Saturday, September 11, 2010

Double Meanings and Slang

Jimmy Kimmel has a regular feature on his show called "This Week in Unnecessary Censorship". He shows clips from TV and the news, but then they bleep out certain innocent words so it sound like the person was swearing or saying something too vulgar for TV. It is horrible. It has caused me to develop a new fear. It is the fear is that I will say a word or phrase that has a dirty double meaning that I am unaware of.

I once had a coworker who was leaving work early on a Friday. He said he was excited to go "get some action". He meant he was excited to start his weekend, but he had no idea of the connotations associated with that phrase. I have another friend who regularly uses a particular word as a synonym for "bunch" or "many", but when I Googled it I was shocked with what came up. To quote Enigo Montoya of the Princess Bride, "I don't think that word means what you think it means." I am not familiar with all the slang and innuendo of certain nasty words or phrases so I am paranoid about saying something bad by accident.

Double Entendre and innuendo is expected in James Bond movies and popular music lyrics,  but I don't want to be accused of it if I had no intention of doing so. It is a sad day when innocent people can carry on a normal conversation and at the same time be guilty of spewing out some filthy messages due to all the slang and double meanings in our culture. For those of you who may be familiar with the multiple meanings of certain words or phrases, I ask that you show mercy when you encounter an innocent and naive victim and refrain from saying "That's what she said".

6 comments:

Kristina P. said...

Don't ever visit my office. The end.

Cheeseboy said...

I have to be so careful what I say as a first grade teacher. Everything and anything can come off wrong.

ISRAEL CARRASCO said...

Just remember call him Richard instead of Dick. It can prevent embarassing situations.

Jeanne Estridge said...

"Spewing."

Snicker.

(The point of this being, you can't avoid it, so just relax. We'll love you anyway.)

mCat said...

My life is full of this exact kind of conversation.
Which would be the inspiration for the title of my blog.

Funny thing, we were using a nickname for my granddaughter when a kind reader asked me if I really knew what it meant. I had to look it up in the Urban Dictionary and was appalled. For awhile I was posting a slang gang word of the day, but I think Urban Dictionary cut me off. : )

tammy said...

It's really bad when you accidentally say something in church without knowing it has a double meaning. Not that it's ever happened to me.