1
00:00:11,761 --> 00:00:13,221
Rhett! Rhett!

2
00:00:15,598 --> 00:00:16,728
[sobbing] Rhett…

3
00:00:16,808 --> 00:00:19,848
If you go, where shall I go?
What shall I do?

4
00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:24,610
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a whoop.

5
00:00:24,691 --> 00:00:27,111
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot.

6
00:00:27,193 --> 00:00:29,783
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a straw.

7
00:00:29,863 --> 00:00:33,583
Frankly, my dear,
I don't give a continental. [laughs]

8
00:00:33,658 --> 00:00:35,868
"I-- I don't give a continental"?

9
00:00:36,369 --> 00:00:38,459
Ha-- has anyone ever actually said that?

10
00:00:38,955 --> 00:00:42,665
Can you imagine you get to the end
of the most famous movie of all time,

11
00:00:42,751 --> 00:00:47,301
and you're waiting to hear Clark Gable
say the most famous line of all time,

12
00:00:47,380 --> 00:00:49,380
and instead, you get…

13
00:00:52,052 --> 00:00:54,472
"Frankly, my dear, it has become
of no concern to me."

14
00:00:55,346 --> 00:00:57,966
Horrible. However, it almost happened.

15
00:00:58,767 --> 00:01:00,557
See, back in 1939,

16
00:01:00,643 --> 00:01:03,903
there was something known as
the Motion Picture Production Code,

17
00:01:03,980 --> 00:01:05,400
or the Hays Code.

18
00:01:05,482 --> 00:01:07,072
A set of moral guidelines

19
00:01:07,150 --> 00:01:09,990
that determined what the studios
could put in their movies.

20
00:01:10,487 --> 00:01:13,697
And at that time,
the word "damn" was strictly prohibited.

21
00:01:14,199 --> 00:01:16,789
As were the words "Lord," "God," "Jesus,"

22
00:01:16,868 --> 00:01:19,698
"Jesus Christ," "Christ,"
"son of a bitch" and "hell."

23
00:01:20,330 --> 00:01:24,960
So the filmmakers had to come up with
a whole page full of alternate lines

24
00:01:25,043 --> 00:01:26,383
like the ones I just read.

25
00:01:26,961 --> 00:01:30,761
I know what you're thinking.
"Damn" is barely a swear word anymore.

26
00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:32,800
We see it so much,
we don't even notice it.

27
00:01:32,884 --> 00:01:34,974
[both] Daaaaaamn!

28
00:01:35,053 --> 00:01:36,143
-[hits table]
-Damn!

29
00:01:36,221 --> 00:01:37,471
Goddamn it!

30
00:01:37,555 --> 00:01:40,385
[Nicolas] It might be the mildest word
in our vulgarian,

31
00:01:40,475 --> 00:01:44,185
but it's the only swear word
specifically mentioned in the Bible.

32
00:01:45,021 --> 00:01:47,981
And it still has the ability
to offend millions.

33
00:01:48,566 --> 00:01:52,026
So, before we can finish the story
of how they got "damn"

34
00:01:52,112 --> 00:01:53,702
to stay in Gone With the Wind,

35
00:01:54,197 --> 00:01:56,947
first, we have to tell you
the story of the word itself.

36
00:01:59,327 --> 00:02:01,907
"Frankly, my dear, the whole thing's
a stench in my nostrils."

37
00:02:01,996 --> 00:02:04,826
Ah, damn! I mean, come on,
that's the worst one yet.

38
00:02:09,963 --> 00:02:10,843
[bleep]

39
00:02:10,922 --> 00:02:11,882
[cat meows]

40
00:02:15,009 --> 00:02:16,759
"Damn" shouldn't even be on this list.

41
00:02:16,845 --> 00:02:19,675
"Damn" isn't-- it's not offensive,
it's not a swear word.

42
00:02:19,764 --> 00:02:22,644
It's a actual word,
and beavers build 'em.

43
00:02:22,725 --> 00:02:23,935
Damn, girl.

44
00:02:24,018 --> 00:02:26,808
Yeah… kind of a lame swear.

45
00:02:26,896 --> 00:02:29,936
Just damn, or…
[high-pitched] …daaaaamn?

46
00:02:30,024 --> 00:02:34,244
Neck and neck with "damn" could be "crap."

47
00:02:35,905 --> 00:02:36,865
Damn…

48
00:02:37,448 --> 00:02:40,618
"Damn" feels pretty, like, um… mild.

