1
00:00:10,114 --> 00:00:10,948
Sugar.

2
00:00:12,033 --> 00:00:12,867
Honey.

3
00:00:13,659 --> 00:00:16,120
Iced tea. Mm-mm-mm.

4
00:00:16,871 --> 00:00:18,247
Sounds good, doesn't it? [scoffs]

5
00:00:18,330 --> 00:00:21,000
Maybe slightly sweet,
could maybe use a squeeze of lemon,

6
00:00:21,083 --> 00:00:22,877
but still, it rings pleasantly
to the ear.

7
00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:24,420
It sounds nice.

8
00:00:24,503 --> 00:00:27,256
It sounds like something
you'd sip with relish,

9
00:00:27,339 --> 00:00:30,676
swoosh around in your mouth
and swallow with a big smile.

10
00:00:31,677 --> 00:00:33,763
But what if I told you that this phrase,

11
00:00:34,847 --> 00:00:35,723
"Sugar…

12
00:00:37,558 --> 00:00:38,559
honey…

13
00:00:40,436 --> 00:00:41,437
iced tea…"

14
00:00:42,021 --> 00:00:45,316
is actually a secret code
used to unlock a swear word

15
00:00:45,399 --> 00:00:47,401
so taboo, so graphic…

16
00:00:48,027 --> 00:00:49,862
that most of us
can't even handle hearing it

17
00:00:49,945 --> 00:00:53,741
without seeing in our mind's eye
the very disgusting…

18
00:00:54,575 --> 00:00:58,829
bodily function that this particular
swear word is used to describe.

19
00:01:00,623 --> 00:01:03,084
Sugar, Honey, Iced Tea.

20
00:01:03,167 --> 00:01:04,460
Mmm.

21
00:01:04,543 --> 00:01:05,795
That's good shit.

22
00:01:11,926 --> 00:01:12,802
[bleep]

23
00:01:12,885 --> 00:01:13,928
[cat meows]

24
00:01:17,056 --> 00:01:19,809
I didn't get shit.
Not even happy birthday.

25
00:01:19,892 --> 00:01:21,060
I don't give a shit.

26
00:01:21,143 --> 00:01:23,354
My favorite swear word is shit.

27
00:01:23,437 --> 00:01:25,314
Holy shit!

28
00:01:25,397 --> 00:01:28,859
I mean, obviously when I think
about shit, I think about poop, right?

29
00:01:28,943 --> 00:01:29,777
That's obvious.

30
00:01:29,860 --> 00:01:31,904
Why is shit a swear word?

31
00:01:31,987 --> 00:01:33,572
It's a four-letter word

32
00:01:33,656 --> 00:01:38,244
that means exactly the same thing
as the four-letter word of "crap."

33
00:01:38,327 --> 00:01:40,663
"I've a bunch of shit to pick up."
No one's offended.

34
00:01:40,746 --> 00:01:42,331
We make all kinds of cool shit.

35
00:01:42,414 --> 00:01:45,543
They find out about the cool shit on the
internet, they'll want the cool shit.

36
00:01:47,128 --> 00:01:48,420
Shit is…

37
00:01:49,255 --> 00:01:51,549
such an easy word to use.

38
00:01:51,632 --> 00:01:54,301
'Cause you can add it
with any other swear word

39
00:01:54,385 --> 00:01:56,345
and it becomes something,
like, cool and fun.

40
00:01:56,428 --> 00:01:59,557
"Ugh! This is some fucked shit,
some ass shit."

41
00:01:59,640 --> 00:02:01,308
-"Some bitch shit."
-"Shit ass."

42
00:02:01,392 --> 00:02:03,144
"Look at that
fucking shit ass over there."

43
00:02:03,227 --> 00:02:05,020
"Some dope shit. Some damn shit."

44
00:02:05,104 --> 00:02:07,940
"You are in trouble. Some damn shit?"

45
00:02:11,068 --> 00:02:16,615
So, what are the origins of caca and
doo-doo's rebellious older brother?

46
00:02:16,699 --> 00:02:18,659
[typing]

47
00:02:18,742 --> 00:02:22,079
Words don't start out as swear words.
They're just words.

48
00:02:22,163 --> 00:02:26,250
And then, all of a sudden,
they start to access, um…

49
00:02:26,333 --> 00:02:29,003
uh, a culture's sort of deepest taboos

50
00:02:29,086 --> 00:02:32,798
and just areas that the culture
is really invested in.

51
00:02:32,882 --> 00:02:35,009
Somebody decided, at some point,

52
00:02:35,843 --> 00:02:39,763
in the history of its etymology,
that this is a swear word.

53
00:02:40,264 --> 00:02:41,182
It's silly.

