I get really surprised when people consider "pissed," "crap" and "damn" swear words. And apparently some cartoons censor these like how Regular Show changed "pissed" to "ticked" and it's insane to me. "Damn" and "ass" maybe, but are these words considered cursing/swearing? Would your parents get mad if you said these when you were 10?
47 comments
No
It’s on the Carlin 7 list.
All bad words are subjective
There are some very conservative people that see it that way. Personally I don’t see pissed as a bad word
Not too bad.
Not really, but television intended for kids has some fairly strict rules.
No but Regular Show was a cartoon a kids network (targeted to an older audience but still on a kids network)
Those are like kiddie swear words. Yes, I would have gotten in trouble for saying them as a kid but no one as an adult would be like “oh they swear a lot” if that’s what you’re saying.
I would have been in trouble for those. They are considered curse words around this area of Indiana.
Yeah my parents probably wouldn’t have been chill with me saying “pissed” in their presence at 10. Maybe 14, but not 10. My parents weren’t that strict either, all things considered
It was considered a bad word when I was a kid. Nobody gives a fuck as an adult.
I’d put it on the same level as “bastard,” maybe a little lower.
Yep. Once got a negative performance review because I said “crap” during a lecture.
I think it’s been downgraded as a swear the last generation or so.
Even by the 80’s and 90’s when I was in school, pissed wasn’t as bad as shit or ass. But there is some lingering cultural evidence that it once had a higher stature as a swear.
Not really, but kids TV caters to the lowest common denominator, nobody cares if they change “pissed” to “ticked” but some people will be angry if they don’t. By changing it, they appeal to the lowest common denominator, make sense?
It’s not professional. Very rarely do I just say pissed though, it’s usually “I’m fucking pissed”.
My dad knew I was going to cuss regardless, so I got a new cuss word unlocked each year for my birthday. It was his way of teaching me how to cuss.
If you grew up in a strict or religious household, then yes. I got smacked for saying “turd” and “crap” and others that most wouldn’t even consider swears.
My Silent-Gen mom sees those words as swear words and so, growing up, she has inculcated such verbal attitudes into myself. Joining the military has helped grind down the sharp barbs of such self-censoring but there’s still a pebble of uneasiness that causes me to save such language for prime use, rather than just randomly sprinkling my speak with such spice.
It’s a swear word. I wouldn’t consider crap a swear word; it’s a little crude and often a replacement for the swear word, shit.
I would not consider them swear words. And I also think it is silly they censored them. A pearl clutching, religious granny (or grandpa) must be making the decisions!
Growing up, people used to make a big deal about those words.
When I went to catholic school in the 90s, a substitute teacher got fired on his first day for saying Damn.
My parents weren’t particularly conservative when it comes to swearing, but pissed is what I would consider a borderline swear word. It’s crass enough that I don’t say it around other people’s children.
Those words are pretty ubiquitously considered not ok for small children to say. I don’t think an adult among other adults would consider them actual swear words.
They’re somewhere in between I guess. Each one is a Swear Word Lite®
Yes. It’s impolite in certain company to use these words casually.
It’s a vulgar word. It’s not on the same level as some of the big ones, but as a 10 year old, I’d have been scolded for saying it.
I definitely put it in the same category as crap & damn as far as severity, but it’s pretty mild. I do consider damn & ass as swears, but I don’t consider pissed or crap swear words. I think it’s an odd distinction we find as children that follows us through life.
My mom didn’t let me talk that way, but I say ALL the bad words now. Lol. I do try to avoid letting my child get away with that language though. She’s gotta keep it professional for first grade. lol.
In my mind, piss is on par with shit. They’re both the harsher term for pee and poop respectively. If shit’s a cuss word, piss is too. If shit’s not, piss isn’t either.
I have always considered ‘crap’ a swear–a very mild one, sure, but definitely still a swear. The vast majority of people seem to disagree with me though 🤷🏻♀️ ‘Damn’ is also a swear to me, but again very mild.
I wouldn’t consider ‘pissed’ a swear, but it would still sound weird coming out of a kid’s mouth if that makes sense.
My parents absolutely would have gotten mad if they heard me saying ‘crap’ or ‘damn’. I’m 30yo and I still avoid words like that in front of them 🤣
It’s a word I’d say in front of my mom but not my grandma
It’s on a lower tier of bad words. Like ass.
Yes my parents would have been mad at me for saying it when I was ten and I would not find it acceptable for either of my two young children to say it
It really depends .. these were taboo words in school church and public settings .. looking back words don’t hurt anyone or anything and censoring or policing words is just silly
No. But I would also not consider it a young kids show word either.
