• JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    In the context of the movie, that was a perfect joke.

    The character delivering it was a doctor delivering results to the patient: an average Joe from the early 21st century (or late 20th. I forget exactly when he was from). The person you expect to speak professionally and intelligently. But in this world everyone is crass, profane, and idiotic, having a vocabulary that’s rivaled by most 2nd graders today. It’s fitting, then, that someone like a doctor, speaks like a schoolyard bully.

    The quote omits the beginning part of the line, “It says here on your chart”, which makes it more clear that it was originally delivered by a doctor.

    Ergo, despite the words themselves being considered more inappropriate than they were even when the film was (relatively recently) released, the parent posters usage of them was perfectly appropriate: he was trying to present himself as intelligent, like the doctor, but instead came across as a crass schoolyard bully.

    Though it does raise the question at which point it is okay to use inappropriate words as part of a quote. I was listening to an audiobook in the car today, a nonfiction history book, in which letters and poems from freed slaves were read aloud. These readings made strong and contemporarily appropriate usage of the “n” word, but when it gets shouted out my speakers at a red light, it’ll turn heads.

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I know the plot of Idiocracy. It is one of my favourite movies. I also love Pulp Fiction, but I sure as fuck am not going to go around talking about dead n_____ storage.