HILF 07: The F-Word, Part 2 with Ryan Ripple

Explicit content warning

01/19/22 • 52 min

Dawn and Ryan continue their conversation (and open another bottle of wine) as they jump right back into the history of profanity, beginning with Ryan's favorite swear word, 'shit.'

PART 1

00:03:30 - Dawn begins with the fun (but likely false) theory that the word 'shit' originated with the shipping of manure - and the necessity for it to be stamped with the instructions to Ship High In Transit.

00:06:50 - More likely the root of the english word 'shit' is from German/Ukranian roots: Scheisse and skei. Could it be the word comes from 'to cut off' - as in 'to pinch a loaf'.

00:10:48 - Dawn discusses the journey from being an adult, accustomed to being very far removed from your own excrement and the excrement of others, to being a parent suddenly thrust tits-first back into shitsville.

00:12:28 - The word 'shit' was considered so forbidden, it wasn't included in the dictionary until 1970. Up until (and after) that time, however, it was liberally written on toilet stalls in what has been coined 'Latrine Poetry'.

00:13:46 - Dawn covers the 4 metaphorical uses of the word 'shit' as outlined by John McWhorter in the book Nine Nasty Words.

00:21:34 - Dawn and Ryan discuss, with care and respect, the third tier of cursing: Slurs against groups of people. Dawn discusses the N-word (without saying it) and how it's modern use has changed and sharpened since the 1990's.

PART II

00:32:05 - The next slur we discuss is the other F-Word (derogatory term for a gay man). How did it go from being used casually in PG-rated 80's teen movies to being so hot it got Isiah Washington fired from Grey's Anatomy?

00:37:57 - What does the other F-word mean? How did a 'bundle of sticks' and 'a cigarette' come to share the word? How are they related?

00:41:00 - Most derogatory terms for gay men begin as belittling words for women or women's genitalia. The exception, is 'cocksucker' which from its inception has been leveraged almost exclusively against men.

00:44:03 - Why does it sound strange when people don't swear? Adamant non-cursers like Ned Flanders and Mitt Romney also catch our ear's attention.

00:46:48 - Speaking of women's genitalia: we discuss the nuanced difference in the use of Pussy and Cunt and how a one-syllable word that ends in a consonant will ultimately always win the profanity game.

00:50:07 - We bid farewell to special guest Ryan Ripple and he also gives us his review of this fucking amazing journey.

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Dawn and Ryan continue their conversation (and open another bottle of wine) as they jump right back into the history of profanity, beginning with Ryan's favorite swear word, 'shit.'

PART 1

00:06:50 - More likely the root of the english word 'shit' is from German/Ukranian roots: Scheisse and skei. Could it be the word comes from 'to cut off' - as in 'to pinch a loaf'.

00:13:46 - Dawn covers the 4 metaphorical uses of the word 'shit' as outlined by John McWhorter in the book Nine Nasty Words.

PART II

00:37:57 - What does the other F-word mean? How did a 'bundle of sticks' and 'a cigarette' come to share the word? How are they related?

00:44:03 - Why does it sound strange when people don't swear? Adamant non-cursers like Ned Flanders and Mitt Romney also catch our ear's attention.

00:50:07 - We bid farewell to special guest Ryan Ripple and he also gives us his review of this fucking amazing journey.

---

HILF Podcast on Instagram -Go here to see lots of photos and updates on guests and research.

HILF Podcast on Facebook

HILF Podcast on Youtube

Previous Episode

HILF 06: The F-Word with Ryan Ripple

The name of this podcast includes profanity, so it may not be terribly surprising that Dawn was delighted to embrace the subject of the next episode: The F-Word

Her guest is the delightful and hilarious, Ryan Ripple, and together they discuss not only the origin and creative utilization of our favorite curse word - but the history of cursing in general. We also get into the science of swearing and how it functions within our brain. Why for example, does your pain tolerance demonstrably increase when you yell FUCK but not when you yell TOMATO.

It’s a hell of a good time - gosh darn glad you're here!

PART 1

00:02:15 - Not only do we meet our guest, Ryan Ripple, but the off-mic master that is my little dog, Yogurt.

00:03:20 - The History of Dawn and Ryan from their meeting as backlot tour guides at Universal Studios Hollywood (the entertainment capital of LA.)

00:06:25 - Ryan and Dawn reveal their favorite swears and why they love them so.

00:12:37 - Dawn discusses why she chose to include the F-word in the title of the podcast despite some real and technical liabilities to doing so.

00:15:58 - Dawn quizzes Ryan on his ability to remember George Carlin's famous list of the 7 Words You Can't Say on Television.

00:18:17 - Dawn's research includes:

00:19:10 - How George Carlin and Lenny Bruce changed history and US Law with their profane comedy.

