Steve:

Wish I had known you were in town ... I would have loved to down a margarita or two with you.

Hope your "danger train" makes it downtown without hitting a car or pedestrian!

People *will* be offended. *And* you should do it.

Not to be a rabble rouser, but because it supports your point. The whole IDEA of bullshit bingo is to call out obfuscation of the language. So you obfuscate in the name itself? That's either ironic, genius, or completely stupid.

People *will* be offended. *And* you should do it.

Not to be a rabble rouser, but because it supports your point. The whole IDEA of bullshit bingo is to call out obfuscation of the language. So you obfuscate in the name itself? That's either ironic, genius, or completely stupid.

What a bunch of BS. I know f-ing well you have no intention of altering a single f-ing word. It's just some cheap-arse communication trick to solicite responses on your blog. You Ho.

Legally I haven't use a single curse word in my response - but the intent was cussing and it felt like cussing and therefore WAS cussing. In your case bullshit may legally be a curse word, but your use is to instruct, not to offend, which makes it not cussing in my book. I can't imagine any reasonable person being upset by your use of the word in your presentation. Unless they are just f-ing stupid. :-)

Think about it...do you really want to be standing in front of a group of people yelling "Buzzword!"? Or even worse, "B.S.!" Hell no. I say it's "Bullshit" or nothing.

I agree with Neruda. Yelling anything other than "bullshit" is ironic, genius or completely stupid. I tend to lean towards the latter.

If your sponsors really are uncomfortable with it, why make their lives harder? They are the ones who have to live with the results. In those cases - and I hope they are rare - teach the class to shout "EXcremental!" with a heavy stress on the EX. After a few times you can shorten it to "EX!" which will soon become a special corporate codeword. Call it a meme if you want to be really last year about it.

I agree with Tim. When I used to be a high school English teacher and my kids were always saying "this sucks" I made one of them look up the word "suck" in the dictionary. He came back and said "it means to create a vacuum." From then on, I required them to use that definition instead, resulting in dozens of teenagers roaming the halls saying, "Mr. Jones, this homework totally creates a vacuum!" It was actually funnier that way.

Eileen, that's great! I may use that with my son, who is in his mimicking phase, and thus picking up my unfortunate tendancy toward colorful metaphors. I'd love to see the look in his Kindergarten teacher's face when he tells her how Mommy was upset this morning because she got cut off by a mating male donkey. /snorfle. Who knows, I might clean up my own language in the process. ;)

Steve, some people will be offended, not necessarily by the language per se, but by the crassness. It's been my experience that some people simply don't react well to that in "official" settings, even if they're perfectly capable of blue language in a more informal venue. It's not because they're stupid, it just violates their personal boundaries of what's acceptable. In the particular case I'm thinking of, I've been told that the crassness is "distracting." Maybe so, maybe no, but that's her perception. /shrug Of course, it falls on the head of the person screening the consultant to think about these things and to handle the fallout -- if she wasn't comfortable with it, she shouldn't have hired you. I don't even know you, and I already can't fathom you standing in front of a group giving anything like a sedate, understated presentation using words like "buzzword." heh

That said, Tim's EXcrement compromise is inspired. :D

I have to concur with Tim and Eileen. Ultimately, what really matters is not the word actually used, but whether or not the group understands what you want them to do and can act effectively. If the word "bullshit" is so distracting as to keep you from achieving your goal of action, then look for another word. The healthcare industry is laden with terminology and acronyms you could have loads of fun with.

Doesn't it really depend upon the culture of the organization and the industry to some extent? And shouldn't those of us serving clients be capable of modifying our approach to suit the needs of the client? If the same, off-the-shelf approach is all we have, how do we deliver maximum value to the individual client?

Suzanne, what is it about the beautiful Italian countryside that promotes cussing?

It's offensive in the conservative Republic of Texas unless you are in a honky tonk two-stepping to the "Cotton Eyed Joe". You are talking about the bible belt. These folk are church goers. Not everyone would be offended because there are probably a few young liberals or yankees in the audience who can't understand the southern mentality. Neither are wrong, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do (at least modify) or your point will be lost while they grab their eyes from the back of their heads. It is the courteous thing to do. Your purpose is to enlighten, not alienate.