54
00:02:41,265 --> 00:02:42,975
"Shit" probably came from…

55
00:02:43,517 --> 00:02:44,393
an emotion.

56
00:02:44,476 --> 00:02:46,687
I mean, I know the smart answer
is, like…

57
00:02:46,770 --> 00:02:50,441
it probably came from some Lat--
root word in a Latin lang--

58
00:02:50,524 --> 00:02:51,942
Yeah, so-- some bullshit like that.

59
00:02:52,026 --> 00:02:54,445
[Melissa] "Shit" is an Anglo-Saxon word.

60
00:02:54,528 --> 00:02:57,156
Like most swear words,
it was not obscene at first.

61
00:02:57,239 --> 00:02:59,033
It was just the word for excrement.

62
00:03:00,367 --> 00:03:03,662
In medieval English,
there are medical texts

63
00:03:03,746 --> 00:03:06,582
where, you know, talking
about excretion, they use "shit."

64
00:03:06,665 --> 00:03:10,336
In the Middle Ages, going
to the bathroom was a communal experience.

65
00:03:10,419 --> 00:03:12,755
You didn't have
a private room where you'd go

66
00:03:12,838 --> 00:03:14,548
by yourself and sit on the toilet.

67
00:03:14,632 --> 00:03:17,301
You had a privy with multiple seats.

68
00:03:17,384 --> 00:03:19,929
It could be you and someone
you didn't know very well,

69
00:03:20,012 --> 00:03:21,931
or it could be you and your whole family.

70
00:03:22,014 --> 00:03:26,185
That is so beautiful. The image
of all of us gathered together, shitting.

71
00:03:26,268 --> 00:03:30,898
Wouldn't we live in a much better society
if instead of stepping into the bathroom,

72
00:03:30,981 --> 00:03:34,109
and getting on our phone
and answering emails,

73
00:03:34,193 --> 00:03:36,445
and, like, posting on Instagram,

74
00:03:36,528 --> 00:03:40,324
we sat next to another human being
and said, "Hey, man, how are you today?

75
00:03:40,407 --> 00:03:41,992
How's that shit going for you?"

76
00:03:42,076 --> 00:03:44,703
Looked at somebody
in their eyes while they shat.

77
00:03:44,787 --> 00:03:48,540
It would really destigmatize
a lot of what makes us ashamed

78
00:03:48,624 --> 00:03:50,042
in the bathroom, I think.

79
00:03:50,125 --> 00:03:53,462
And we'd see a lot quicker
waiting times at Starbucks.

80
00:03:53,545 --> 00:03:54,630
That's some bullshit.

81
00:03:56,632 --> 00:03:59,260
There's a really great story
about where "shit" comes from.

82
00:03:59,343 --> 00:04:02,429
It's a folk etymology about how, uh…

83
00:04:02,513 --> 00:04:05,599
they used to ship shit
across the Atlantic.

84
00:04:05,683 --> 00:04:09,812
"Shit" comes from,
supposedly, "Ship High In Transit."

85
00:04:09,895 --> 00:04:12,523
The old story there is,
somehow in the 1800s,

86
00:04:12,606 --> 00:04:15,567
people would have to ship
manure across the Atlantic Ocean.

87
00:04:15,651 --> 00:04:16,735
Mark my words,

88
00:04:16,819 --> 00:04:21,073
one day I'll be paying to have
my manure shipped across the bloody ocean.

89
00:04:21,156 --> 00:04:24,326
[Melissa] You'd have to put it high up.
If it were in the hold of the ship,

90
00:04:24,410 --> 00:04:27,454
somehow the methane gas
and heat would make it set on fire.

91
00:04:27,538 --> 00:04:28,914
Aah, who am I foolin'?

92
00:04:28,998 --> 00:04:33,127
I'm still hung up on
some silly romantic notion of life at sea.

93
00:04:33,210 --> 00:04:35,629
[mockingly] "Freedom,
adventure, treasure."

94
00:04:35,713 --> 00:04:36,714
[scoffs] Pfeh!

95
00:04:36,797 --> 00:04:40,843
In sooth, the only thing
that's guaranteed in this life is sh--

96
00:04:43,679 --> 00:04:45,681
[man] That was a bit of a lame-ass story.

97
00:04:45,764 --> 00:04:48,434
"I could have come up
with a better story than that" bad.

98
00:04:48,517 --> 00:04:49,643
I mean, goddamn. [chuckles]

99
00:04:49,727 --> 00:04:52,021
[Nicolas] Before we continue
on the history of "shit,"

100
00:04:52,104 --> 00:04:55,441
let's explore the accomplishments
of one of its greatest advocates.

