Cursing, swearing, and throwing insults can be a great way to show off your wit and ingenuity. And there are lots of benefits associated with swearing as well. As reported by CNN, cursing may be a sign of mental and social intelligence. Well-educated people were better at coming up with curse words, according to one 2015 study.
“People who are good at language are good at generating a swearing vocabulary,” said Kristin L. Jay, the author of the study. “Having the strategies to know where and when it’s appropriate to swear, and when it’s not, is a social cognitive skill like picking the right clothes for the right occasion. That’s a pretty sophisticated social tool.”
Meanwhile, people who curse more are more honest and less likely to lie. “When you’re honestly expressing your emotions with powerful words, then you’re going to come across as more honest,” Jay explains.
That being said, this doesn’t necessarily mean that individuals who swear more are less likely to behave immorally or unethically.
As for the other benefits, cursing can make you more resistant to pain, showcase your creativity, and can actually be an evolutionary advantage.
Namely, if you’re swearing, you’re expressing your emotions in a way that allows you to avoid fighting and getting physically harmed or harming others. You’re venting, hopefully, without coming to blows.
An article recently published in the Cambridge University Press, titled ‘The Ethics of Offensive Comedy,’ looked at the duties of comedians and ‘punching down’ with their jokes.
“During comedians’ performances, most of the usual norms around what we should and shouldn't say are, rightly, suspended. Yet there are still some offensive jokes that ought not be told. To mark such jokes out, some comedy nights and venues have adopted an ethic of ‘don't punch down’, ruling out jokes that target the disadvantaged, vulnerable, and oppressed,” the author says that this ethic “threatens to misdirect” the audience's attention.
According to the piece, the ethic of “don’t punch down” might be flawed and should be revised. There’s too much emphasis on “the relative position of the comedian as compared to the joked-about party and the direct target of a joke. Instead, our focus should be on what a joke of this kind does, in the context in which it is told.” Furthermore, according to the author of the article, “the joke's audience is a crucial, and often determining, factor in our ethical assessments.”
In other words, you need to consider whether the joke undermines anti-discriminatory efforts or does the opposite, reinforcing stereotypes and unfair hierarchies. Not only that, but you also have to consider how the audience reacts to the joke to see if it’s actually harmful.
Many comedy clubs think that ‘punching down’ with your quips simply doesn’t work in any context. According to the Dallas Comedy Club, punching down is making jokes at the expense of people “from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities based on age, disability, gender, marriage status, size, veteran status, pregnancy and maternity, race/ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation.”
“Punching down is insulting, offensive, and often bigoted. Punching down could mute underrepresented voices in comedy and reject inclusivity,” the Dallas Comedy Club urges. Instead of punching down, the club suggests punching up or punching sideways in order to get a laugh.
