The F word alternates

[ironmike]

What is a realistic way to show an angry, hard-***, uneducated character's response to being really pissed off. Without using the F word. F...ing, freaking...etc excluded. I need this to rewite my script, to achieve an GP-13 rating for a film.


Normally only one F word per PG-13 film is acceptable.

Thanks,
IronMike

[Medievalist]

What is a realistic way to show an angry, hard-***, uneducated character's response to being really pissed off. Without using the F word. F...ing, freaking...etc excluded. I need this to rewite my script, to achieve an GP-13 rating for a film.

Acting! <g>

In otherwords, have the character do something physical instead of cussing.

[ironmike]

My script is a Suspense/Thriller. Action works well, as does sub text. But I need some dialogue to raise the contempt between the Hero and the Antagonist. Something sharp, infuriated, fuming, rabid, something instant.

Thanks for your reply.

Iron Mike

[BradyH1861]

Didn't Norman Mailer use "fug" in his novel The Naked and the Dead?

I don't think that would work in a screenplay though.


Brady H.

[Hang of Thursdays]

My script is a Suspense/Thriller. Action works well, as does sub text. But I need some dialogue to raise the contempt between the Hero and the Antagonist. Something sharp, infuriated, fuming, rabid, something instant.

Thanks for your reply.

Iron Mike

make it a very specific, personal insult, something that cuts deep. Cause when you think about it, anybody can walk up to you on the street and say "**** you" and leave you moderately irritated, but pretty much unphased.

If, say, the hero's sister was raped (maybe by the antagonist), perhaps the antagonist could allude to that, and it'd get the hero even angrier.

[ironmike]

I don't think that would work in a screenplay though.
Can you see Dirty Harry saying "I don't give a Fug what you want!" Riveting!
But Dirty Harry never did PG-13

Iron Mike

Didn't Norman Mailer use "fug" in his novel The Naked and the Dead?




Brady H.

[ironmike]

make it a very specific, personal insult, something that cuts deep. Cause when you think about it, anybody can walk up to you on the street and say "**** you" and leave you moderately irritated, but pretty much unphased.

If, say, the hero's sister was raped (maybe by the antagonist), perhaps the antagonist could allude to that, and it'd get the hero even angrier.

Something personal...great concept...Like Neil Simon's "California Suite" with more juice. I like it, Thanks.

Iron MIke

[Vipersniper]

:crazy: Not every person that is "uneducated" touts the f word. My father would be considered this by today's standards in that he only attended the second grade but did have his fits of anger when riled. Just as I do
at times. friggin is one word and sometimes he would say this.
I have had better things run down my leg than you. Fug is interesting word and I have not heard that one before and I read some of the authors work. I have seen the word 'freaking'. If that doesn't wrinkle my prune or once he said this and they thought it was funny. You can just go do what rhymes with trucking yourself. My father did not like to use foul language around his girl children or my mother. In fact I only heard him use the word once. But then again he was not writing for screen plays either. But frigging or freaking would be a suggstion.

[Mac H.]

Dyslexia can be helpful for a variant to swearing.

A local variant of 'No Worries' is 'No Wucking Furries'.
Works well with humour, but going personal is a darn good suggestion for real feeling.

Another alternative to swearing and anger is simply to go beyond it. Imagine you've got a burly boxer who is angry. Really angry. He's having the day from hell and someone backs into his car while they are parking.

We want to show that he's finally 'lost it', and because we are expecting him to come out swearing, it might be better not to - he could bring out a baseball bat and start smashing up his own car, cry - or something else. It works because it shows that this event is different from the rest - he's not simply yelling anymore. The equivalent in a family would be a father's resigned disappointment in his son, rather than yelling at him to do better.

Just my 2c worth.

Oh - and you call always invent your own swear words. (eg: The classic 'smeg off', 'smeg head' etc. And yes, I have looked it up in a medical dictionary.)

[ironmike]

Dyslexia can be helpful for a variant to swearing.

A local variant of 'No Worries' is 'No Wucking Furries'.
Works well with humour, but going personal is a darn good suggestion for real feeling.

Another alternative to swearing and anger is simply to go beyond it. Imagine you've got a burly boxer who is angry. Really angry. He's having the day from hell and someone backs into his car while they are parking.

We want to show that he's finally 'lost it', and because we are expecting him to come out swearing, it might be better not to - he could bring out a baseball bat and start smashing up his own car, cry - or something else. It works because it shows that this event is different from the rest - he's not simply yelling anymore. The equivalent in a family would be a father's resigned disappointment in his son, rather than yelling at him to do better.

Just my 2c worth.