101
00:04:55,524 --> 00:04:58,694
The actor Isaiah Whitlock
came to prominence, uh…

102
00:04:58,777 --> 00:05:04,074
in The Wire for his use of the word "shit"
in ways that nobody else could say it.

103
00:05:04,158 --> 00:05:07,494
"Shit" has become
a huge part of my career.

104
00:05:07,995 --> 00:05:09,997
I didn't plan it that way.

105
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:13,292
He says, "shiiiit."

106
00:05:13,375 --> 00:05:15,085
[laughs]

107
00:05:15,169 --> 00:05:19,590
I'm from South Bend, Indiana.
My family's from Tennessee.

108
00:05:19,673 --> 00:05:23,677
So we have the South
and we have the Midwest.

109
00:05:23,761 --> 00:05:25,429
So I blend the two

110
00:05:26,055 --> 00:05:27,598
to come up with…

111
00:05:28,098 --> 00:05:31,852
Shiiiiiit.

112
00:05:31,935 --> 00:05:37,608
…which I started doing
in Spike Lee's movie, The 25th Hour.

113
00:05:37,691 --> 00:05:41,111
Did it in The Wire.
That's when it kind of exploded.

114
00:05:41,195 --> 00:05:44,281
"Shit" is for Isaiah Whitlock
what "fuck" is for Samuel L. Jackson.

115
00:05:44,365 --> 00:05:47,409
In fact, they're the "Ebony and Ivory"
of the 21st century

116
00:05:47,493 --> 00:05:48,786
with those two epithets.

117
00:05:49,578 --> 00:05:50,954
[Isaiah] Okay, so here we go.

118
00:05:51,038 --> 00:05:54,500
I'm gonna do
the world's longest "shit."

119
00:05:58,337 --> 00:06:04,843
Shiiiiii…

120
00:06:06,470 --> 00:06:08,472
[continuing]

121
00:06:13,227 --> 00:06:14,603
[typing]

122
00:06:14,686 --> 00:06:17,731
Science has shown that saying "shit"

123
00:06:17,815 --> 00:06:20,692
can be almost as good
for us as the act itself.

124
00:06:21,235 --> 00:06:24,530
So, there are
scientific studies that say that you…

125
00:06:24,655 --> 00:06:25,989
feel better when you swear.

126
00:06:26,073 --> 00:06:30,577
If you're in pain and you swear,
your pain threshold becomes higher.

127
00:06:30,661 --> 00:06:34,957
And there are groups that don't swear.
They don't use profanity,

128
00:06:35,040 --> 00:06:38,085
but they do tend to walk the line.

129
00:06:38,168 --> 00:06:42,172
So you'll get people who say, "Well,
I can't swear," for whatever reason,

130
00:06:42,256 --> 00:06:44,550
but they freely use words like

131
00:06:44,633 --> 00:06:47,636
"fudge" or "frick" or "shoot."

132
00:06:47,719 --> 00:06:49,680
And those are all euphemisms of swears.

133
00:06:49,763 --> 00:06:52,349
They all function
the same way that a swear functions.

134
00:06:52,433 --> 00:06:56,937
Many people think
that swearing is cathartic.

135
00:06:57,020 --> 00:07:01,024
That when you have
some bottled-up emotions, it's useful.

136
00:07:01,108 --> 00:07:03,152
Like, just think about women in labor.

137
00:07:03,235 --> 00:07:08,282
If you're pushing a human
through your body and out of your vagina,

138
00:07:08,365 --> 00:07:10,742
you don't wanna have to say 90 words.

139
00:07:10,826 --> 00:07:13,954
You don't wanna have to say,
"Oh, my God, I'm pushing this human…"

140
00:07:14,037 --> 00:07:16,206
No. You say, "Fuuuuck!"

141
00:07:16,874 --> 00:07:18,292
And you push it out.

142
00:07:18,375 --> 00:07:19,334
All right.

143
00:07:19,418 --> 00:07:21,420
[man] So we're gonns do
an experiment. You down?

144
00:07:21,503 --> 00:07:23,505
-Okay, cool. Let's go. Is it freezing?
-[man] So…

145
00:07:23,589 --> 00:07:28,510
So the scientist asks you to stick your
hand in a bucket of nearly freezing water

146
00:07:29,094 --> 00:07:33,974
and tells you either to say a swear word
over and over for as long as you can,

147
00:07:34,057 --> 00:07:35,934
or to say some neutral word.

148
00:07:36,018 --> 00:07:39,062
And it turns out
that you can hold your hand in the water

149
00:07:39,146 --> 00:07:42,524
about 50% longer if you're swearing
than if you're not.

150
00:07:42,608 --> 00:07:44,276
[squeals] Okay.

