Monday, May 3, 2010

ONLY A PUTZ WOULD THINK THIS: Apparently the New York Times still considers the word "schmuck" to be "potentially offensive" and may not use it so often in writing about the upcoming Steve Carell-Paul Rudd film Dinner for Schmucks.

10 comments:

  1. The most bizarre sentence in there?  "According to an online account by Russ Walter, at angelfire.com/nh/secret/2Judaism, NBC once banned the word from a “Saturday Night Live” skit, written by Al Franken, in which Lincoln was to use it in addressing Richard M. Nixon."  Really?  You're citing an angelfire.com site as authoritative?  That's like citing us as an authority on, well, pretty much anything.

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  2. GoldnI10:41 PM

    Angelfire?  Were there no articles on GeoCities they could use?

    I'm actually really excited for this movie.  It's based on a French movie, Le Dîner de Cons (and believe me, "con" is a far more offensive word in French than "schmuck" is in either English or Yiddish), which was hilarious.

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  3. My mom's dog was named schmuck.  It was a shortened version of the name their German exchange student gave the dog, <span><span>Das ist eine Schmuckschatulle, "That is a jewelry box."
    </span></span>

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  4. Mr. Cosmo11:51 PM

    And we have just seen the etymology of the term "the family jewels."

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  5. Fred App1:10 AM

    First of all, I never understood why it would be OK to say "penis" but not any slang for the same word. There is nothing inherently vulgar in a word; the vulgarity is the concept it represents. So if the two words are representing the same object, why is one vulgar and the other isn't?

    Second of all, I think we can all agree that almost nobody uses "schmuck" for its original, literal meaning anymore.

    Third of all, the goyim won't understand the literal meaning and won't be offended, and they have to represet, what, two-thirds of the moviegoing audience? More?

    And, lastly, how can a somewhat respectable publication like the Times uses Debbie Schlussel as an expert voice? I mean, read what this woman writes. She makes Glenn Beck sound like Thomas Jefferson. She is ... well, a schmuck. In all senses of the word. And just because she has a blog, she's suddenly worth quoting? I weep for my profession.

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  6. Meghan8:51 AM

    My eyes!   My eyes!

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  7. Ha! That brings back memories of a raging debate I once had regarding my offense at being called a "shiksa". :)

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  8. Aviod the use of the world altogether and see the original french film The Dinner Game - re-watched it the other night, funny stuff!

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  9. That feels like a century ago.

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