Oh - and you call always invent your own swear words. (eg: The classic 'smeg off', 'smeg head' etc. And yes, I have looked it up in a medical dictionary.)

Going beyond the urge seems to be another good approach. The unexpected, Like a movie, not real life. What movie really ever is?

Thanks iron Mike

[NikeeGoddess]

i remember Tom Cruise's character calling someone an A-hole b/c he was too young and nice to use the A-ss. and Joe the pimp mocked him for it.

i agree with making it personal. ie - a black person might be really offended if you say, "are you out of you cotton pickin' mind?!" or if a woman is fat and ugly it's most people know how much that hurts to use it when she's down.

not sure if any of that will help but...

[scripter1]

you said in your first post that you can only use one F word and you've all ready used it?
Well, one solution is to change the location of the word.
Since this is pretty much the mother of all swear words then choose its placement carefully and for greatest effect.
It may work better in this scene and could be taken out of the earlier one.

Another solution might be to have someone interupt the word or talk over the word. If the guy is really yelling and MUST be heard or WANTS to be heard then it could add to his anger if he keeps getting drowned out.
Create more conflict in the scene.

Hmm. What is the character's ethnicity?
They could swear in another language.
There is a website of all bad words in hundreds of different languages.
I don't even remember how I came across it.

Really, your best bet is to go with actions.
As was stated, anybody can swear, but actions truly define the character.
Play against the norm, create a strong scene that will be unique and different from any reaction we've seen before.

Bill Martell talks about one of his scripts where a wife is told by her husband's police partner that the husband is dead.
We would expect this sweet woman to burst into tears, maybe collapse.
Nope, she ATTACKS the partner.
Beats the crap out of him.
(It's in one of his articles, I'll look for it.)
Go against type.

[JustinoXXV]

""are you out of you cotton pickin' mind?"

I'm black, and I don't see the offense whatsoever. I've never picked cotton before. LOL

And if I had picked cotton, is it a crime? Not at all. My grandparents in their day picked cotton, and they made an honest living doing it.

As for cotton picking being a reference to slavery, not really. Slaves were used for all sorts of plantation labor, and they did a lot more than cotton.

[NikeeGoddess]

it's more derogatory to Northern blacks
Southern blacks have a larger tolerance for racist based comments ;)

[Joe Calabrese]

Almost any comment can be derogatory to a person recieving such, as long as he/she reacts to it.

So with that in mind, if someone says "are you out of your cotton picking' mind" to a black character and he reacts explosively, then for that character it was a derogatory comment and the reader can understand why.

Others have given some good suggestions. Personally, I wold leave it it as originally written. If f*** is the best word, then use it and let the producer's worry about it during production. PG-13 has been getting closer to an R every year. I remember in Beteljuice over 15 years ago which was a PG had one f***. Now days, I may be wrong but I think you can have several and still get a PG-13.

[maestrowork]

Watch Be Cool. It's PG-13 and has exactly one F-word (and the way it is used is ironic). The film is full of thugs doing thug things and violence, etc. Watch and see how the screenwriter avoid using any swear words.

[Joe Calabrese]

Here is the definition from the MPAA. If your script has any other elements other thatn the F word that would cause a higher rating, then you may be stuck with an R anyway.

" PG-13 is thus a sterner warning to parents to determine for themselves the attendance in particular of their younger children as they might consider some material not suited for them. Parents, by the rating, are alerted to be very careful about the attendance of their under-teenage children.

A PG-13 film is one which, in the view of the Rating Board, leaps beyond the boundaries of the PG rating in theme, violence, nudity, sensuality, language, or other contents, but does not quite fit within the restricted R category. Any drug use content will initially require at least a PG-13 rating. In effect, the PG-13 cautions parents with more stringency than usual to give special attention to this film before they allow their 12-year olds and younger to attend.

If nudity is sexually oriented, the film will generally not be found in the PG-13 category. If violence is too rough or persistent, the film goes into the R (restricted) rating. A film's single use of one of the harsher sexually-derived words, though only as an expletive, shall initially require the Rating Board to issue that film at least a PG-13 rating. More than one such expletive must lead the Rating Board to issue a film an R rating, as must even one of these words used in a sexual context. These films can be rated less severely, however, if by a special vote, the Rating Board feels that a lesser rating would more responsibly reflect the opinion of American parents.

PG-13 places larger responsibilities on parents for their children's moviegoing. The voluntary rating system is not a surrogate parent, nor should it be. It cannot, and should not, insert itself in family decisions that only parents can, and should, make. Its purpose is to give prescreening advance informational warnings, so that parents can form their own judgments. PG-13 is designed to make these parental decisions easier for films between PG and R."

