What the frak!
Frak you!
No big deal, huh?
Apparently, the word frak was “invented” by famous TV producer Glen Larson for the original “Battlestar Galactica” TV series. It was used in the scripts as a curse word … without really being one. Therefore, they could get away with saying it on TV. Kind of an inside joke.
It seems, with the SciFi channel’s new version of “Battlestar Galactica,” the word has regained some popularity and is spreading.
The TV shows aside, I find the whole thing kind of interesting because it says a lot about language and how we use it, and that’s something I deal with on a serious level basically every day.
Frak is basically f*&k, in meaning and utility. And the actors and scriptwriters that use it understand this.
But now that the word is becoming popular, you’d think that its usage would be frowned upon by those who typically frown o. that type of language. Well, not so far. It’s still kind of a joke.
And that’s crazy. Because that implies that the issue those who want to control language (teachers, parents, pastors, etc.) take with the word f*&k isn’t the meaning — one of which is to have sexual intercourse with — but instead the word itself.
F*&k … it is a harsh sounding word, with the hard K sound and all. But is that what really makes it offensive to some? Isn’t what the word implies more important?
Are George Carlin’s seven words you can never say on television only “bad” words because of how they sound … and not what they mean? Cock-sucker is really just an unpleasant word because of how it sounds, and it’s not the action going on in the word itself that makes it a “bad” word?
I know what the answer “should be.” But I’m not sure that’s what the answer “is.”
Someone’s confused.
I just can’t tell if it’s me.
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