49
00:02:40,702 --> 00:02:43,502
I don't think "damn" is a curse word,
but also, my kid cannot say it.

50
00:02:43,580 --> 00:02:44,870
So I am a hypocrite.

51
00:02:44,956 --> 00:02:48,076
"Damn" is an interesting swear word
because it's a curse.

52
00:02:48,168 --> 00:02:50,088
It's not like "shit" or "fuck."

53
00:02:50,170 --> 00:02:53,010
And it means to send to hell,
like damnation.

54
00:02:53,089 --> 00:02:57,219
So, in the Middle Ages,
"damnation" was a real fear for people.

55
00:02:57,302 --> 00:03:01,562
It's an actual curse word. When you damn
someone, you are cursing them.

56
00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:05,269
[Nicolas] So how did "damn" go
from being the most sacred curse

57
00:03:05,351 --> 00:03:06,851
to being so benign

58
00:03:06,936 --> 00:03:10,646
that most people no longer
even consider it a swear word?

59
00:03:11,149 --> 00:03:14,649
We believed,
and some people still do believe,

60
00:03:15,153 --> 00:03:20,243
that using religious terms outside
of their appropriate context

61
00:03:20,325 --> 00:03:22,285
is blasphemous.

62
00:03:22,368 --> 00:03:24,618
This is the source of our profanity.

63
00:03:24,704 --> 00:03:27,294
In fact, it's the source
of the word "profanity."

64
00:03:27,373 --> 00:03:32,003
"Profanus" means "outside of the temple,"
and "damn" is an example of this.

65
00:03:32,086 --> 00:03:35,006
If you're saying,
"May God damn so and so,"

66
00:03:35,089 --> 00:03:39,679
you're asking God to…
to, you know, do something to someone.

67
00:03:39,761 --> 00:03:42,681
And so this is not something
you would do lightly.

68
00:03:42,764 --> 00:03:45,484
So, in those times
when people really believed in that stuff

69
00:03:45,558 --> 00:03:48,188
and essentially,
your religion was your horror film,

70
00:03:48,269 --> 00:03:52,399
at the exact same time,
I can get why "damn" was scary.

71
00:03:52,482 --> 00:03:54,862
I guess "damn you to hell" has power…

72
00:03:56,236 --> 00:03:59,106
if you believe in hell, I guess.

73
00:03:59,197 --> 00:04:00,617
If there's hell…

74
00:04:01,866 --> 00:04:04,946
may God strike me dead right now.

75
00:04:08,998 --> 00:04:09,828
See?

76
00:04:11,876 --> 00:04:15,086
My grandma is, like,
the most churchiest churchy person.

77
00:04:15,171 --> 00:04:16,711
And she says "damn."

78
00:04:16,798 --> 00:04:17,968
Or does she?

79
00:04:18,049 --> 00:04:22,799
"Damn" shows us the complete life cycle
of a profane word.

80
00:04:22,887 --> 00:04:27,477
It starts off as just a word
that describes the act of damning.

81
00:04:27,976 --> 00:04:30,806
It becomes profanity.

82
00:04:30,895 --> 00:04:35,275
And then over time, because
society changes, it starts to peter out.

83
00:04:35,358 --> 00:04:39,648
It's where "shit" will probably be
in a few decades.

84
00:04:39,737 --> 00:04:42,407
And where "fuck" will certainly be
by the end of the century.

85
00:04:43,241 --> 00:04:44,451
You know,

86
00:04:44,534 --> 00:04:45,914
this is, excuse me,

87
00:04:46,661 --> 00:04:48,121
a damn fine cup of coffee.

88
00:04:48,788 --> 00:04:51,288
[Nicolas] What are the earliest meanings
of "damn"?

89
00:04:51,374 --> 00:04:55,304
So the earliest meaning of "damn"
in English is twofold.

90
00:04:55,378 --> 00:04:58,508
There's both a religious meaning,
to condemn to hell,

91
00:04:58,589 --> 00:05:02,469
and this legal meaning, which means
to condemn someone as guilty.

92
00:05:02,552 --> 00:05:06,762
And those both come ultimately
from this Latin verb "damnare"

93
00:05:06,848 --> 00:05:08,558
which means to judge as guilty.

94
00:05:08,641 --> 00:05:12,601
And it's related to
the Latin noun that means "damage."