151
00:07:44,359 --> 00:07:45,402
[exhales]

152
00:07:45,486 --> 00:07:46,612
[gasps]

153
00:07:46,695 --> 00:07:47,613
[yelps]

154
00:07:49,323 --> 00:07:50,657
[gasps] So, um…

155
00:07:51,992 --> 00:07:54,077
Motherfucking bitch.

156
00:07:54,161 --> 00:07:59,291
-Silly meeeee…
-Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…

157
00:07:59,374 --> 00:08:00,792
What?

158
00:08:01,543 --> 00:08:02,461
Shit.

159
00:08:03,712 --> 00:08:04,546
Motherfucker.

160
00:08:04,630 --> 00:08:05,589
Hooo!

161
00:08:06,548 --> 00:08:10,969
-Fuck.
-[laughing] ♪ A, B, C, D, E… ♪

162
00:08:11,053 --> 00:08:14,806
♪ …iiiiiiiiii… ♪

163
00:08:14,890 --> 00:08:17,309
Shit. Shit! Shit.

164
00:08:17,392 --> 00:08:19,019
Aaargh! Aaaargh!

165
00:08:19,102 --> 00:08:20,062
Shit!

166
00:08:20,145 --> 00:08:21,772
Pieces of…

167
00:08:21,855 --> 00:08:23,649
Shit. Shit. Shit.

168
00:08:23,732 --> 00:08:25,067
…cake.

169
00:08:25,150 --> 00:08:29,154
For some reason I don't wanna say "pussy."
"Pussy" isn't gonna help me through this.

170
00:08:29,238 --> 00:08:33,158
…iiiiiiiiiiiii…

171
00:08:33,242 --> 00:08:34,576
Eeeeh!

172
00:08:34,660 --> 00:08:36,954
-Eeeh… aaaah! I can't do it. I can't.
-[bell rings]

173
00:08:37,538 --> 00:08:38,830
-Yeah, man.
-[bell rings]

174
00:08:38,914 --> 00:08:40,582
[exhales]

175
00:08:40,666 --> 00:08:42,501
-I'm done. That's enough.
-[bell rings]

176
00:08:42,584 --> 00:08:44,378
-Fuck! [laughs]
-[bell rings]

177
00:08:44,962 --> 00:08:46,171
-Oh, fuck.
-[bell rings]

178
00:08:46,255 --> 00:08:47,798
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

179
00:08:47,881 --> 00:08:48,799
[bell rings]

180
00:08:48,882 --> 00:08:51,843
…iiiiiiiiii…

181
00:08:51,927 --> 00:08:54,096
-How many seconds?
-Two minutes and 20 seconds.

182
00:08:54,179 --> 00:08:56,765
[screams] That's real!

183
00:08:56,848 --> 00:08:58,976
I wanted to swear so bad.
You don't understand.

184
00:08:59,059 --> 00:09:01,937
The more I said "shit,"
I felt like I was, like, in a trance.

185
00:09:02,020 --> 00:09:04,356
The power of cursing.
Like, it's important.

186
00:09:04,439 --> 00:09:06,692
It can help us withstand pain.

187
00:09:06,775 --> 00:09:08,485
Swearing is powerful.

188
00:09:08,569 --> 00:09:11,530
Thank fucking God that we get to swear.

189
00:09:12,281 --> 00:09:16,159
The ice experiment raises some
interesting questions about why we swear,

190
00:09:16,243 --> 00:09:18,370
but also about how we swear.

191
00:09:18,453 --> 00:09:21,999
To understand the relationship
between the brain and the profane,

192
00:09:22,082 --> 00:09:26,044
we must look at the curious case
of a 19th-century railroad worker

193
00:09:26,128 --> 00:09:27,754
named Phineas Gage.

194
00:09:27,838 --> 00:09:30,507
And that is with a G. Gage.

195
00:09:30,591 --> 00:09:34,553
[man] Phineas Gage was on a job
to lay railroad near Cavendish, Vermont.

196
00:09:34,636 --> 00:09:39,349
Boy, oh, boy. Lucky me.
Another day, another hole in the ground.

197
00:09:39,433 --> 00:09:41,602
[man] Legend has it
he forgot to pack the hole.

198
00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:46,940
It ignited and blew
a three-foot-six-inch iron rod

199
00:09:47,024 --> 00:09:48,275
completely through his skull,

200
00:09:48,859 --> 00:09:51,486
-landin' a full 82 feet behind him.
-[yells]

201
00:09:51,570 --> 00:09:55,782
Doctors were amazed he was able
to speak immediately after the accident.

202
00:09:55,866 --> 00:09:57,951
I say, I say, shit!

203
00:09:58,035 --> 00:10:00,078
Shit on a goddamn shingle!

