"Word Crimes" -- new Weird Al song

Clever.

Can I check something though. Much as I couldn't understand why, I thought "I could care less" was a usual locution for Americans. It made no sense in British English (we'd say "I couldn't care less" or more usually "I couldn't give a toss/rat's ar*e/flying f*ck") but I had one of my American characters use it. He's not unintelligent, so if it is actually seen as wrong on your side of the pond, then I'll have to change it.
 
Oh, it's perfectly common, but the more persnickety among us still insist (rightfully) that it's incorrect. :D

Unfortunately, those of us who consider it wrong are probably outnumbered.

I'd guess it depends on what kind of "not unintelligent" your character is. If he's likely to speak correctly in most instances, he'd probably know the difference. And even so, I still *say* things that I wouldn't *write*, though I know better, because ... well, because lazy. :D

("could care less" isn't one of those things I would say.)

It's odd how people can't seem to grasp the concept; there's no problem getting it right with "don't care", "don't give a rat's a**", "don't give a flying f***" (all of which are in use in the US), but if you change "don't" to "couldn't", they fall apart.
 
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Ta, TDZ. I might leave it, then, because he is speaking informally, and more than a little angrily, at the time. And I'm pretty sure he never uses "whom" when he should, so what's one more mistake?!
 
I noticed a word in there that has gradually fallen out of use in the UK as it's thought to be offensive, both because it can be used in a pejorative way and because it's seen to be disrespectful, to say the least, to some disabled people. I can only assume that this isn't the case in the US. (And now I've gone to Wikipedia to find a link to the word, I see that it isn't seen as offensive in much of the world. Well, not yet.)
 
Ursa major said:
I noticed a word in there that has gradually fallen out of use in the UK as it's thought to be offensive, both because it can be used in a pejorative way and because it's seen to be disrespectful, to say the least, to some disabled people. I can only assume that this isn't the case in the US. (And now I've gone to Wikipedia to find a link to the word, I see that it isn't seen as offensive in much of the world. Well, not yet.)
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I can see how that would be offensive. My wife would say that "mouth breathers" is offensive because there are a lot of people who have developmental issues because they have constricted airways.

But I did enjoy the song!
 
Ursa major said:
I noticed a word in there that has gradually fallen out of use in the UK as it's thought to be offensive, both because it can be used in a pejorative way and because it's seen to be disrespectful, to say the least, to some disabled people. I can only assume that this isn't the case in the US. (And now I've gone to Wikipedia to find a link to the word, I see that it isn't seen as offensive in much of the world. Well, not yet.)
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I would say it's not in great favor in the US, either, for the same reason. You don't really hear it much, anyway, but it will get stomped on for political correctness if it turns up.

But Weird Al has never been known for his political correctness. :D
 
Ursa major said:
I noticed a word in there that has gradually fallen out of use in the UK as it's thought to be offensive, both because it can be used in a pejorative way and because it's seen to be disrespectful, to say the least, to some disabled people. I can only assume that this isn't the case in the US. (And now I've gone to Wikipedia to find a link to the word, I see that it isn't seen as offensive in much of the world. Well, not yet.)
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I think Tiger Woods (?) used the term a year or two ago and was surprised at the fall-out in the UK. I think the UK take on it partly comes from the Joey Deacon high-profile story on Blue Peter (although it did unfortunately lead to jokes about Joeys for years, as a Jo I remember that). But in the UK it is a term of offense (and should be elsewhere, to my mind, but that might be a personal button.)
 
I wish people wouldn't mention Weird Al, because that makes me go and watch White and Nerdy about eighty times.

My guess is that "could care less" got popular because it makes sense when you speak it with a sarcastic tone. Otherwise, it's on a par with "should of".
 
HareBrain said:
My guess is that "could care less" got popular because it makes sense when you speak it with a sarcastic tone.
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Yegawds... that misappropriation has been so common for so many decades that i gave up fretting about it, long ago.

***
I'm a huge fan of Weird Al. (Thanks for the heads-up on White and Nerdy. I'd previously missed that somehow. Hilarious.)

But this grammar piece plays like a PBS Kiddy-show tune. It's too obvious and normal. (See how I automatically used the correct form of "it's")

I'm not familiar with the source-song. I didn't get it, anyway.
 
Yeah, it is pretty normal, in the sense of being abnormal for Weird Al, but I liked it anyway. :)

I've managed to hear only tiny bits of the original, when they play it for news clips and such, but I guess it wasn't necessary to the understanding of the parody.
 
HareBrain said:
I wish people wouldn't mention Weird Al, because that makes me go and watch White and Nerdy about eighty times.

My guess is that "could care less" got popular because it makes sense when you speak it with a sarcastic tone. Otherwise, it's on a par with "should of".
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Not mention Weird Al, you say? Wellll! Starting Monday just gone, for eight days, he's releasing tracks from his album. Tacky, a parody of Pharrell's Happy was the first, and Word Crimes is the second. I've been away for a few days, so don't know the rest.

---

The source song, AGT, is Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines. It's a terrible song, so I won't link to it. But I will link to an awesome bluegrass cover, if anyone is interested.
 
Ursa major said:
I noticed a word in there that has gradually fallen out of use in the UK as it's thought to be offensive, both because it can be used in a pejorative way and because it's seen to be disrespectful, to say the least, to some disabled people. I can only assume that this isn't the case in the US. (And now I've gone to Wikipedia to find a link to the word, I see that it isn't seen as offensive in much of the world. Well, not yet.)
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Political correctness,to me, seems like an extremely unproductive endeavor. Whatever you replace that "offensive" word with, the replacement in turn will start to feel offensive a while later and you will have to replace it again. George Carlin's examples about political correctness nails it about the futility of such effort I believe. Lame-Crippled-Disabled-Physically challanged, they all mean the same think and no matter how many times you change the name, the condition itself will remain the same and some people will find it offensive no matter what.
 
Trying to stop people abusing others by using the name of a disability is not political correctness; it's good manners. Would you like something innate to you to be a general term of abuse? Your nationality? Your religion? Your physical appearance? Your gender? Your character? Your intelligence?

More specifically, would you like people saying, "You're acting like a complete Drakai," i.e. insulting them by comparing them to you? Perhaps you wouldn't care, but some people do; and unless what they do is itself unpleasant, wrong or illegal, I wouldn't want to make them feel uncomfortable or worse.
 
As you've said, not using the name of a condition as an insult is not political correctness, it's good manners. I'm talking about pretentious political correctness, using softer and softer names to adress the same condition in order to "not" offend people.

On a side note, I'm almost impossible to offend. Only thing that flips my switch is when people are attacked for being who they are which is different than political correctness.
 
Political correctness as defined by the Oxford Dictionary website: The avoidance of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against.

I think that I've made my point.
 
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That word you mention, Ursa, was used a lot back when I was a teenager, but I don't believe I've heard it since. I have no recollection of the younger members of my family ever using it.

I don't know whether it fell out of use simply because people thought it was dated, or because more people began to recognize what it meant and that it was cruel. I suspect it was just that it went out of fashion.
 
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