95
00:05:12,687 --> 00:05:14,307
"Damn" compares to other swears

96
00:05:14,397 --> 00:05:17,227
like your little brother that wants
to hang out with you

97
00:05:17,317 --> 00:05:18,777
and you don't want him to go.

98
00:05:18,860 --> 00:05:21,070
Like, Shit was
the dangerous one in school,

99
00:05:21,154 --> 00:05:23,874
and Damn, he did all his work,
but he was a bit of a rebel.

100
00:05:23,948 --> 00:05:27,368
Damn and Fuck sit next to each other,
and you're like, "They know each other?"

101
00:05:27,452 --> 00:05:29,792
You go over and you're like,
"Can I talk to you?"

102
00:05:29,871 --> 00:05:32,961
Fuck is like, "Get the fuck away from me!"
And Damn is like, "Damn."

103
00:05:33,041 --> 00:05:35,081
If you survey young adults,

104
00:05:35,585 --> 00:05:41,335
they generally find it
as inoffensive as words like "condom"

105
00:05:41,424 --> 00:05:44,184
or "bupkis." [chuckles]

106
00:05:44,260 --> 00:05:46,970
Someone's like, "Fuck!"
You, like, "Shit, what's goin' on? We--

107
00:05:47,055 --> 00:05:48,765
We might not be able to help him."

108
00:05:48,848 --> 00:05:51,098
But, "Damn"? "What can we do to help?"

109
00:05:51,184 --> 00:05:55,564
"Damn," it also is used
as an emphasizer, an intensifier.

110
00:05:55,646 --> 00:05:57,146
It's pretty varied.

111
00:05:57,231 --> 00:06:00,861
You wanna either go high
or you wanna go low with it.

112
00:06:00,943 --> 00:06:02,703
[deep voice] You go, "Damn."

113
00:06:03,321 --> 00:06:04,821
Or you can go…
[upbeat] "Damn!"

114
00:06:05,406 --> 00:06:10,036
With the extra syllable, "Daaaaaamn!"
That's when somethin' really big happen.

115
00:06:10,119 --> 00:06:13,119
Usually that involves somebody
gettin' slapped with-- with a thing.

116
00:06:13,206 --> 00:06:14,956
I used to call a girl a "damn, damn girl."

117
00:06:15,041 --> 00:06:16,541
Like, she's turned around,

118
00:06:16,626 --> 00:06:19,206
her body looks amazing, her butt
looks amazing.

119
00:06:19,295 --> 00:06:21,335
I'm like, "Daaaaamn."

120
00:06:21,422 --> 00:06:24,342
And she turn around, I see her face,
I'm like, "Damn." So, yeah.

121
00:06:29,555 --> 00:06:30,845
Damn!

122
00:06:30,932 --> 00:06:34,692
Remember, growing up, you didn't know how
to spell "damn"? Most people did not know.

123
00:06:34,769 --> 00:06:37,439
Most Black people did not know
"damn" had an N on the end.

124
00:06:37,522 --> 00:06:40,192
We were like, "dam,"
like at the river, the dam.

125
00:06:40,274 --> 00:06:43,494
Then when I see it had the N, I'm like,
"What does that mean? Dam-nuh."

126
00:06:43,569 --> 00:06:46,359
I love that there's
an M and N next to each other.

127
00:06:46,864 --> 00:06:49,334
Um… for some reason, you only say one.

128
00:06:49,409 --> 00:06:52,699
It's like a silent N, which is what
my nickname was in high school.

129
00:06:52,787 --> 00:06:54,207
That's why they added the N.

130
00:06:54,705 --> 00:06:56,825
"Damn" from "damnation," 'cause of the N.

131
00:06:56,916 --> 00:06:59,456
And they-- somebody left the… the N on.

132
00:06:59,544 --> 00:07:02,964
[laughs] And when they did that,
the person was like, "Damn!"

133
00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:05,220
Over the past half-century,

134
00:07:05,716 --> 00:07:08,506
church attendance in the U.S.
steadily declined.

135
00:07:09,011 --> 00:07:11,811
But religion comes baked into our society.

136
00:07:11,889 --> 00:07:15,979
It's on our money,
in our sports and on our cars.

137
00:07:16,060 --> 00:07:18,480
So "damn" still holds sway.

138
00:07:18,980 --> 00:07:23,610
And it's the only one of our swear words
that has only ever had one meaning.

