Jul 25 2008
Writing Tip/Caption Contest of the Day: Don’t Overuse Obscenities
Writers use obscenities for the same reasons they put in exclamation marks: they want to show that a character means it. Like exclamation marks, obscenities quickly lose their impact and come to sound goofy with overuse.
To help illustrate how goofy obscenities can look, we’re offering a caption contest. Abuse obscenities to create a hilariously bad conversation between Agent Black and Agent Orange. (Agent Black is the guy on the left; by the process of elimination, Agent Orange is the mutated alligator).
Agent Orange: I told the terrorist, “Bitch, the only way you’re losing your virginity today is when an angry mob boot-fucks you.”
Agent Black: Good God, do people actually use the word “boot-fuck” over there?
Agent Orange: That’s how I learned that falling asleep near a radio playing rap can fuck a brother up. Bitch, this shit is real!
Agent Black: I am going to fucking cap your ass.
Agent Orange: Then I said, “I ain’t into that matrix freaky shit” and then he high-kicked me in slow motion… in slow motion Black, ya hear? And I fell into the neuro-flux-capasitor with that alligator I was trying to rescue from the sewers and now I look like this!!!! A horny ball of snot!
Agent Black: Shit, how am I gonna tell your wife?