bleep

Asterisks for the f*n of it

Nancy Friedman11 Comments

Our mission here at Strong Language is to promote profanity and extol the unexpurgated. As our founding co-fucker Stan Carey promised back in December 2014, at the end of our first week of publication, we aim to present “a feast of fucks and sweary shit.” Censorship, as a rule, is not our jam.

Sometimes, though, it’s swear-aversion that rouses our interest. The dropped letters in ads. The bleeps in commercials. The f**cks, the s**ts, even the Victorian-appearing d*mns.

Which is why we are pointing you today to Blackbird Spyplane, the Substack newsletter that the New York Times said was “inventing a new language for talking about style.” As it happens, some of that language is generously sprinkled with little stars.

Collage of home goods, headshot of bearded white man, and pensive white woman holding a large mug. Text reads "Blackbird Spyplane Mach+ Home Goods Guide"
Blackbird Spyplane home goods guide, December 15, 2020.

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Those bleeping commercials!

Nancy Friedman16 Comments

In the U.S., live and “reality” television programs have long defended their audiences’ tender ears against accidental obscenity by deploying a brief broadcast delay – sometimes called the seven-second delay or the profanity delay – to give technicians time to replace offending language with a 1000 Hz tone known as a “bleep.” The bleep has become so embedded in popular culture that mockumentary-style sitcoms like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation” often used it for comic effect.

More and more, advertisers are playing the game, too, inserting bleeps into scripts to signal how hip they are … or perhaps just to startle viewers awake.

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