[Maryn]

My script is a Suspense/Thriller. Action works well, as does sub text. But I need some dialogue to raise the contempt between the Hero and the Antagonist. Something sharp, infuriated, fuming, rabid, something instant.To me, the obvious choice is to say something specific to the character that's as deliberately hurtful as possible.

Anybody who knows me knows that "f--- you" will really, uh, tick me off. But bringing up my very real personal flaws, past mistakes, or ugly secrets will absolutely infuriate me, precisely because that's so hurtful.

Hero: You won't be stalking girls any more, pervert.

Antagonist: At least I never spied on my own sister in the bathroom and touched myself. Pervert.

If that acusation is true, it's going to anger Hero a lot more than a mere "F--- you," don't you think?

Only you know your characters well enough to know what they know about each other and what taunt would be cruelest. (Think I can work 'know' into that sentence one more time?) Think like a nasty person, not sexually nasty but mean in spirit, and see what comes to the surface.

Maryn, who enjoys thinking like a creep

[DeadlyAccurate]

Didn't Norman Mailer use "fug" in his novel The Naked and the Dead?

I don't think that would work in a screenplay though.


Brady H.

When I see "fug" these days, it usually means "f**kin' ugly." ex. "Michael Jackson is real fug. I mean, his nose is missing!"

[Lady Brick]

When I see "fug" these days, it usually means "f**kin' ugly." ex. "Michael Jackson is real fug. I mean, his nose is missing!"

I guess that's the noun version of "fugly" which is what I've heard most often.

[adolescent]

Freaking seems to be the one that people use at my highschool around teachers. I personally don't see the problem with just saying ****. Around my father I say fudge and fudgicles. Hope that's helps.

[Alphabeter]

Dyslexia can be helpful for a variant to swearing.

A local variant of 'No Worries' is 'No Wucking Furries'.
Works well with humour, but going personal is a darn good suggestion for real feeling.
The WWE is making a fortune off of 'banned' merchandise with Ruck Fules on it because everytime John Cena wears a hat bearing it, UPN blurs it.

Humor is another option. I still use this cuss from Three Amigos because its shocks people and tends to diffuse the anger with laughter.
"You low-down, dirty rotten, scum-sucking, son-of-a-motherless goat."

A favorite from Short Circuit breaks up my family members (more because we're a twisted lot): "Hey laser lips. Your momma was snow blower!"

Or as my grandfather puts it: "Anyone can swear. It takes talent to cuss." And for a former sailor, he ironically won't tolerate salty language-especially from females.


Joe-thanks for the breakdown of MPAA ratings. I for one would rather work 'within' a rating than have to cut and rewrite later (since one does enough of that with "notes").

[ironmike]

The WWE is making a fortune off of 'banned' merchandise with Ruck Fules on it because everytime John Cena wears a hat bearing it, UPN blurs it.

Humor is another option. I still use this cuss from Three Amigos because its shocks people and tends to diffuse the anger with laughter.
"You low-down, dirty rotten, scum-sucking, son-of-a-motherless goat."

A favorite from Short Circuit breaks up my family members (more because we're a twisted lot): "Hey laser lips. Your momma was snow blower!"

Or as my grandfather puts it: "Anyone can swear. It takes talent to cuss." And for a former sailor, he ironically won't tolerate salty language-especially from females.


Joe-thanks for the breakdown of MPAA ratings. I for one would rather work 'within' a rating than have to cut and rewrite later (since one does enough of that with "notes").

Thanks for the tip, I use humor in all my writing. But humor seems to make a life and death scene in a thriller (not a comedy) kind of unbelievable...Oh that's like all the movies lately. No mater how much danger the protagonist is in, they just joke about their impending demise.

Great tag line to your handle, by the way...it made me laugh.

Iron mike

[Vipersniper]

How about I am going to knock your business down. Some people use that in reference to knocking them on their a . I used this sentence in a letter to the editor because it was a family paper. "My husband caught a man abusing our dog and put his business on the ground."

[Boo_Radley]

If you really want the antagonist to piss off your protagonist, have him talk smack about his momma.

I say that in a joking manner, but how many times have you seen a movie where something derogatory is said about someone's mom, even in a comedy, and the other character just turns beat red with anger?

Mostly, though, I agree with what Joe said above. I'm former military and picked up a ridiculously dirty mouth during my stint. I cuss like an infantry man, though, and not a sailor (heh...Army joke...disregard...) and I say if it feels right for the character to blurt out graphic obscenities, don't hold him back. If the producers don't like it, they can fix it later. Let your characters be who they are and act how they act and if that involves them telling someone to go f*** a fence post, then give them the room to say exactly that.