139
00:07:24,110 --> 00:07:25,700
To condemn someone.

140
00:07:25,778 --> 00:07:27,408
Damn you!

141
00:07:28,364 --> 00:07:32,624
God damn you all to hell!

142
00:07:32,702 --> 00:07:34,252
In ancient Rome,

143
00:07:34,328 --> 00:07:38,078
the taboos in the swear words were
kind of like they are today

144
00:07:38,166 --> 00:07:40,626
in terms of sexual and excremental,

145
00:07:40,710 --> 00:07:43,250
a Latin equivalent of
"fuck," "shit," things like that.

146
00:07:43,337 --> 00:07:48,887
Then, in the Middle Ages, in English,
they became religious, invoking God.

147
00:07:49,469 --> 00:07:51,389
The worst thing you could say
in the Middle Ages

148
00:07:51,471 --> 00:07:53,601
was something like "By God's bones."

149
00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:56,430
God's bones?

150
00:07:57,018 --> 00:08:01,728
It's hard for contemporary people to
understand or imagine how this would work.

151
00:08:01,814 --> 00:08:03,774
So, in the Catholic tradition,

152
00:08:03,858 --> 00:08:07,858
Christ has a body,
and if you say, "By God's bones,"

153
00:08:07,945 --> 00:08:12,115
your words kind of reach up
to his body and pull out his bone.

154
00:08:13,576 --> 00:08:17,116
Daaaamn, that's hardcore.

155
00:08:17,205 --> 00:08:18,785
Wait. God don't even have bones, does he?

156
00:08:18,873 --> 00:08:22,293
And you know that whoever said that
never just said it, like, "God's bones."

157
00:08:22,376 --> 00:08:24,336
Whoever said that dropped to their knees.

158
00:08:24,420 --> 00:08:26,710
God's bones.

159
00:08:26,797 --> 00:08:27,717
Fun!

160
00:08:29,091 --> 00:08:30,641
Blaspheme.

161
00:08:31,511 --> 00:08:35,681
Religious swearing ultimately
gets its power from the Old Testament.

162
00:08:35,765 --> 00:08:38,805
And God, in the Bible,
spends a lot of time explaining

163
00:08:38,893 --> 00:08:41,403
how he wants people to swear by him.

164
00:08:41,479 --> 00:08:42,729
But not vainly.

165
00:08:44,857 --> 00:08:48,437
Of course,
the supercharged version of "damn,"

166
00:08:49,028 --> 00:08:52,948
the one that we still don't see
on network TV, or even basic cable…

167
00:08:53,449 --> 00:08:57,999
We don't hear it on the radio and
we rarely, if ever, read it in the news.

168
00:08:58,079 --> 00:08:59,209
The big one.

169
00:08:59,288 --> 00:09:00,868
[echoing] Goddamn it!

170
00:09:00,957 --> 00:09:03,957
The "God" is an intensifier to the "damn"

171
00:09:04,043 --> 00:09:06,503
and also brings
the religious context back.

172
00:09:06,587 --> 00:09:11,297
I think the difference between
"damn" and "goddamn" is like…

173
00:09:11,384 --> 00:09:14,184
uh, "goddamn," like, supersizes it.

174
00:09:14,262 --> 00:09:15,432
"Damn" is…

175
00:09:15,513 --> 00:09:19,273
It can be like, uh…
you got a paper cut. "Ah, damn."

176
00:09:19,350 --> 00:09:24,110
I think "goddamn" carries more gravity
that takes you right into church.

177
00:09:24,188 --> 00:09:27,568
I don't say "goddamn" because
I am not a Black man from the South.

178
00:09:30,695 --> 00:09:33,445
Before the 1600s,
there was some speculation

179
00:09:33,531 --> 00:09:37,911
that, uh, the English were known
as "Les Goddamns" to the French

180
00:09:37,994 --> 00:09:43,374
uh, because they had a habit of swearing
so much by God and damn.

181
00:09:43,457 --> 00:09:47,877
I like this idea of referring to entire
cultures by their most unique swear words.

182
00:09:48,379 --> 00:09:51,669
It's like they say,
"You swear about what you care about."

183
00:09:54,468 --> 00:09:56,888
So, what do they care about
in other parts of the world?

184
00:09:57,513 --> 00:10:00,563
One of Russia's most used swear words is…

185
00:10:00,641 --> 00:10:02,481
[woman] перхоть подзалупная.