"I just don't think that anyone will be offended by it."

You think, but do you KNOW, and more importantly, do you care? It doesn't sound like it. And that can be OK, if that's part of the message you intend to send (in my era, George Carlin comes to mind). But if you care about the message you have more than the aura/reputation you cultivate, then you care, and you shouldn't use it because someone could be offended. I played enough sports in my life that I personally wouldn't be offended, but I also make every effort to avoid using such language, not so much for me, but for the possibility of what people might think (and in my case, the little ears that might hear). We can't control what others think of us, but we can control the words we use that they will in turn use to think of us.

My wife was raised in such a way it would offend her, and she would say it's "common" and "lacks creativity". Several others have pointed out that sublety is likely just as (more?) effective, and I concur. Any communicator can and should find a better way to be known than to be "common".

I was raised hearing no off-color language at home. While my friends 'had to pee', I 'used the facilities' or risked getting my mouth scrubbed with soap by my very proper mom. So REAL cussing was a shocker when I got out in the world.

I don't cuss, DeAnna! I was only trying to illustrate my point, maybe not very well. But I'm getting really good at colorful Italian sign-language...

I make a point of using one- just one and only once - mild cuss word such as damn or bullshit when I give presentations. I think/hope it makes the info seem less preachy and me more informal and approachable. It's still enough of a shocker that it gets people's attention, which is another benefit to using a curse word in a presentation.

And isn't that exactly what Steve is trying to convey?

Well . . . thanks for all the thoughtful comments. Here's how it all shook out.

We changed the "bullshit bingo" card that we handed out to the 300 managers to "buzzword bingo." And we never said the word bullshit.

But we did leave it in one of the "quotes" that we show from satisfied players. It's the last quote on the screen, and it says:

"The speaker was shocked as all of us screamed 'bullshit' for the second time in two hours."

It was funny to see the crowd reaction: They all got down to the last quote about the same time, and even though we didn't read it out loud, it got a roaring, rolling laugh (the loudest of the seminar, which went very very well and was filled with laughter) as people read it themselves.

So that would seem to say that subtlety can work. It will take some getting used to for me, however, as subtle I am not.

Bottom line: I don't think anyone would have been offended if we called it bullshit bingo . . . but I don't think we lost too much at all by taking it out.

And John Wagner: I had no idea you were a Houstonion! I would have asked you to join us Monday night at Chuey's for tex mex.

Have you ever had their green dipping sauce? It was fantastic.

Steve C.

Glad to hear it went well, Steve. :)

"I don't cuss, DeAnna! I was only trying to illustrate my point, maybe not very well."

That wasn't really *my* point, either, Suzanne, but I got yours. I laughed, in fact. :) It was the "stupid" thing -- I didn't take that seriously, of course. I know what you meant. And, hell, I sort of agree. But the fact remains that some people will shut you out the minute they hear what they would think of as gratuitous crassness. As it played out in this case, the fact that it wasn't all over the place before he got to the last quote probably made it even more powerful, since the edge wasn't dulled by extensive use.

Tangent: I was remembering my beloved great-grandmother this weekend, who was a great fan of words and had an enormous vocabulary. When we were little and not behaving, she'd chastize us for being a "contumatious onegar." I knew that contumatious meant ornery, but who knew what an onegar was ... Years later, I got the exact opposite from one of her kids: he knew that an onegar was a donkey, he said, but who knew what contumatious meant.

And then it hit me: It was my proper, ladylike, well educated pioneer grandmother's way of calling someone a stubborn ass.

I laughed and laughed and laughed. I adored Grandma, but even so I never gave her full props for her sense of humor. And I can't imagine her ever saying "ass" or even "arse." It just wouldn't do. It'd be far too common.

Reading recommendation: Peter Bowler's "Superior Person's Book of Words" (as well as the equally excellent sequel). You will fall down laughing.

Example:
Abecedarian insult, an: "Sir, you are an apogenous, bovaristic, coprolalial, dasypygal, excerebrose, facinorous, gnathonic, hircine, ithyphallic, jumentous, kyphotic, labrose, mephitic, napiform, oligophrenial, papuliferous, quisquilian, rebarbative, saponaceous, thersitical, unguinous, ventripotent, wlatsome, xylocephalous, yirning zoophyte."

