Gagging for a laugh
Posted December 7th, 2008 by debritz
The Daily Record has hired edgy Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle as a columnist, but it already seems he's a bit controversial for the family paper. In his first column, The Record has rendered the word "bastard" as "b*****d", shit as s*** and piss (I think) as p***. None of these words would be censored from most Australian papers these days, as long as the editor felt they were contextual - which they are here given Boyle's oeuvre. Stranger still is the fact that I have heard the F-word (which most Australian and British papers would not print in full) more on television - and, significantly, in the street - here in Scotland than I ever have in Australia.
PS: Boyle's column is subtitled, "He's the comic who can't be gagged".
P*** would be Pish. That's the Scots version, meaning the same. But remember Brett, Scots readers are delicate flowers who must be protected, despite almost everyone swearing like a trooper in everyday speech... I remember in my days as a sub in Scotland religiously counting the asterisks to make sure we got the swear word with the right number of *s. Sometimes we just used one...as in bullsh*t...as if that made any difference!
Yes, it's all very curious.