186
00:10:02,560 --> 00:10:04,400
[Isiah] That means "pee hole dandruff."

187
00:10:04,478 --> 00:10:05,308
Wow.

188
00:10:06,022 --> 00:10:08,522
I feel like
if this one is comin' up a lot,

189
00:10:08,608 --> 00:10:11,148
Putin is actually
the least of they problems.

190
00:10:11,652 --> 00:10:14,362
The fine people in Germany like to say…

191
00:10:14,447 --> 00:10:15,867
[man] Arschgeige.

192
00:10:15,948 --> 00:10:19,118
[Isiah] A swear that means "butt violin."

193
00:10:19,201 --> 00:10:22,711
That makes sense.
Even their swear words are classy.

194
00:10:22,788 --> 00:10:23,958
This one's outrageous.

195
00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,630
In South Africa,
there's an Afrikaans swear.

196
00:10:27,710 --> 00:10:32,420
[man 2] Ek wens jou vingers verander
in vishoeke, en jou balle begin te jeuk.

197
00:10:32,506 --> 00:10:35,586
[Isiah] It means
"I hope your fingers turn to fish hooks

198
00:10:35,676 --> 00:10:37,596
and your balls start to itch."

199
00:10:37,678 --> 00:10:39,558
That one's a whole story line.

200
00:10:41,641 --> 00:10:44,441
[Melissa] In the 16th century,
"damn" is becoming a swear word,

201
00:10:44,518 --> 00:10:46,478
but it still appears in the Bible.

202
00:10:46,562 --> 00:10:50,902
The King James Bible prints "damn"
or a variation of "damn" 15 times.

203
00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,240
But then, when the King James Bible
is revised in the 19th century,

204
00:10:55,321 --> 00:10:56,911
they cut the "damns."

205
00:10:56,989 --> 00:11:01,539
In 1781, you get the first appearance
of "darn" in Pennsylvania Magazine.

206
00:11:01,619 --> 00:11:06,079
This is just one of the many minced oaths,
you know, that-- that "damn" spawns.

207
00:11:06,874 --> 00:11:09,294
[Nicolas] And what is a "minced oath"?

208
00:11:09,377 --> 00:11:12,127
A minced oath is a way to…

209
00:11:12,713 --> 00:11:15,803
say a profane word
without actually saying it.

210
00:11:15,883 --> 00:11:19,473
Instead of saying "goddamn it,"
you could say "gosh darn it."

211
00:11:19,553 --> 00:11:23,523
Or "doggone it," or "dang."

212
00:11:23,599 --> 00:11:25,269
Or "consarn it."

213
00:11:25,351 --> 00:11:28,941
"Minced oaths." Yeah, that sounds like
a horrible cereal that your mom got

214
00:11:29,021 --> 00:11:32,071
that is nowhere near
as good as the real shit.

215
00:11:32,650 --> 00:11:34,570
I mean, you got your Gosh Darn-O's,

216
00:11:34,652 --> 00:11:39,782
uh, Raisin Drats, Corn Sorn Its,
Honey Nut Tarnations.

217
00:11:39,865 --> 00:11:43,655
Those are actually pretty good.
Um, you can really taste the hell.

218
00:11:43,744 --> 00:11:46,044
It's a substitute for a word

219
00:11:46,706 --> 00:11:47,996
to mean that word.

220
00:11:48,499 --> 00:11:49,789
It's a-- it's a, um…

221
00:11:50,292 --> 00:11:51,212
proxy.

222
00:11:51,293 --> 00:11:54,093
[giggles] But if that's what gets you
through the day,

223
00:11:54,171 --> 00:11:55,301
fucking go for it.

224
00:11:56,298 --> 00:11:58,678
You get more and more uses
of the word "damn."

225
00:11:58,759 --> 00:12:02,099
You get Southerners calling
Northerners "Damn Yankees."

226
00:12:02,179 --> 00:12:05,019
You get, you know,
things "not worth a damn."

227
00:12:05,099 --> 00:12:08,889
And, in fact, until
the kind of turn of the 20th century,

228
00:12:08,978 --> 00:12:11,478
when someone talks about
"profane swearing,"

229
00:12:12,064 --> 00:12:14,074
that is what they're talking about.

230
00:12:14,150 --> 00:12:17,190
Which brings us back
to the story of Gone With the Wind.