204
00:10:00,162 --> 00:10:01,705
But everyone who knew him

205
00:10:01,788 --> 00:10:04,416
-said his behavior changed drastically.
-Shit! I say, I say…

206
00:10:04,499 --> 00:10:06,543
That he was no longer Gage.

207
00:10:06,627 --> 00:10:07,669
Shit!

208
00:10:07,753 --> 00:10:09,671
-He became more vulgar in his speech…
-Shit!

209
00:10:09,755 --> 00:10:12,132
-…more aggressive in his personality.
-Damn shit!

210
00:10:12,215 --> 00:10:14,885
-And findin' work became difficult.
-Goddamn shit!

211
00:10:14,968 --> 00:10:16,470
Shingle shit!

212
00:10:17,095 --> 00:10:20,974
And he also lost
most of his ability to produce language.

213
00:10:21,058 --> 00:10:25,228
Except when he would struggle
to try to produce words, he would swear.

214
00:10:25,812 --> 00:10:28,482
The rod pierced his frontal lobe.

215
00:10:28,565 --> 00:10:32,235
And when it did that,
it compromised parts of the brain

216
00:10:32,319 --> 00:10:34,529
that are responsible
for planning,

217
00:10:35,155 --> 00:10:36,490
for social reasoning.

218
00:10:36,573 --> 00:10:41,995
These are the very parts of the brain we
use any time we want to inhibit impulses.

219
00:10:42,079 --> 00:10:46,166
They saw this as a case where you could go
from being a nice guy to an asshole.

220
00:10:46,249 --> 00:10:47,793
Shiiiit!

221
00:10:47,876 --> 00:10:51,213
[Nicolas] So, how do we use
the word "shit"?

222
00:10:51,713 --> 00:10:53,799
I don't think I use "shit" as an expletive

223
00:10:53,882 --> 00:10:57,302
because it's become such a part
of the way that I talk in general.

224
00:10:57,386 --> 00:11:00,097
When I'm using the word "shit,"
I'm usually saying, like,

225
00:11:00,180 --> 00:11:03,517
"I need to pick up some shit,"
or "I need to go drop some shit off."

226
00:11:03,600 --> 00:11:05,686
And then if I'm cussing, I'm like, "Fuck."

227
00:11:05,769 --> 00:11:07,813
"Shit" and "fuck" are
pretty interchangeable.

228
00:11:07,896 --> 00:11:11,316
But, like, "fuck" has
a little more power than "shit."

229
00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:15,070
So I suppose, like, as I'm forming
sentences in my brain, I…

230
00:11:15,821 --> 00:11:17,864
I make those choices appropriately.

231
00:11:18,448 --> 00:11:21,368
"Shit" is-- is bringing
a knife to a gun fight, you know?

232
00:11:21,451 --> 00:11:23,578
"Shit" is also very effective.

233
00:11:23,662 --> 00:11:25,747
Uh… I'm a big fan of "shit."

234
00:11:25,831 --> 00:11:27,833
[flies buzzing]

235
00:11:27,958 --> 00:11:29,543
That is one big pile of shit.

236
00:11:29,626 --> 00:11:32,921
Let's say I… go to a restaurant.

237
00:11:33,004 --> 00:11:37,300
I'm like, "You know what?
I wanna try this new shit on the menu.

238
00:11:37,384 --> 00:11:39,386
Let me taste this shit first."

239
00:11:39,469 --> 00:11:43,390
I call the waiter over and I'm like,
"Is this the shit that I ordered?

240
00:11:43,473 --> 00:11:45,934
Because this shit don't taste
like the other shit."

241
00:11:46,017 --> 00:11:48,019
The waiter's like,
"What shit you talking about?"

242
00:11:48,103 --> 00:11:50,147
And I'm like, "The shit that I ordered."

243
00:11:50,856 --> 00:11:52,649
And he's like, "Shiiit."

244
00:11:52,733 --> 00:11:57,863
Shiiiiii…

245
00:11:57,946 --> 00:11:59,740
[typing]

246
00:11:59,823 --> 00:12:03,744
I think in the comedy world,
jokes around the word "shit" can vary

247
00:12:03,827 --> 00:12:06,705
whether or not they're considered
lowbrow or highbrow or not,

248
00:12:06,788 --> 00:12:10,041
based on if you're
talking about, like, "shit" as "feces."

249
00:12:10,125 --> 00:12:13,795
Is it lowbrow?
It depends on whose brow it is.

250
00:12:13,879 --> 00:12:17,632
I mean, you can't just say
in one fell swoop

251
00:12:17,716 --> 00:12:19,718
that shit jokes are lowbrow.

252
00:12:20,427 --> 00:12:22,012
It might be brilliant.

253
00:12:22,095 --> 00:12:23,305
I just sharted.

