I'm curious about curse words in my Rip Current comic. Right now, I have a few 'bad words' in my script. Do I need them? Should I change them? Is there any harm in keeping them - or more specifically, would keeping them cause the comic to be deemed inappropriate? I have some suggestive situations and so had marked it PG. I have no intention to change the suggestive bits, so should I bother with the language?
Here are the bits I am wondering about:
"Damn, he's got salmon."
"Oh, crap"
"First off, what the heck happened down there?"
Another thing, Rip Current is set in the future... should I change the words in some way so they aren't tied to this point in history/time? Make up some new word? i.e. "frak" being the trendy example of that sort of thing.
Thoughts?
Comments
05:59 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
I've only recently discovered the joys of BSG, but probably my least favourite thing about it is the use of "frak". It's a jarring element in fairly naturalistic dialogue, and it takes me out of the scene every time (strangely enough, I didn't mind its use in Veronica Mars, where a character picked it up from BSG--but it was introduced, set up, and made a certain amount of sense in the context, as well as being used far more sparingly.) Mind you, that's with dialogue that's listened to rather than read, so maybe that sort of swap wouldn't be as distracting in comic form. All that said, your examples are so mild that I probably wouldn't think twice about including two of the three in an all ages story (the exception would be "damn.") One thing that you might want to consider is taking advantage of the online comic format and seeing if Z2H could produce two versions of your book, one with more family friendly content and one as nasty as you want it to be. It's not like there'd be an incredible amount of extra man-hours in making the changes, or twice the printing bills... A
06:12 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
Carmen, first I agree with Shiba and Andrew that your bad words are pretty mild. Having said that it really has more to do with you, your characters, your world and the story you are trying to tell. Futuristic lingo is okay if used carefully and sparingly (eg Legion of Super Heroes). My thoughts are "follow your gut" on this one.
10:48 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
I consider "crap" and "heck" replacements for curse words, so just change "damn" to "darn" or "drat" or something and you'll be all set. :-)
14:02 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
Are you aiming this comic at children? Honestly, if your target readership is 8 or under, sanitize. But if your themes and concept are any more mature than that, you can easily stomach "damn." Don't forget, Transformers the Movie had "shit" and "damn" in it, and the dropped the F-bomb on Degrassi, not once, but twice. I think removing and replacing language inappropriately is far more distracting than inappropriate language. Especially in your examples. That being said... I fully endorse one or all of your characters saying "Son of a perch" at least every other page.
15:50 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
I wrote my comic Sandwich World with keeping in mind that my youngest sister read it, so I avoided saying anything worse and "Crap". With my future comics, however, I think I'll avoid doing this. Sometimes, it's just natural for characters to swear and is less jarring than using "heck" or other replacements. Making up your own curse words for your time and setting is only a good idea if you revamp the entire language the characters use, otherwise it will simply look like you're trying to cover up curse words. The "frak" thing doesn't bother me as much as it might others, but it still strikes me as ridiculous. They're yelling out "frak" all the time, and the word carries the same weight with the characters as yelling out "Fuck" would with us, so what's the point in replacing it? (I know it's actually to get around TV censors, but it's still absurd)
17:52 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
Mild, definitely mild. Hey, Spike originally had a 'Oh, shit' line in YTransformers: The Movie back in the 80s, so once in a blue moon mustn't be that bad! :p Even Hellboy Animated sees our favorite Red say 'Now I'm pissed', so crap, damn and heck sounds pretty good to me! :)
17:53 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
How is Frak any more absurd than Fuck? They both are devoid of actual meaning. One is just more commonly used and therefore more accepted. That said BSG does overuse Frak. They are kind of like kids who are getting away with something. Maria-to your question-your examples are pretty tame, I think you would be alright to leave them, unless you are looking for an 'E' for everyone rating(but to get that the suggestive scenes would have to go as well).
18:58 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
I just meant it's absurd that they're allowed to say Frak and not the alternative, when both are used for the same purpose and effect. Now, if they had a whole plethora of colourful damage-related swear words they used, it might be more interesting and convincing...