231
00:12:17,903 --> 00:12:22,533
It was a big deal to use the word "damn"
in a Hollywood film in 1939.

232
00:12:22,616 --> 00:12:25,286
The rest of the public
may not have cared as much-- at all.

233
00:12:25,786 --> 00:12:28,116
But the people behind the code
cared a lot.

234
00:12:28,205 --> 00:12:30,245
[Nicolas] The Hays Code
was strictly enforced.

235
00:12:30,332 --> 00:12:31,792
It not only barred swear words,

236
00:12:31,876 --> 00:12:35,206
it also banned any mention of drug use,
as well as sympathy for criminals

237
00:12:35,296 --> 00:12:37,626
and excessive or lustful kissing.

238
00:12:37,715 --> 00:12:39,585
However, along came David O. Selznick,

239
00:12:39,675 --> 00:12:43,385
a film producer wanting to turn the
best-selling novel Gone With the Wind

240
00:12:43,471 --> 00:12:45,351
into a blockbuster movie.

241
00:12:45,431 --> 00:12:47,561
He argued they had to use the word "damn"

242
00:12:47,641 --> 00:12:49,771
because that's how
it was written in the book.

243
00:12:49,852 --> 00:12:51,522
And who was he to stray from

244
00:12:51,604 --> 00:12:53,984
author Margaret Mitchell's
artistic mission?

245
00:12:54,774 --> 00:12:59,284
However, the censors wouldn't budge,
so Selznick appealed to the main man,

246
00:12:59,361 --> 00:13:00,861
Hays himself.

247
00:13:00,946 --> 00:13:04,866
What happened next is
somewhere between fact and urban myth.

248
00:13:04,950 --> 00:13:07,580
Selznick won his appeal either
on the merits of his argument,

249
00:13:07,661 --> 00:13:12,041
or because he paid
a 5,000 dollar, quote, "fee."

250
00:13:12,124 --> 00:13:14,134
The board made allowances. They had a--

251
00:13:15,002 --> 00:13:16,462
They appended the code,

252
00:13:16,545 --> 00:13:18,795
and said that the words
"hell" and "damn" could be used

253
00:13:18,881 --> 00:13:22,051
as long as they were used
for historical accuracy

254
00:13:22,134 --> 00:13:26,354
or the artistic integrity
of the work on which they're based.

255
00:13:26,430 --> 00:13:28,470
[Nicolas] So in December 1939,

256
00:13:28,557 --> 00:13:32,017
Gone With the Wind
comes out and the rest is history.

257
00:13:32,895 --> 00:13:35,145
-Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.
-[sobbing]

258
00:13:37,233 --> 00:13:41,323
From there, the dam broke wide open
and the word pops up everywhere.

259
00:13:41,403 --> 00:13:43,493
Village of the Damned.
Children of the Damned.

260
00:13:43,572 --> 00:13:46,912
To my personal favorite, Aaliyah
in Queen of the Damned.

261
00:13:46,992 --> 00:13:50,702
The hit musical Damn Yankees
lights up Broadway in 1955.

262
00:13:51,205 --> 00:13:55,245
And the super band Damn Yankees lights up
the Allentown Fairgrounds in 1990.

263
00:13:55,334 --> 00:13:57,464
I think I might have been
at that show, actually.

264
00:13:58,087 --> 00:14:01,417
In 1986, the makers
of Transformers: The Movie

265
00:14:01,507 --> 00:14:05,087
added a "damn" and a "shit"
to avoid the dreaded G rating.

266
00:14:08,138 --> 00:14:11,978
One of the biggest moments for "damn"
in Black culture

267
00:14:12,059 --> 00:14:14,599
was at the end of a episode of Good Times

268
00:14:15,187 --> 00:14:18,397
when, uh, Florida Evans,
I think she had just lost her husband,

269
00:14:18,899 --> 00:14:21,779
and she just, like,
lost her shit in the kitchen.

270
00:14:23,654 --> 00:14:27,204
Damn! Damn! Damn! [sobs]

271
00:14:28,033 --> 00:14:33,083
It was so powerful because
the Evans family, we were dialed into.

272
00:14:33,163 --> 00:14:36,503
"Damn" in that context is specifically

273
00:14:36,584 --> 00:14:40,674
a word that, like, old Black women use.

274
00:14:40,754 --> 00:14:45,054
So her usin' that word is the word that
we've heard our grandmother use.

