Television
The worst word imaginable
Martyn Harris
Bugger, I discovered on Saturday bene- fit of Auberon Waugh, had nothing to do with anal intercourse in its origin but derives from 14th-century Bulgarian heretics (`You silly Bulgars') and devel- oped into a general term of abuse for out- siders. (Without Walls: Expletives Deleted, Channel 4, 11.05 p.m.). Waugh's point was the familiar one that obscenity is arbitrary. There is nothing in swear words themselves to cause offence. That comes from tran- sient social convention rather than some inherent potency of language.
Jonathon Green, an etymologist, was wheeled on to testify that most of today's obscenities: fuck, shit, cunt, bastard etc., were seen as unremarkable before the 'Vic- torian thought police' staged their clamp- down in the 1840s. In the 15th century sex- ual and excretory terms were merely functional, and it was blasphemous ones which were offensive. 'Oddsbodldns', the charming contraction of 'God's little body' was particularly savage, as were `Gog' and `Cokk' (euphemisms for the deity) and 'Snails' (God's nails).
In his introduction Waugh seemed to suggest that swear words were losing their force through over-use, and they should therefore be used more sparingly, but as Lenny Bruce used to argue, real language is not subject to injunction, however well- meaning (though he didn't put it quite like that).
It is language which invents us, and not the other way around, which makes any attempt at regulation ultimately ridiculous. There was a good example in the four most 'sensitive' words, listed in dulcet tones by Andrea Milwood-Hargrave of the Broad- casting Standards Council. They were fuck, cunt and motherfucker, which were pre- dictable, and 'nigger' which is decidedly curious, since it is one of the commonest words in the lexicon of young blacks, and a term of approbation to boot (`You baa-ad nigger'). Enlightened white folk have learned to be sensitive about racist lan- guage to the extent that there is now a bur- geoning taboo structure surrounding it — which in turn lends it the same potency that was once reserved for blasphemy. Swearing is subversive and attempts at reg- ulation simply create new targets for sub- version — which leads to the interesting conclusion that it is really Mary White- house we have to blame for all the filth on television.
Mary would have enjoyed Outside Edge though (ITV, Thursday, 8.30 p.m.), which was traditional British sit-corn at its best and not a cuss-word in it. Like all good sit- uation comedy, the situation was irrelevant. (Two couples are going to a village cricket match, the car breaks down twice, and that's about it really.) But does anyone remember that The Good Life was about the Seventies fad for self-sufficiency? Or recall the last time that Only Fools And Horses had anything to do with market trading?
Sit-corn is character, and Outside Edge is about the relationship between Richard Daws and Brenda Blethyn (he pompous, she browbeaten) and their hang-it-all-out friends, played by Timothy Spa11 and Josie Lawrence. He is sweatily concupiscent ('Gerroff me you stupid great tart') while she is all cleavage, crop top and jampot lips — a character so suffused with sensuality that the innuendo is effortless. 'I've heard all about you,' she tells the nervous Brenda Blethyn before the cricket tea.
'Oh,' says Blethyn.
'You and your fantastic spreads.'
'Oh,' says Blethyn again — and clean or filthy, you will never get more mileage from a monosyllable.
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