topitmunkeydog wrote:My problem with language and sexual themes in live action feature films is that it's usually completely pointless for no reason, and it's not really helping the film get better. But if the inappropriate materials are there for a purpose, then it's fine. Just think of that in terms of brickfilms.
Therein lies a fundamental problem: the whole notion of what has "purpose" and what is "unnecessary" is completely relative, which is especially problematic in a place like this where opinions are particularly polarized. What one person may consider to be effective and purposeful use of profanity, those who don't believe in swearing will probably never admit to it having "purpose" because they consider it in bad taste and likely won't look past it to give it proper credit. So making a statement like that is pretty much pointless unless you see some merits in the use of profanity.
Taking the matter of language, I'll use a joke from a FF101 film as an example, since he seems to be the common yardstick by which the arguments about this are measured.
Batman in The Two Jokers wrote:You can say hello to my boot as it cracks your head open like a f**king WATERMELON!
In this scene, Batman confronts the two Jokers as they are robbing a bank. The clear intention of the use of profanity here is to be intimidating as well as comedic. The curse is used to imply that Batman is clearly not kidding around in his threat to the Jokers, but at the same time it helps to lighten the tone from being overly serious (as this is a comedy), since profanity has such innate connotations as being inelegant and unprofessional. Also, note that the emphasis is on the word "watermelon" rather than the curse itself; the word "f**k" is not the joke of the sentence but instead acts as a modifier which puts comedic emphasis on the strident reading of the word "watermelon."
Personally, I think this is one of the most effective jokes in the video, and I would attribute a good deal of that success to the use of profanity (also in part due to the comic timing and editing and not just the structure of the joke, but that's irrelevant). Sure, one could make the case that the swearing is unnecessary and can easily be removed, but I think that would be detrimental to the scene and would displace a lot of its comedic impact. Without it, the sentence just becomes "...as it cracks your head open like a WATERMELON!" which, in my opinion, has very little comedic value and just comes off as too serious and threatening for its own good. To me, I think this is a pretty textbook example of effective use of profanity.
Even in the case of casual dialogue, I still think profanity has a specific place. All the time, people casually curse amongst friends, use it to add a certain "punch" to a joke, express specific emotions or reactions in ways that other words cannot properly describe, or, from a filmmaker's standpoint, help to establish and develop the personality of a screen character. Sure, there is a certain point where swearing begins to spill into gratuitous if it's overused to no real purpose, but I think it's incredibly immature to simply write off all profanity as harmful and unnecessary. Like it or not, profanity has a long, proud history in human language, and it's something that we will likely live with forever. Your opinions are your own and you're entitled to them; I'm not trying to demean those who don't support it. But that doesn't give you the right to try and control how others create and limit their artistic vision just because you don't share their same stance on cursing (or violence/sexual themes, for that matter). To echo a similar sentiment already presented in this thread, the best thing you can do is to choose to not watch videos with content you find objectionable, and let those who do enjoy it enjoy it.
On a side note, Forrest does take it upon himself to warn his viewers about objectionable content in his videos with a clear "Viewer Discretion Advised" title card. So people who object to content in his videos at least cannot say that they didn't know what they were getting into.
topitmunkeydog wrote:The profanity seen is usually just mindless comedy to appeal to the dumb'uns, and none of it actually furthers the plot or any other aspect of the film.
Just for the record, naively insulting the intelligence of those who find appeal in swearing doesn't make your case any stronger, it just makes you look bad.
