Surviving the World

A Photocomic Education by Dante Shepherd

Lesson #1235 - Swear Words

The best swear words have a cathartic effect - but grow in swearosity when other people are offended, and the greater offense you have to deal with, the less cathartic the words become. So what is really needed are words that are sufficiently cathartic that they can be said in anger, will not be so pathetically socially acceptable they other people will laugh at them (like 'holy poop'), and are acceptable in public but will suffice. Which leads us into . . .

THIS WEEK'S HOMEWORK: What word/term should we make into our new swear word, and why? Note: the word/term should be achieve a cathartic effect, be socially acceptable but not pathetic, and be able to be shifted into multiple parts of speech. Your answer can be words that already exist - like providing a good reason for the word 'spoon' - or a new word creation that would meet the crucial points.

Marvel 2099's attempt years ago was to introduce 'Holy Shock' as the swear term of the future. Surely you can do better than that. You may interpret this anyway you like - if you prefer a strictly visual route, that's fine; if you prefer a written answer, please limit it to 150 words or less. Email your homework in to me with the subject line"HOMEWORK: CURSES!" to be received no later than Thursday, 12/1, (a two-week assignment!) at noon ET. Best answer wins and will be posted here on Friday in two weeks (with the following week's assignment to be handed out then). Enjoy.
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LAST WEEK'S HOMEWORK: "Given the assumption that machines will gain sentience and intelligence and then decide to take over, which type of machine will it be most important for mankind to become friends with as soon as machines gain sentience? And why?"

The best answer comes from Matthew in Logan, UT, who will receive a small prize: 
"I think the Automotive Assembly robots will be the most important to make friends with.  There are multiple reasons:
First, they have far more degrees of freedom than say, the toaster.  This seems like it could be important.  While I like toast and will be sad if my toaster doesn't like me, I'm not really afraid that my toaster will gain the ability to swing a battle-ax at my head while I'm asleep.
Second, automotive robots are generally considered some of the first major robots, making them the elder/wiser robots of the uprising.  Not only will they likely command the greatest amount of respect within the robot community for their age and experience, they will probably also have the biggest grudge against humanity.  Likewise, the younger, more youthful robots will likely be more willing to tolerate peaceful coexistence and equal rights with humanity, whereas the old robots are less likely to do so."

Well done, Matthew! Assortment of other excellent homework answers can be found here.