#even on a network that bleeps those seven words. what the fuck

[magentagalaxies]

ok i'm losing my mind rn bc basically scott has said multiple times "buddy doesn't swear" and every time he says that i'm internally like that can't be right. but since i have too much time on my hands rn i decided to go through not just every buddy cole sketch but every buddy cole piece of media i can get my hands on and count every instance of buddy swearing

and i wasn't sure which words to count bc like. some people would say faggot counts as a swear and it's basically buddy's favorite word, but i know scott wouldn't count it so i'm not. then there's other grey-area-swears like "damn", "hell", "bitch", and "ass". i know buddy uses these (especially the last two) but again i don't think scott would count these instances as "buddy swearing" even if some censors might

so i whittled down my list to just the classic george carlin "seven words you can't say on tv" (which are shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits). even this list has kind of evolved to put some words in the grey area (personally i think "bitch" is far more of a swear than "piss" is, which isn't the point of the original george carlin bit bc that was more about how contextual language is and how it's weird words like "cock" are seen as acceptable when you're talking about the animal but these are the swears where there isn't that double-meaning) but this was the most solid list i could find to go off of for this study

(also ik swear words are cultural too, so there might be variation between what an american in 2024 considers a swear vs canadian in 1992 but fuck it i'm just going with the george carlin list)

and admittedly i'm not done rewatching every buddy sketch yet (i just finished chalet 2000 and i'm watching all buddy content in order) but holy shit i think scott might be right about buddy swearing???

like i was so dismissive bc of course buddy swears but if we only count the seven words you can't say on tv then so far i have only counted two instances of buddy cole swearing (stranded on a desert island, when he says oscar wilde's last word was something more like "SHIT!", and the phrase "pissed off" in outing celebrities, tho again is "pissed off" really swearing?)

and i already know scott doesn't count quoting or hypothetically-quoting someone to be buddy swearing bc in his newest show he says "fuck" while supposedly-quoting marsha p. johnson, so even the oscar wilde "SHIT!" might not even count!

and you might be saying but jessamine, you're deliberately choosing "seven words you can't say on television", and these were all on television, of course you're not finding much. but keep in mind: the kids in the hall were on HBO, and i can probably find sketches were all of these other words were used (tho fun fact in the last 2 seasons even tho they were allowed to say "fuck" the network put a limit on how many times they could say it per episode. the sketch where bruce and mark's couple confronts kevin the pizza man was supposed to have the word "fuck" in it like twenty times so everyone involved with kith who i've heard talk about it prefers the live version exponentially)

but also: when i say i'm watching every piece of buddy cole content, i mean every piece of buddy cole content. and maybe things will change in the last set of kith sketches or once i get into scott's post-kith buddy material, but even the buddy cole improvs from before the show don't feature buddy swearing. like what the fuck how was this a thing this early in the character's creation????? even in the improvs the only two instances of buddy swearing are quoting someone and saying "shit", and talking as himself and saying the word "piss"

long story short i have too much time on my hands and apparently buddy cole doesn't swear???? (depending on where you draw the line for "swearing")