Adam: I do think that life is quite different when you have small kids. If you don’t have young kids (and especially if you’ve never had kids), it can be hard to project into that space and appreciate how much that can change your world view. Once your kids are 13, though, and have accounts on every social network going (and some you’ve never heard of), you can feel what ever sense of control over their inputs slipping right away.

Cory: It is amazing how every generation thinks they invented everything fun :-).

Yeah, fart jokes are cool!

I think it is interesting how every generation thinks they invented swearing and sex. Suppose that is part of the journey of discovery we call growing up.

Oh, and swearing is on the radio all the time in the States. “Legs” by ZZ Top is a rock radio staple and they say ‘shit’ at the end of that tune. “Who Are You?” by the Who has ‘fuck’ in it pretty obviously and still gets plenty of rotation.

Then there is TV… What about the show South Park? Profanity laden!

Profanity is not a big deal to me. I would rather hear swearing than see gore. Of course, the question I have is one of quality. Profanity and sex drive ratings, but generally not quality. Though, given a choice, I would prefer boobs to swears.

Ok, my response has taken a rambling and pointless turn, so I will return to my original point: fart jokes are funny and your blog again makes an astute point.

Coincidentally, I just had this conversation at a non-profit board meeting as we discussed the use of ‘ass’ in a headline. We have one single rule for user-submitted headlines and that is “No profanity in the headline.” (Profanity in the story gets a pass.)

Anyways, the user wrote “[Something] hands us our ass.” as his headline. I had little doubt that it violated the single rule, but things seem to have changed so much that I had to run it past the board first to get some approval.

I heard ‘dumbass’ and ‘bitch’ float across the TV the other night, during the 7-8 pm (CST) ‘family hour’, too. I’m about the opposite of a prude, but there’s a time and a place, too.