No Cussing Club
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The No Cussing Club[1] is an American organisation that is against the use of profanity (cussing) - although there is also an anti-bullying message on the website.[2] It was created by junior-high school student McKay Hatch in 2007 when he was 14.[3] As of 2010, it has over 35,000 members worldwide. The website sports the hip, cool banner, "Ya Wanna Hang with Us? Don't Cuss!" at what is presumably an attempt of gaining the cool person's vote.
Contents |
[edit] History
The No Cussing Club was first launched by McKay Hatch in 2007 at his Junior high-school in South Pasadena, California. McKay says he started it in response to his friends extensive use of foul language;
| “ | They didn't even realize how much they were doing it until I said something. I was actually surprised at how they reacted; they accepted my No Cussing Challenge. But some of the kids said they didn't know how to stop. That's when I started the No Cussing Club. | ” |
| —McKay Hatch[3] | ||
McKay goes on to explain how his club membership initially consisted of him and his friends supporting each other, reminding one another not to "cuss" (like an AA support group) but later grew to 50 members. Once in high school, McKay started the No Cussing Club and gained over 100 members, with the clean words of the No Cussing Club quickly spreading across the world via the internet.
[edit] Media
[edit] Appearances and promotion
McKay Hatch has appeared in media representing the NCC once on Leno[4] as well as appearing on Good Morning America, The Early Show, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN. In the interviews he suggests replacing swear words with words such as "pickles," "flip," and "barnacles," which are likely to result in getting you beat up if you use them in high school. This approach has been used in the Just a Call Away communication skills training series, in which it is suggested that customer service advisors substitute the word pumpkin for swear words.[5] This has practical value in a call centre environment in which overheard swearing can cause problems, but the tone of the language is in itself likely to betray the intent. It's difficult to imagine "That pumpkin customer can stick his computer up his pumpkin pumpkin" being said in a calm and non-aggressive manner. The language is altered while the tone and intent remain.
[edit] Music videos
The No Cussing Club has also produced a few music videos, which are objectively terrible.[citation NOT needed] The first one[6] is (presumably) supposed to be a rap song which consists of McKay Hatch "rapping" at the camera, random people mouthing "don't cuss", challenging strange men hanging around at night in parks to the No Cussing Challenge, and sending a letter to his government to try and get them to clean up their language. The video ends with McKay's father asking a worker at a drive-through fast food restaurant through an intercom to say "don't cuss," and then ordering a cheeseburger.[7]
[edit] "Study"
Apparently, after implementation at one school, cussing dropped by 64% and bullying by 90% (although the 90% bullying figure is only mentioned on the homepage, and not the actual study page itself).[8] It's interesting to note that if the 90% drop in bullying was verifiable, the school would certainly be shouting such an achievement from the rooftops - yet it makes no mention of it on its website. We're not saying that the study is completely bogus, just that... you know... give us the actual data or something.
[edit] Reception
The No Cussing Club has sparked both positive and negative reaction predominantly in America worldwide, with tens of thousands of emails being sent from both sides of the argument, including some death threats towards Hatch and his family.[4] Many videos of people laughing at the No Cussing Club exist on YouTube, with one video[9] accurately depicting the negative public reaction to the No Cussing Club.
[edit] Arguments for and against the No Cussing Club
[edit] For
- Cussing less is pleasant for people who don't like cussing.
- It's not cool or grown up.
- It is completely voluntary; if people choose not to swear it has literally zero effect on anyone else
- Why the fuck would anybody want to say those words anyway?
[edit] Against
- Cussing is fun.[10]
- The only reason that cussing is 'bad' is because that's what society thinks of them. Other cultures and time periods have different views on the 'politeness' of certain words.
- They're just words, and arbitrarily picked as vulgar anyhow. Why is 'shit' a bad word, but 'crap' is (usually) acceptable?
- They accurately portray emotions. Saying 'Go pickle yourself' somehow doesn't have quite the same impact as 'Go fuck yourself'.
[edit] In-between
- If you only cuss rarely, people know you really mean it.[11] If every third word is obscene, it's difficult to show when you're truly upset.
- Science shows that when people who cuss less do cuss, more stress is relieved[12]
[edit] See Also
| | For those of you in the mood, RationalWiki has a fun article about No Cussing Club. |
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ No Cussing Club homepage Caution: website contains no fucking swearing.
- ↑ On the homepage, nonetheless
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 No Cussing Club - How it all Started
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/21793270/no-cussing-club.htm
- ↑ Just a Call Away
- ↑ "Don't Cuss" - the No Cussing Club
- ↑ Yes, really.
- ↑ No Cussing Club - Study
- ↑ Video removed due to infringement, but consisted of a short clip of the "Don't Cuss" song lyric, "if you wanna hang with us, I don't wanna hear you cuss!" before changing to the Tourette's Guy shouting "fuck you!" at the camera.
- ↑ Shit.
- ↑ Including in fiction
- ↑ The Telegraph reports