Have people with Tourette's Syndrome got ruder over the years?

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As standards in society fall, do people with Tourette's Syndrome intersperse their conversation with ever ruder expletives? As in, once they might have said "Tarnation!", now is it all "Cockmangling Jizzblocking fannywarbler!"?

― DV, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

New fuckbaking rearviewing vadgechuffling answers.

― DV, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In my day those young tourettes pups had a bit of a respect.

I mean FUCKING ANAL COCKFARMER!

― Ronan, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i wonder if expletives become more acceptable, they lessen in regularity for tourettes sufferers

― gareth, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

that's really what I'm wondering.

I read a piece on one of the first diagnosed Tourette's people, and she had an unfortunate tendency to say "D-n" all the time. My impression is people would barely notice her now.

― DV, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

surely they have stayed exactly as rude, it is the words used that have shifted

also this is not strictly speaking a linear "decline": there is a street in shrewbury which until the 17th century was (officially) called Grope Cunt Lane, before being ahem designer vagina'd to merely Grope Lane. By the time Ronan is claming his pension, it will perhaps have changed back again?

― mark s, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

All the people I know with Tourette's are unfailingly polite. Its a continuum you see, and some people just have the attention, concentration part of it.

One of them was very creapy though.

― Pete, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Words have progressively carried less wieght. Like Lenny Bruce said, this is not a quote, but eventually the tabboo is killed. Expletives are beautiful, although I do understand the tourettes, one of my best friends has it. Maybe this should be another thread, but I think they are as much a part of the english language as anything else and they have thier place in it, whether the intelligentsia says so or not, and they express emotion that can sometimes be otherwise unexpressed. I'm not calling for complete inhibition of the use, but maybe a little more inclusion and general understanding of the value of a good FUCK!!!! -the word is so multifunctional, you gotta love it.

― Hank, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

as i once heard someone say, 'fuck, the fucking fucker's fucked'. four derivations in a sentence of five words, and that's by no means an exhaustive example. simply marvelous word.

― another james, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

hey have you ever seen that interview with a clown with Tourett's in MOTORBOOTY? shit that shit was funny!

― duane, Thursday, 24 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually this is a VERY interesting area of neurological research brought up in this question. Apparently four-year-olds with Tourette's say things like "wee wee" and "poop", etc., (which means that people will involuntarily say whatever is deemed to be obscene by standards set for them? In which case, they probably would've said 'Tarnation!', or 'Dadgummit!' or something at one point)

― dave q, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm kind of bemused by the number of posters who claim to know several people with Tourette's syndrom. Tourette's is a very rare ailment and you could quite concievably go throw your entire life without ever meeting someone with it. To know loads of Touretters strains probability.

In short, sirs, I accuse you of being d-d liars.

― DV, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I work in a University and run a Students' Union. Our disabilities officer last year had Tourette's as did his girlfriend (no guesses where they met). We also had another first year student who had mild Tourette's.

The only person I have seen with Tourette's which involved swearing was the bloke who used to shop in Vinyl Experience in hanway Street at Monday lunchtimes. He would invariably clear the shop of all but the regular customers - such is the misunderstanding of this admittedly rare ailment.

― Pete, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

did they meet in Grope C__t Lane?

― mark s, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No. Germany. Possibly in its Grope Cunt equivalent.

― Pete, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Right. In der Muschiangreifenstraße.

― Colin Meeder, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have known only one person in my lifetime with tourettes and it is anything but a mild case. I have played in two different bands with him singing, one was called "Duck Duck Annihilation", kind of like duck duck goose but with apparrently more severe consequences and another called the "Allen Parsons Projectiles". He now lives in new york and we contact by email, but he is one of my best friends in the world, so no, I didn't say I knew someone with tourettes just so I wouldn't feel left out you Dirty Vicar.

― Hank, Friday, 25 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six years pass...

i just found myself accidentally saying 'boobs' quite loudly at my desk, apropos nothing...

am i developing tourette's?

― braveclub, Friday, 23 May 2008 10:09 (seventeen years ago)

It would be great if Tourette's kicked in when you were writing things as well as saying them. I mean not just on ILX.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Friday, 23 May 2008 10:21 (seventeen years ago)

I didn't think tourettes was nesc. a sweary thing, as much as a compulsion thing. Like, whatever happened to steve.n and his crazy boss who sang snippets of songs over and over all the livelong day, that was awesome.

I have a friend who doesn't claim to have tourettes but does have "tics". She says when she's stressed she is compelled to loudly shout/repeat a word or phrase over and over and really has to struggle to not do so if in public.

― Trayce, Friday, 23 May 2008 11:31 (seventeen years ago)

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