254
00:12:24,347 --> 00:12:26,767
-I don't know what that means.
-I tried to fart, shit came out.

255
00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:27,684
-Ugh.
-I sharted.

256
00:12:27,768 --> 00:12:32,522
I got up on stage,
talkin' my women's liberation bullshit.

257
00:12:33,398 --> 00:12:35,192
Them kids wasn't tryin' to hear that.

258
00:12:35,275 --> 00:12:37,944
Then I said, "Okay, who took
a shit on the tour bus first?"

259
00:12:38,028 --> 00:12:38,987
They died laughin'.

260
00:12:39,070 --> 00:12:40,739
[laughter]

261
00:12:40,822 --> 00:12:43,116
Potty humor can be pretty sophisticated.

262
00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,453
I think it's, like, kind of taking
its own journey where…

263
00:12:46,536 --> 00:12:49,623
people turn their nose up at it
like it's unsophisticated and it's easy.

264
00:12:49,706 --> 00:12:52,375
It might be, like, New Yorker-level stuff.

265
00:12:53,168 --> 00:12:55,295
It all depends on the context of it.

266
00:12:57,005 --> 00:13:01,009
"Shit" is
in a class of cuss words all its own.

267
00:13:01,092 --> 00:13:05,680
Unlike desirable fun words,
like "fuck," "pussy" and "ass,"

268
00:13:05,764 --> 00:13:08,350
"shit" is something
virtually nobody wants.

269
00:13:08,433 --> 00:13:11,102
-[typing]
-So how did "shit" become offensive?

270
00:13:11,686 --> 00:13:14,815
[Melissa] Other words for "shit" from
the Renaissance were "beray"

271
00:13:14,898 --> 00:13:16,149
and "bescumber."

272
00:13:16,233 --> 00:13:19,402
And these words meant
to spray things with shit, basically.

273
00:13:19,486 --> 00:13:21,947
It was a kind of word for violent pooping.

274
00:13:22,030 --> 00:13:25,158
But you can sort of see why
they wouldn't be good swear words.

275
00:13:25,242 --> 00:13:26,409
They're not punchy.

276
00:13:26,493 --> 00:13:31,665
"Shit" is a… a little bit more bounded
in terms of where it can go lexically,

277
00:13:31,748 --> 00:13:33,875
just because it's tied to waste,

278
00:13:33,959 --> 00:13:38,421
and so it tends to be used
mostly of things that are not great.

279
00:13:39,506 --> 00:13:43,260
The word itself was
fairly inoffensive for a very long time.

280
00:13:43,343 --> 00:13:46,263
You probably wouldn't bring it up
in casual conversation

281
00:13:46,346 --> 00:13:49,599
unless you were talking to someone
who dealt specifically with shit,

282
00:13:49,683 --> 00:13:53,061
like a farmer, or perhaps an attorney,
ha, ha, ha.

283
00:13:53,603 --> 00:13:57,482
But as we got farther and farther
from other people's shit,

284
00:13:57,566 --> 00:13:59,776
we distanced ourselves
from the word as well,

285
00:13:59,860 --> 00:14:03,154
avoiding any mention of it
altogether for hundreds of years.

286
00:14:03,238 --> 00:14:06,783
But why did we run away
from number two for so long?

287
00:14:07,284 --> 00:14:10,620
More than likely,
it was due to the invention of plumbing.

288
00:14:11,204 --> 00:14:13,373
People became wealthier
in the Renaissance.

289
00:14:13,456 --> 00:14:16,668
They started to be able
to build houses with more rooms,

290
00:14:16,751 --> 00:14:20,130
and this created
our modern idea of privacy.

291
00:14:20,213 --> 00:14:23,383
And so, once you had
the idea of privacy and that, you know,

292
00:14:23,466 --> 00:14:27,137
some of these functions
should be done alone,

293
00:14:27,220 --> 00:14:31,016
not with all these people,
we got a taboo around excretion.

294
00:14:31,099 --> 00:14:34,561
And then that made
the word shit a swear word.

295
00:14:35,061 --> 00:14:35,979
[Nicolas] By the 1930s,

296
00:14:36,062 --> 00:14:39,733
we start to see the rise
of shit phrases like "shitfaced,"

297
00:14:39,816 --> 00:14:43,278
"shithead" and "chickenshit"
enter our lexicon.

298
00:14:43,945 --> 00:14:47,532
But its glass runneth over
with uses and variations,

299
00:14:47,616 --> 00:14:50,702
and the word took on
a broader role in our culture and slang.

300
00:14:50,785 --> 00:14:54,080
Especially over the last 50 years,
"shit" has come a long way.

