Monday, 1 October 2012

For f***'s sake!


By Tim Richardson

I love swearing.

Really, I do.

Seriously, I really ****ing love swearing.

And it seems I’m in good company. It seems the government’s chief whip also likes to sprinkle his conversations with expletives.  And why not?

After all, those short, punchy, hard-edged Anglo Saxon words are an absolute delight. They punctuate sentences delightfully adding emphasis when no other word will suffice.

Now, before you chuffing kick off and get all hoity-toity on me about bad language, some boffins conducted research and concluded that swearing can increase your pain threshold.

So, in a scientific experiment (of sorts) I decided to try it out for myself. I decided to stub a toe on my left foot and use a non-profanity to see if it helped. Let me tell you, screaming ‘tranche’ and hopping around the kitchen didn’t do it for me.  It really f***ing hurt.

Then, once the pain had subsided I deliberately stubbed my little toe on my right foot. In the name of science, I then opted for one of my favourite swear words to see if that would help ease the pain. Nope. It still really f***ing hurt.