It’s not uncommon for little kids to be discouraged from saying certain words and phrases even if the adults wouldn’t classify them as proper “curse” words. Pissed would be one of those, my mom would have scolded me for it back then but wouldn’t care now that I’m grown. Same with “shut up” for that matter, though. It was more about her wanting me to be polite when I spoke than the words being verboten in themselves.
But there’s a pretty big range of sensibilities in the U.S. so I suppose the execs determining which words need to be censored are catering to the most extreme of their audience
As I recall, from the 70s and 80s, pissed and sucks and damn and ass were enough to get one sent to the assistant principal’s office for a lecture about polite speech and conducting oneself with decorum. But, butt and hate and fart were also on that list.
It’s an impolite word that a child would get in trouble for saying and you wouldn’t use in formal situations but it’s not profanity that would get you in trouble with the FCC if you said it on tv or radio
I never said it in front of my parents until I was 30 and NEVER said it in front of my grandmother.
The reason kids shows won’t say “pissed” is because a show rated for everyone means it has to be appropriate for 4 year olds as well as 12 year olds who are probably fine with hearing the word “pissed”
Because you want to appeal to the lowest common denominator, actual language and content needs to adhere to stricter standards.
However, many kids shows also have adult innuendos or more subtle jokes. Those don’t use any actual “bad” language so they are ok and no 4 year olds is going to understand it anyways.
My very southern mother thinks “stupid” and “shutup” are rude words so when she hears me say “pissed,” I hear her suck air through her teeth. lol So it just depends on who you’re talking to. My personal take is that it’s not offensive.
“Crap” isn’t a swear word, but it can induce a negative image depending on the context. I grew up with a kid in my neighborhood who had to use the word “crud” instead, which I, who came from a quite religious family, found it odd. He also couldn’t say “fart”, so he would instead say “fanny burp”.
Piss, on the other hand, is a swear word, but it’s one of the softest ones, and is generally accepted in most scenarios, again, depending on context.
I don’t think so.
Pissed is one of the least bad words out of the list of swear words.
Yeah I would’ve got side-eyed if I said any of those words when I was young. I’d probably put it in the order of crap < pissed < damn. I don’t know if I was even allowed to watch Cartoon Network yet when I was ten.
In some parts of the US (UP Michigan that I know of) if you’re “pissed” it means you are drunk. “We all went to Buck’s Bar last night, did we get pissed, eh?”
Having spent time there, once in a while I’ll say someone was pissed and the person I’m talking to will say, “Why were they mad?”
Language has changed. Back in the 80s it was a huge deal when someone said “sucks” on TV. Pissed was definitely more controversial in years past, I’d still not use it around my Grandma.
Pissed, and crap are crude words, and are bad depending on the audience, and situation.
Damn is considered a blasphemous word depending on context, and is can be offensive in religious context.
Kids do not understand context, or social situations very well most the time so it’s best to refrain from frequently using language that would be inappropriate lest it be repeated.
I got in trouble for using the word screwed in Cub Scouts while we were working on building bird houses and my mom backed up the scout leader when I told her about it. Apparently screwed was just a replacement word for fucked which is a word for a sexual act and therefore bad. Which I didn’t even know that meaning of the word screwed I just thought it meant something was messed up and I was trying to make a pun since we were literally working with screws and screwdrivers.
Some people are just rather conservative With cursing especially the younger you are as a child or if you’re around children. I was not allowed to watch The Smurfs growing up because my mom said that they cursed. As an adult going back and watching it I can see her point because every other word they’re using Smurf as an adjective and if you replace the word Smurf in all of their sentences with fuck their languages quite foul.
On the other hand while my mom definitely would have said something about my language if I had said that I was pissed off about something my dad would have replied with well it’s better to be pissed off than pissed on.
Hi! Communication professor here. Western culture, particularly English speaking culture, is going through its fourth shift regarding what’s considered swearing/cursing. This shift sees a new focus on slurs as the most offensive set of words. In the past shifts we’ve been focused on blasphemy, sex, and bodily excretions as the “obscene” words. Today you’re not likely to find the kind of resistance/aversion to words like damn, god, fuck, shit, etc. that you would have before this shift began. This shift is fairly new, starting in the late post war period.
Interestingly enough, every time we go through an obscenity shift, the older generations lament the corruption and decadence of the youth. Despite their howling, society plods along.