301
00:14:54,164 --> 00:14:58,335
It occupies this really precious
real estate among profanities.

302
00:14:58,418 --> 00:15:03,506
It's offensive enough that you still get
some credibility for saying it.

303
00:15:03,590 --> 00:15:06,301
-But it's not so offensive that…
-[crackling]

304
00:15:07,052 --> 00:15:09,679
…it's basically…
prices itself out of the market.

305
00:15:10,180 --> 00:15:14,267
…iiiiiiii…

306
00:15:14,351 --> 00:15:16,186
[typing]

307
00:15:16,770 --> 00:15:21,608
Dee Snider, lead singer of the band…
[yells] …Twisted Sister!

308
00:15:22,108 --> 00:15:24,152
wore a tank top and plenty of product

309
00:15:24,235 --> 00:15:28,406
in the halls of Congress
to defend artistic speech in 1985.

310
00:15:28,990 --> 00:15:30,659
The Parents Music Resource Center,

311
00:15:30,742 --> 00:15:34,579
co-founded by Tipper Gore,
set the goal of increasing control

312
00:15:34,663 --> 00:15:39,501
over children's access
to music deemed to have explicit lyrics.

313
00:15:39,584 --> 00:15:42,629
I have been asked to come
here to present my views on, quote,

314
00:15:42,712 --> 00:15:46,508
"The subject of the content
of certain sound recordings

315
00:15:46,591 --> 00:15:49,427
and suggestions that recording packages
be labeled

316
00:15:49,511 --> 00:15:52,722
to provide a warning
to prospective purchasers

317
00:15:52,806 --> 00:15:57,602
of sexually explicit or other
potentially offensive content," unquote.

318
00:15:57,686 --> 00:15:59,479
[Nicolas] The result of those hearings?

319
00:15:59,562 --> 00:16:01,564
Parental Advisory stickers.

320
00:16:01,648 --> 00:16:02,774
There was this momentum,

321
00:16:02,857 --> 00:16:06,111
this head of steam
that Black culture had developed

322
00:16:06,194 --> 00:16:08,530
that Tipper Gore and a bunch of people
tried to stop

323
00:16:08,613 --> 00:16:10,991
with the Parental Advisory stickers.

324
00:16:11,074 --> 00:16:14,869
The Parental Advisory sticker,
to me, was implicitly racist.

325
00:16:14,953 --> 00:16:17,831
And to all my friends.
We all thought it was racist, because

326
00:16:17,914 --> 00:16:22,252
it came about in the '80s, when hip-hop
finally became a commercial force.

327
00:16:22,335 --> 00:16:24,337
It was no longer an underground thing.

328
00:16:24,421 --> 00:16:27,632
I thought, "This is a misunderstanding.
This is a missed opportunity

329
00:16:27,716 --> 00:16:30,135
to have a conversation
about where the culture is going."

330
00:16:30,719 --> 00:16:34,681
More conservative people
try and invalidate

331
00:16:34,764 --> 00:16:39,686
people they disagree with by, like,
pointing to their language as vulgar.

332
00:16:39,769 --> 00:16:42,439
As if to say vulgar language is a sign

333
00:16:42,522 --> 00:16:45,567
of, like, a lack of education
or intelligence or something like that.

334
00:16:45,650 --> 00:16:49,112
It was just another fear
of youth culture and Black culture.

335
00:16:49,195 --> 00:16:53,283
I think it's all respectability,
politics and policing

336
00:16:53,366 --> 00:16:56,870
that perpetuate and uphold, like, racism.

337
00:16:56,953 --> 00:17:00,123
All these things that scared
parents and scared Tipper Gore,

338
00:17:00,206 --> 00:17:03,376
only thing those records did
were make kids want them more.

339
00:17:03,460 --> 00:17:05,587
It was like a fire sale sign
in the suburbs.

340
00:17:05,670 --> 00:17:08,006
"Dude, this one's got
a Parental Advisory sign on."

341
00:17:08,089 --> 00:17:10,341
I hated when people
bought the ones without it.

342
00:17:10,425 --> 00:17:12,677
I hate wonderin'
what the word could and would be.

343
00:17:12,761 --> 00:17:17,724
I did gravitate towards getting CDs
that had Parental Advisories on 'em.

344
00:17:17,807 --> 00:17:20,393
Like, I remember
Word of Mouf, by Ludacris,

345
00:17:20,477 --> 00:17:23,146
and it has, like, a big…
kind of like a blowjob mouth.

346
00:17:23,229 --> 00:17:26,775
And it was, like, hyper-sexual
and it had the Parental Advisory on it.

347
00:17:26,858 --> 00:17:29,319
And I was like, "Oh shi-i-i-it."

348
00:17:29,402 --> 00:17:31,404
Censoring is not a good thing for me.

