred on the same day that the Defense of Decency Act was passed in the Senate.
*At the Live 8 concert in London in 2005, rapper Snoop Dogg asked the crowd to put their “motherfucking” hands in the air before an estimated audience of 3.5 billion people.
