Stephen Fry on the Joys of Swearing

gsmokeyjoe · 1.2M views · 2007-12-06 · 2:32

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Overview

A short clip of Stephen Fry defending swearing as a rich and essential part of the English language and rejecting the idea that it is unnecessary.

On Hacker News

HN commenters post it in swearing and profanity debates as the best statement against taking offense at profanity.

Recommended by 5 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2011–2016

Topics

Language & linguistics Free speech, censorship & civil liberties

What people said

bhrgunatha · 2016-08 · Recommendation
Stephen Fry, whose intellect and vocabulary are way beyond mine, on swearing. The bleeping on the second video is so deliciously germane. [1] [VIDEO] [2] [LINK]
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anu_gupta · 2014-03 · Recommendation
From the fucking lovely Stephen Fry "The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a fucking lunatic." Profanity is an essential and rich part of the English language. It's really only prudes and people who need to feel morally superior have a problem with it, and they can fuck right off, frankly. [VIDEO]
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shocks · 2013-05 · Recommendation
And as usual, any HN post that contains profanity is immediately overrun by 'offended' fuckheads that simply don't understand the joke and are offended by fuck all. Stephen Fry says it best: [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by gsmokeyjoe, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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