349
00:17:31,488 --> 00:17:34,157
Who's deciding
these are bad words? Who did it?

350
00:17:34,240 --> 00:17:36,409
Who said, "This is the worst word"?

351
00:17:37,452 --> 00:17:39,788
Which brings us
to a time-honored tradition

352
00:17:39,871 --> 00:17:42,207
that continues
to help reshape our culture.

353
00:17:42,290 --> 00:17:46,586
The transformative power
of African-American Vernacular English.

354
00:17:46,669 --> 00:17:50,215
Once again, we owe
a shitload of thanks to Black culture

355
00:17:50,298 --> 00:17:53,843
for taking linguistic toilet seats
and turning them into thrones.

356
00:17:54,552 --> 00:17:56,888
"Shit" went from being something

357
00:17:56,971 --> 00:18:00,266
we avoided seeing, hearing,
or saying at all costs

358
00:18:00,350 --> 00:18:03,019
to being the shit.

359
00:18:04,062 --> 00:18:07,899
[Kory] So "shit" really…
starting in the 1970s, 1980s,

360
00:18:07,982 --> 00:18:11,528
there's sort of this new slang
that starts taking "shit"

361
00:18:12,028 --> 00:18:14,489
and just sort of uses it everywhere.

362
00:18:14,572 --> 00:18:17,534
Imagine you've been called
the worst you could be called so often,

363
00:18:17,617 --> 00:18:19,452
it doesn't mean anything to you anymore.

364
00:18:19,536 --> 00:18:23,832
That, in fact, you look for ways of
showing how that worst thing you could--

365
00:18:23,915 --> 00:18:27,210
that you're described as being
is something that people should want.

366
00:18:27,293 --> 00:18:30,755
Now, if something is the shit,
and this is how you differentiate

367
00:18:30,839 --> 00:18:33,466
between the good and the bad,
that means it is excellent.

368
00:18:33,550 --> 00:18:36,344
It's kind of like taking
that negative and inverting it.

369
00:18:36,427 --> 00:18:38,805
If somebody says I'm the shit,

370
00:18:38,888 --> 00:18:42,225
I'mma be like, "Well, thank you
so much. I'm glad that you recognize it."

371
00:18:42,308 --> 00:18:46,771
That's about taking the profane and making
it sacred, as far as I'm concerned.

372
00:18:46,855 --> 00:18:50,900
"Bad" used to be only bad
until Michael Jackson encountered it.

373
00:18:50,984 --> 00:18:55,488
"Fat" used to be negatively toned
until it traded an "F" for a "PH."

374
00:18:55,572 --> 00:18:56,739
"Shit" is the shit.

375
00:18:56,823 --> 00:18:59,159
So to be the shit,
is the dopest shit ever.

376
00:18:59,784 --> 00:19:03,246
But you could be shitty,
and then you ain't shit. Got it?

377
00:19:05,456 --> 00:19:10,044
There's a lyric in a song,
it's like, to me, the most romantic lyric.

378
00:19:10,128 --> 00:19:11,171
He says, um…

379
00:19:12,046 --> 00:19:14,549
"You're the shit and I'm knee-deep in it."

380
00:19:17,594 --> 00:19:20,555
I think the word should…
should be just a word.

381
00:19:21,181 --> 00:19:22,432
I think it's a regular word.

382
00:19:22,515 --> 00:19:27,770
No one using "shit" 100 years ago,
200 years ago would have ever imagined

383
00:19:27,854 --> 00:19:31,107
"This shit is delicious"
being something positive.

384
00:19:31,191 --> 00:19:34,485
"Shit" is
just a couple decades behind "crap."

385
00:19:34,569 --> 00:19:37,906
If you feel like you can say "crap"
in absolutely any circumstance,

386
00:19:38,406 --> 00:19:40,200
that's where "shit" is going too.

387
00:19:41,951 --> 00:19:45,038
No matter if
you're tired of taking somebody's shit

388
00:19:45,538 --> 00:19:47,290
or you're taking one yourself,

389
00:19:47,373 --> 00:19:50,877
remember, "shit" is the great equalizer.

390
00:19:50,960 --> 00:19:53,671
No matter your race,
your religion or creed,

391
00:19:53,755 --> 00:19:55,423
king or peasant,

392
00:19:55,506 --> 00:19:57,217
everybody shits!

393
00:19:57,300 --> 00:20:02,847
…iiiiit!

394
00:20:03,514 --> 00:20:05,808
-[crowd cheering and applauding]
-That's it.

395
00:20:06,601 --> 00:20:08,895
Call The Guinness Book of World Records.

396
00:20:09,562 --> 00:20:11,064
That's it. I'm done.