Any Gunplay Will Be Answered 3.24.03

Today I saw my first episode of HBO’s new show Deadwood. It follows what one might think an HBO drama about the old west would. There is a lot of dust on people, references to whiskey, wild moustaches, an opening featuring a man who is “helped” in his hanging execution by a sheriff who yanks the cord to expedite the process, and whore who gets beat twice; the man who does it is shot through the head, a metal dipstick stuck through it, his body tossed in a pig sty. You know, just for good measure.

There is a fellow with a great Irish accent that sounds almost Jamaican, swindling the “goose looking man in the shiny suit.”

The old west might have been dirty but this is actually unpleasant. Perhaps true to life? The attitudes are rude and the drunks are plentiful, people fight in the streets, people carry on with torches in their hands. Now, I am no old west scholar; but I do wonder about the use of modern profanity (and of course, the change in accents). “Shit” is a fecal leaving. “Son of a bitch” is a colorful description of a person. “Cocksucker,” maybe. But the constant and unrelenting use of the word “fuck?”

Well, here is an etymology of the word here.