Translation: "Sir, you are an impotent, conceited, obscene, hairy-buttocked, brainless, wicked, toadying, goatish, indecent, stable-smelling, hunch-backed, thick-lipped, stinking, turnip-shaped, feeble-minded, pimply, trashy, repellent, smarmy, foul-mouthed, greasy, gluttonous, loathsome, wooden-headed, whining, extremely low form of animal life."

...and on the matter of "cuss words": I always bristle at the down-home suggestion that those who use "foul" language do so due to their lack of vocabulary. No indeed. It's not appropriate everywhere of course, but to ignore this eminently useful aspect of the language would be sad indeed. A well-placed expletive is a wonderful - a funny, a meaningful, an illuminating - thing. So bring it on, I say.

I didn't weigh in on this topic earlier because
1) I'm not a communicator, I'm a geek.
2) I work in a very small office with a very small audience.
2) I'm one step above having my own CB handle on the scale of "talking like a truck driver"

But I do tone it down for kids and in the workplace, though not always, because remember, I do work with computers.

I find this whole thing fascinating. I grew up in a house where my dad cussed and my mom didn't...until I got older...now she drops the occasional f-bomb and it's okay.

But I can't imagine incorporating cussing into a presentation. Even as a game. I guess because while I do use profanity at an alarming rate, professionally I realize it really does make you sound uneducated, offensive and common. I do have an extensive vocabulary, a trait I feel I have passed on to my kids along with every possible use for the mother of all swear words as a noun, verb, adjective and adverb. I just hope I've also passed along the ability to know when and where to use it.

I wasn't going to post because this blog is a week old, but in yesterday's or today's local newspaper, I saw this same word we are discussing, in print.
I know it was in a quote, evidently I'm old fashioned, which sounds kinda weird considering how coarse my vocabulary can become, but I thought it looked out of place in a family newspaper.
Not having been raised in the Bible belt, I'm not sure if the discussions above are pertinent or not, but I lean with going what the client requested, and Steve's post shows that calling it buzzword bingo except for the last PowerPoint slide did work quite well.
Actually, I wish I had a larger collection of swear words at my disposal. It's kinda sad when you get really, really upset to repeat the three or four words you know over and over until you sputter to a silence and have to walk away. Oh well.
I believe there is a scene in the movie, Tombstone, where Val Kilmer, who plays Bat Masterson, is exchanging swear words with Johnny Ringo in Latin. Now there was one time I wished I knew what they were saying.

I'm attending your presentation in Toronto in June and I'll be offended if you DON'T use the word bullshit.

Actually, many of the words and terms widely viewed by today's society as cuss words (including "bullshit") are actually NOT cuss words. We all know what a bull is, and "shit", meaning defecated material, combined with the word "bull", simply means "the defecated waste of a bull". Nothing there which could be classified as cussing. Take the word "bitch", which is actually the term for a female dog, or the word "bastard", which is the proper term for a child born to unmarried parents. Even the word "piss" is used in the Bible. Yes, the Holy Bible! It simply means "urine", and it the word which was most commonly used in those days. While it may very well be unpleasant to the ears of many people, the word "bullshit", in actuality, is NOT a cuss word.

Ever noticed how we have a verb "to take offence" but no corresponding "to give offence"? People *choose* whether or not theyre going to take offence at what you say based on a whole load of stupid crap.

The very concept of the existence of "cuss words" which one should not use in "polite company" is retarded.

I would be completely offended if you used that word in a meeting I was in. I walked out of a meeting once at my work and told the HR person that I just didn't feel right about it so she let me go home. I try to limit my exposure to cussing to a bare minimum. I have walked out of movies, turned off television shows, for excessive bad language and I try not to hang around with people who use profanity. I think it's immature and only someone who lacks the intelligence to come up with creative words would feel like they HAD to cuss to get their point across. I hate to offend you, but I probably shouldn't feel too bad because you don't seem to feel bad about possible offending others like me. I love company meetings and guest speakers and it really makes me angry when the fun gets ruined because I am forced to feel uncomfortable. You using that kind of language is just as bad as if I came in and started talking about how "God can help your company" people would FLIP OUT if someone did that, but cussing is just no big deal anymore. It's so sad, really.....