The documentary ‘Fuck’ by Steve Anderson explores the use of the F-word in life and movies. The mother of all curse words is used 824 times in the movie easily outstripping high-user competitors like Summer Of Sam, Nil By Mouth and Casino.
The claim made in the Irish ‘comedy’ Holy Water is that ‘feck’ is originally a Gaelic word with a different meaning. An American cop fails to perceive the distinction making for the first time I’ve ever heard the word ‘motherfecker’.
I wasn’t counting how many times ‘feck’ and its derivatives were used but I’d guess it occurs well over a hundred times. It is an example of what I discovered is called a ‘minced oath’ and falls into the same category as ‘frigging’ which is popular in pre-watershed TV drama.
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