275
00:14:45,134 --> 00:14:46,934
We felt that, as viewers.

276
00:14:47,011 --> 00:14:50,221
We've felt a lot of that same sort
of grief and loss in our families.

277
00:14:50,890 --> 00:14:53,350
So in terms of, you know,

278
00:14:53,434 --> 00:14:56,314
people who really have led the charge
on the word "damn,"

279
00:14:56,395 --> 00:14:59,975
I'm gonna go with Kendrick Lamar,
who has a brilliant album called DAMN.

280
00:15:00,065 --> 00:15:01,525
[DeRay]
"Damn" is not a swear word.

281
00:15:01,609 --> 00:15:04,609
DAMN. is a great Kendrick Lamar album,
is what "damn" is.

282
00:15:04,695 --> 00:15:06,405
For him to be able to…

283
00:15:07,364 --> 00:15:11,244
top the charts and win a Pulitzer

284
00:15:11,327 --> 00:15:12,487
with a rap album…

285
00:15:12,578 --> 00:15:14,288
It changed everything. It's mind-blowing.

286
00:15:14,371 --> 00:15:17,291
You've gone from havin' to fight
to say "damn" in Gone With the Wind,

287
00:15:18,042 --> 00:15:22,052
to Kendrick Lamar, a great rapper,
naming his album DAMN.

288
00:15:22,129 --> 00:15:23,839
and then the album winnin' a Pulitzer,

289
00:15:23,923 --> 00:15:26,973
which means "damn" is
actually really clever.

290
00:15:27,051 --> 00:15:30,641
"Damn" has gone a long way.
It's gone a long goddamn way.

291
00:15:31,847 --> 00:15:35,637
"Damn" has also taken
center stage in politics in recent years.

292
00:15:35,726 --> 00:15:38,096
Like the impeccably bearded
Jimmy McMillan,

293
00:15:38,187 --> 00:15:42,437
who founded
the Rent Is Too Damn High Party in 2005.

294
00:15:42,524 --> 00:15:45,244
I represent
the Rent Is Too Damn High Party.

295
00:15:45,319 --> 00:15:48,909
You need the "damn"
to give it that emphasis and that push.

296
00:15:48,989 --> 00:15:50,699
And you're not offending anybody.

297
00:15:50,783 --> 00:15:52,493
You're just sayin' rent's too damn high.

298
00:15:52,576 --> 00:15:56,326
But the "damn" is, uh,
doin' what you want it to do there.

299
00:15:56,956 --> 00:15:58,956
And it can still stir up controversy.

300
00:15:59,041 --> 00:16:03,501
Barack Obama faced backlash when
a pastor at his church, Jeremiah Wright,

301
00:16:03,587 --> 00:16:06,587
delivered a sermon called
"God damn America."

302
00:16:06,674 --> 00:16:09,594
This was a church
that Obama went to in Chicago,

303
00:16:09,677 --> 00:16:12,467
and this video
of Jeremiah Wright preaching

304
00:16:12,554 --> 00:16:15,604
in which he says "goddamn" a lot,
went viral.

305
00:16:15,683 --> 00:16:19,193
I understand a pastor saying,
"God damn America."

306
00:16:19,269 --> 00:16:22,559
Because of especially the way that,
you know, Black people have been treated

307
00:16:22,648 --> 00:16:24,728
in this country for a long time,
I understand.

308
00:16:25,317 --> 00:16:29,737
I do feel like putting it in those terms
might be taking it a little too far.

309
00:16:29,822 --> 00:16:32,742
Because now you're like,
cursin' in church, which is weird.

310
00:16:32,825 --> 00:16:36,365
Once you put God on there,
it does become very, very powerful.

311
00:16:36,453 --> 00:16:39,623
And if you're not using it in
the right way, which, usually, you're not…

312
00:16:40,124 --> 00:16:42,464
uh… I can see people getting pissed off.

313
00:16:42,543 --> 00:16:45,503
So what does the future hold for "damn"?

314
00:16:45,587 --> 00:16:47,627
Does it have any hope of surviving

315
00:16:47,715 --> 00:16:50,755
in this vulgar fast-paced world
of fuck shit?

316
00:16:51,468 --> 00:16:54,098
How can it compete
against "pussy" and "dick"?

317
00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:59,100
"Damn…" It's going to succumb
to the law of diminishing returns.

