offensive words theory

[Oppositional P]

When I was in high school, i performed a strange experiment in which I would drive past pedestrians, roll down a window, and shout, "rabbit!" Every time, they would give me the finger or shout something offensive in return.

Thinking about this, I noticed certain similarities between 'rabbit,' and what are probably the two most offensive words of our time. One of them starts with an 'n' and is used to refer to black people. The other starts with an 'f' and is used to refer to homosexual males.

All three words start with a soft consonant sound, then a vowel, then a hard consonant sound. Emphasis is on the first syllable. Then another vowel and consonant to end things up.

Is it possible that something about this particular dynamic series of sounds makes a word cuttingly offensive?

Note that you can call a homosexual a 'fag' and he won't care. Also, if you shout "hare" at a pedestrian, he won't give a gol dang. Also, people use the word 'maggot' as an insult.

Feel free to test my hypothesis in any way you can imagine. Also, feel free to tell me it's a completely stupid hypothesis.

[MagicalHerb]

thats cool, nice observation! :thumbsup:

[rebgirl420]

Thats a good theory hun, pretty interesting...great now ill be thinking about that all night haha

[SamsonSimpson]

i like that very much and am somewhat fascinated by it.

good theory :jointsmile:

[JaggedEdge]

Did you shout "hare" from a moving car the same amount of times you shouted rabbit. Personally I would give you the finger if you shouted anything at me from a car unless it was, "Hey."

Very interessting none the less.

[40oz]

Interesting. I might have to have an experiment or two of my own.

[Oneironaut]

Actually, the most offensive words are short, one syllable words that start with a consonant, sometimes two, followed by a single short vowel, with a consonant at the end, usually a plosive consonant (the plosive consonants are p, b, t, d, k, and g). Shit, fuck, cunt, twat, fag, slut, piss, bitch, dick, cock, crap, jizz, tit...all these words follow the pattern.

[smoke it]

i want to like, make up an offensive word and have it spread around the world.

[UMrocksmysocks]

i bet alot of people thought you were calling them a faggot, sounds alot like rabbit,, i doubt anyone thought you were calling them a ****** unless you yellled figger, jigger or something like that i bet you would get the same response.

[LIP]

That's a pretty interesting, although at the same time confusing theory.

[187]

how the hell does rabbit sound like the n word

[Ganj]

it sounds like faggot

[Bob the Awesome]

Actually... I like this theory. It's interesting, I'll have to look into it more. Good thinking!

[reality0]

got me thinking haha... good theory! :jointsmile:

[Oppositional P]

how the hell does rabbit sound like the n word

I listed the criteria. It doesn't rhyme, but that's not important.

[NextLineIsMine]

nah its cause your shouting it from a car. For some reason people always take things shouted at them from cars as an insult. We like to shout GUNISENGUIDENTAK!! from cars at pedestrians everyone looks offended though they have no idea what it means. In German it means ENJOY YOUR DAY!!

[Oppositional P]

nah its cause your shouting it from a car. For some reason people always take things shouted at them from cars as an insult. We like to shout GUNISENGUIDENTAK!! from cars at pedestrians everyone looks offended though they have no idea what it means. In German it means ENJOY YOUR DAY!!

you're probably right. Every time someone gets honked at they get all emotional, as if a honking horn is an insult even if it only lasts for a fraction of a second. People who can't control their emotions should not be allowed to drive.

I never really got scientific about this as far as shouting everything I could imagine at people, but I still think I'm on to something.

[Diary of a Madman]

Its the intonation.....just like a dog

If you ask your dog in a high pitched voice all cutesy wootsy like if he wants you to cut off his balls, he will love on you

if you say "WHO THE FUCK WANTS A COOKIE!!!!!!!!!!!" he will run away

[Oneironaut]

GUNISENGUIDENTAK!! from cars at pedestrians everyone looks offended though they have no idea what it means. In German it means ENJOY YOUR DAY!!
Wow, uhh, I speak German and I don't know what you just said there. I can see "guten Tag" (pronounced GOO-ten tahk) in there, which means "good day", but "gunisen" is not German at all.

[mrdevious]

If Oppositional P. made the mental association between "niger", "faggot", and "rabbit", I suppose some other people may too. But personally I find the relation very enervated.

[NextLineIsMine]

Wow, uhh, I speak German and I don't know what you just said there. I can see "guten Tag" (pronounced GOO-ten tahk) in there, which means "good day", but "gunisen" is not German at all.

I just typed it like it sounds but I had a German foreign exchange student live with me for a year and he always said it in a way that sounded alot like that. How do you spell it?

[Turtlepik]

FLODDER!

[amberler]

Americans have so few swear words :(

[Kenn]

lol i like it dude i want to try it one day for myself...lol

[TheGreenFog]

Yea, it's obviously just the shouting at people thing that gets them. People shouldn't be so quick to react like that, though. Lots of angry individuals out there. How can you be so 'gangster' at 7 in the morning?! You gonna be gangbanging on pancakes & bacon now? Calm down.

Psychology is a funny thing, that way, though. You can really fool the brain into thinking funny things sometimes. One quick example:

My girlfriend & myself were eating cherries one time. I also had some grapes. I think we were watching a movie or something and I had the bowl on my side of the bed, so I was feeding them to her. Every few minutes, I would eat one or two...then give her one (cherry). So after a while (cherry, cherry, cherry, cherry), I slipped in a grape to see what she would say. She was so into the movie or something that it seemed that she didn't even notice the difference. I thought that she probably knew but didn't care that it was a grape, but no. After chewing it for a little, she proceeded to remove the "pit/seed" from her mouth, which actually turned out to be just a little sliver of grape peel. She was puzzled, so I told her and she said, "Whoa, that was a grape?! I thought it was a cherry the whole time! It even tasted like a cherry! OMG." LOL

Long story short, you can make someone think a grape is a cherry. If you think that is cool, you should see the psuedotongue. :eek:


The Fog :rastasmoke:

[Maui Wowie]

lol gol dangit