21:21 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
Firefly ingeneously incorporated chinese language for swearing. Bladerunner's citispeak that Gaff (Edward James Olmos) uses incorporates hungarian profanity. The latter is more subtle, as the audience has no idea that Gaff is calling Deckard a "horse dick" whereas Firefly uses the pseudo profanity as expletives and muttering - akin to the "#%$^&*@" of old schoo; comics. I personally don't like "damn" in comics unless you're using "shit" as well. A verbal line gets crossed there. Bottom line: if its appropriate for the story, use it. BUT, never curse for the sake of cursing. Even if you yourself swear like a sailor (I do), there's no reason to have characters do the same.
01:43 Sat Jun 7th, 2008
In my script, Deutschmaschine swears in German, but you'd never know. Other languages are wonderful ways to bypass censors or conflicting morals :p
01:45 Sat Jun 7th, 2008
Oh, and Hades: If you use 'damn' and 'shit', you are contractually obligated to use 'whack' too. As in, 'damn, that shit's whack!' :D
04:55 Sat Jun 7th, 2008
Thanks very much for this feedback... I'm not sure I've made a clear decision yet, but this will all help. Although, I may have use 'son of a perch' in a future episode.... hee hee!
05:07 Sat Jun 7th, 2008
"Son of a perch" is damn wack shinzit, aschloch. Holy frak, I just cursed an awful lot. You'll do fine. Best judgement grasshopper, best judgement. We trust you. :)
06:27 Sat Jun 7th, 2008
BAD WORDS?! ROFL DYING OF LAUGHTER! I'm sorry... but those aren't really bad words. Definitely not curse words. (Outside of the D-Word, of course). If you were to put them on a scale... [1]heck, dang, crap, and the like are the lowest level bad words. (Unless you included golly, jezz, god, gosh and stuff like that which would be one level below [0].) [2]Above that would be words like freak, screw, etc. [3]Above that are words that are on the fringes of being considered curse words like pi$$, a few other words starting with the letter P (if you get my drift... meow) and so forth. (Some people may suggest that the A word actually isn't a curse word and belong to be put in this catagory... but news flash... it is and always has been whether you consider it one or not.) [4]Then above that are mild curse words like the D, H, and A Words. [5]Then above that are moderate curse words like the B words and the S word. [6]Then you have the strong curse words like the F word and N word. (Note... catagory-wise it is legitimate to actually place the N word on a level above the F word [7] considering how it is treated culturally in American. However, when you get to this level of cursing it's really silly to argue semantics. So that being said... Children's material usually doesn't rise above level 1. Family friendly material (though not really designed specifically for kids)usually doesn't go past level 2. Sometimes you can get away with a few light level 3 or 4 words... but it's a grey area. Usually it's best not to go past level 2. But yeah. Teen to young adult material usually stops around level 4. You can usually get away with level 5, too. Level 6/7 is usually seen in more mature/adult material. So what's the way around this? Making up fake words. If you want to keep something family friendly or even just keep it from crossing one of those lines(because of your target audience)... inventing "bad words" is often the solution. If you don't plan on working under any contraints than do what you want. As far as BSG, I think "Frak" was genius. Let's face it. They have a target audience. However, the F word makes complete sense in the harsh military environment they inhabit. However, they know they can't get away with using it. So, working within their constraints, they create their own F word that makes it through the censors and fits the situations. If someone really has a problem with it... just imagine they say the F word every time you hear it and that should help feel in the blanks. I just take it for what it is. A futuristic bad word that is their equivalent to F word in their culture.
05:37 Sun Jun 8th, 2008
Glad this gave you a laugh, Titan! I know its a bit silly, but when so few words are used, I'm hyper-conscious of the words I'm choosing. I did write out some alternative dialogue, but I think I wrote it on a scrap piece of paper which I think I acciddentally recycled in my Saturday cleaning frenzy. Frickin' frak.
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Shiba_Naganori
05:56 Fri Jun 6th, 2008
Unless a character is suppose to curse frequently, adding, or taking out curse words won't add or detract from the story. I don't think that cursing would make the rating higher than PG, at least I don't think so.