PART II

00:30:16 - Profanity and your brain: why does a different part of our brain light up when we say tomato versus fuck. How does it effect our ability to tolerate pain?

00:35:00 - The 3 Kinds of cursing: Offensive to God, offensive to the Body, Offensive to a Group of People.

00:38:00 - The OG of cursing and why 'swearing upon God' is still a mightily profane to many people.

00:42:05 - The Birth of 'FUCK' - when we first saw it in writing and how it evolved.

00:48:52 - Dawn lays out a long, but hardly complete, list of the varying ways that we use 'fuck' in contemporary American English.

00:55:30 - What is expletive infixation and why you should abso-fucking-lutely use it.

00:59:37 - If you think english-speaking Americans love 'fuck' wait til you hear how much the Russians love 'dick.'

01:06:00 - End of show credits and introduction to the next episode - a continuation of this conversation and even more profanity to come! The next episode [Jan. 19th] with cover Shit, the other F-word, and even a word so hot and sharp, Dawn won't even say it!

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Next Episode

HILF 08: The Spice Trade with Wayne Wilderson

Welcome to a particularly delicious romp through the history of the Spice trade with my guest, 'television's own' Wayne Wilderson. His IMDB Credits read like a CVS receipt and you'll find he is as effortless on the microphone as he is on camera.

00:04:55 - After telling you a little bit about where we are (and why I'm wearing my daughter's Hello Kitty Headphones) Wayne tells us a little bit about when he came to Hollywood and some of his favorite jobs... and there have been so many. Among his gigs was a 12-year run as the purple grapes in the Fruit of the Loom campaign.

00:07:52 - Wayne and Dawn get into the HILF.

00:08:51 - Dawn Lays out her sources and research:

Book: Spice - The History of a Temptation by Jack Turner.
Documentary: Absolute History with Kate Humble - Where Peppercorn and Cinnamon come from.
Great Article about Magellan: by Steven Robert Carlson

00:11:10 - The plan for this episode is to cover not only the history of cinnamon and the other spices that originated in the same time and place - but also why humanity has been so intrigued by them for so long.

00:14:40 - Let's fuck.

00:16:23 - Columbus sails the ocean blue in search of India and her elusive spices and accidentally bumps into the Bahamas. He has a bad reputation now, but it wasn't much better in his lifetime on account of the total lack of familiar spices in the 'New World.'

00:20:25 - The Pope, in an effort to cool tensions between Spain and Portugal, divides the world between them. The Treaty of Tordesillas established that everything 'non-christian' discovered West belonged to Spain and everything East belonged to Portugal. And thus began the race to see how far East was West and who - in the end - would claim the Spice Islands.

00:21:20 - The Portuguese sailor, Vasco da Gama sets sail South around the Cape of Good Hope and successfully crosses the Indian ocean to arrive in Calcut, India. It's an extraordinary encounter.

00:25:58 - The Portuguese in an effort to establish domination over the islands, leave Francisco Serrao as a representative to await their return. He has a string of wild adventures, eventually becoming BFF's and advisor to an Island sultan. He marries and never returns to Portugal... He does however, write a few letters to a guy named Ferdinand Magellan.

00:23:40 - Magellan sets sail on his history-making journey. The books say he circumnavigated the globe, but the details will reveal he - in fact died in the Philippines - and his exhausted, scurvy-laden crew had to hump one leaking boat back to Spain on their own. But, the Spanish still made a profit on the journey so...

00:32:18 - The Dutch arrive in the Spice Islands and after pushing the Portuguese and the English out - prove to be brutal overlords.

...But this is not the beginning of the story. It can't be. There was a love and value placed on Spice that inspired all of this exploration and exploitation. In Part II, we take the road even further up the annals of history to the ancients.

PART II

00:35:33 - Welcome back!

00:36:28 - The first known consumer of spice in history did not eat it. It was Ramses II and he had it shoved up his nose during his mummification.

00:38:45 - The first known myth about cinnamon predated Ramses II - it is the story of the Phoenix who is is resurrected from its ashes. Ashes that were, in the original legend, mixed with cinnamon.

00:40:00 - The Roman's loved spice too much? It is argued that it at least contributed to the Fall the empire. It was because their growing obsession with exotic spices sent a wave of gold East; while what they got in return was primarily burned, and if eaten, supplied no nutritional value.

00:41:43 - When the later European Christians dominated, they at first rejected spices as a uniquely pagan tradition. In later centuries, however, they embraced them and in much the same way, and with much the same results as the Romans.

00:45:18 - Dawn covers the many varied uses and applications for spices over the centuries. From medicine, to ritual, to sex aide.

00:50:00 -