318
00:16:59,184 --> 00:17:02,444
Its efficacy will continue to be reduced

319
00:17:02,521 --> 00:17:06,281
until it just becomes,
perhaps, a normal adjective.

320
00:17:06,358 --> 00:17:09,988
I mean, there is a future for "damn"
because people continue to use it.

321
00:17:10,070 --> 00:17:14,950
But at this point, uh…
there's really no sense of "damn"

322
00:17:15,034 --> 00:17:18,914
that's so strongly offensive
that I think you could ever reclaim.

323
00:17:18,996 --> 00:17:24,746
Well, right now, if you ask young people,
the most offensive words are slurs.

324
00:17:24,835 --> 00:17:28,875
And remember that an 18-year-old today
is a 40-year-old in 2042.

325
00:17:29,548 --> 00:17:32,548
So those are the people
who are going to be making the laws

326
00:17:32,634 --> 00:17:36,724
and teaching children the words relating
to sex and bodily functions and religion.

327
00:17:37,306 --> 00:17:39,806
Those are… on their way out.

328
00:17:39,892 --> 00:17:42,812
Today, I think
it's okay for a four-year-old to say it.

329
00:17:42,895 --> 00:17:46,435
Um, so my question is, "Is there gonna be
a day a four-year-old says 'fuck'

330
00:17:46,523 --> 00:17:47,823
and no one blinks an eye?"

331
00:17:47,900 --> 00:17:51,030
The people who object to that word
are the people who are still the loudest.

332
00:17:51,737 --> 00:17:53,197
The people who make the most noise.

333
00:17:53,906 --> 00:17:55,446
The people who go out and vote.

334
00:17:56,033 --> 00:17:58,203
If they can be counted on
to show up for church,

335
00:17:58,285 --> 00:18:00,575
they can definitely be counted on
to show up for the polls.

336
00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:05,130
And because of that,
they are a… a force to be reckoned with.

337
00:18:05,626 --> 00:18:08,586
I think it's very rigid, borin' people

338
00:18:08,670 --> 00:18:10,800
that are uptight,
that are offended by swearing.

339
00:18:10,881 --> 00:18:12,471
I don't trust people who don't swear.

340
00:18:12,549 --> 00:18:15,679
I'm not offended by you using
a swear word in front of me.

341
00:18:15,761 --> 00:18:18,141
I kind of like it. It means
you're comfortable in front of me.

342
00:18:18,222 --> 00:18:19,222
So let your mouth loose.

343
00:18:19,306 --> 00:18:21,676
I think swearing is essential
for communication.

344
00:18:21,767 --> 00:18:24,977
Swearing is just one of the tools
in your toolbox, you know?

345
00:18:25,062 --> 00:18:28,362
I think it can relieve
some of the emotions.

346
00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:31,610
You know, if you're feeling negative
emotions, it can relieve them.

347
00:18:31,693 --> 00:18:35,913
If you're feeling positive emotions,
it broadcasts them and shares them.

348
00:18:36,406 --> 00:18:38,486
You know, it relieves pain. I think--

349
00:18:38,575 --> 00:18:41,825
Uh, I think, for many people,
it makes them feel good.

350
00:18:42,454 --> 00:18:46,294
The history of "damn"
is the history of all swear words.

351
00:18:46,792 --> 00:18:49,922
And, therefore,
it's the history of our culture as well.

352
00:18:50,587 --> 00:18:54,337
How our beliefs and our fears change
even as they stay the same.

353
00:18:55,217 --> 00:18:59,047
Swear words tell us what we value,
where our morals lie

354
00:18:59,138 --> 00:19:03,848
and how we navigate the tension between
public speech and our private lives.

355
00:19:04,560 --> 00:19:07,860
There's something
innately human about swearing.

356
00:19:08,522 --> 00:19:11,022
Right at the beautiful-ugly intersection

357
00:19:11,108 --> 00:19:14,278
between our conscious brains
and our animal bodies.

358
00:19:14,987 --> 00:19:15,857
In short,

359
00:19:16,530 --> 00:19:18,490
swear words will only be useful

360
00:19:18,574 --> 00:19:20,954
for as long as
we have hearts, minds,

361
00:19:21,535 --> 00:19:22,575
and assholes.

362
00:19:27,791 --> 00:19:28,961
[sighs]

363
00:19:29,042 --> 00:19:30,382
I'm Nicolas Cage.

364
00:19:31,628 --> 00:19:33,168
Have a great fucking night.