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Post by Binky on Aug 27, 2014 8:17:44 GMT -4
Spastic isn't derogatory in American English the way it is British English. It's about the same as "nuts" or "weirdo".
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Post by LurkerNan on Aug 27, 2014 11:38:48 GMT -4
And the thing is, his parodies are all humorous and entertaining, not derogatory at all, and in the case of Word Crimes, educational! Artists should not have any reason to worry about him parodying their songs. I disagree on the 'not derogatory at all'. "You write like a spastic" is derogatory. I usually like Weird Al's songs, but that one made me cringe. It made me cringe a lot less than the original words to the tune.
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Post by chonies on Aug 27, 2014 11:43:50 GMT -4
"Spastic" made me cringe, too. I don't like when people in the US use c-nt and cite Commonwealth usage as precedent, so I suppose this is the other side of the coin. I'm in the US and speak USian English, and it jumped out at me, but I was mostly disappointed. It's possible it was done in total innocence on his part, but that doesn't mean his audience is working from the same associations.
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Post by famvir on Aug 27, 2014 13:16:13 GMT -4
No pass here, spastic and spaz are in the same camp as retarded and retard. And I am USing in the USA.
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Mierin
Landed Gentry
Posts: 690
Mar 9, 2005 16:45:25 GMT -4
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Post by Mierin on Aug 27, 2014 13:26:32 GMT -4
From what he's written in his Twitter account, it was an innocent mistake. Twitter Post
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 18, 2024 23:13:20 GMT -4
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2014 13:52:15 GMT -4
Wow! This could go in the "You Learn Something New Every Day" thread for me.
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Post by chonies on Aug 27, 2014 14:00:28 GMT -4
Good for him. I'm reasonably satisfied with the outcome and shall move on.
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jmart
Lady in Waiting
Posts: 235
Apr 30, 2013 10:31:38 GMT -4
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Post by jmart on Aug 27, 2014 14:06:54 GMT -4
Wow! This could go in the "You Learn Something New Every Day" thread for me. No kidding - I feel a bit ashamed actually, but the more you know I guess. Good on him for an actual apology, but I had a feeling it was an honest mistake.
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pachengala
Landed Gentry
Posts: 818
Mar 10, 2005 14:39:30 GMT -4
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Post by pachengala on Aug 27, 2014 14:51:38 GMT -4
Wow! This could go in the "You Learn Something New Every Day" thread for me. Me too! I speak US English and my friends and I say "spaz" all the time (we're children of the 80s). I had no idea some people equated it with an epithet like "retard." Huh.
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Post by chonies on Aug 27, 2014 15:04:22 GMT -4
Wow! This could go in the "You Learn Something New Every Day" thread for me. Me too! I speak US English and my friends and I say "spaz" all the time (we're children of the 80s). I had no idea some people equated it with an epithet like "retard." Huh. I did, too! I mean, "spaz" wasn't something especially positive, but it wasn't the worst thing you could say--it could even be positive, like "you lovable klutzy dork". However, we never used 'spastic', and once I became a practicing Anglo-et al phile, the shades of the meaning changed, like other words. I'm not having a crap attack about it in the least, especially because it seems like an honest mistake and he apologized without qualification.
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