I have my dad to thank for my use of colourful terms that fell out of fashion with just about everybody currently under the age of 60, and a repertoire of ethnic nicknames that nobody uses these days, including me. Oddly enough, he never struck me as any kind of a bigot - more that in the time and place he was raised, these were practically the official names. And to be fair, he generally only used the ethnic slurs to get a rise out of my mom during Good Times or The Jeffersons. Mom, on the other hand, is one of those people with prejudices she's not even aware of, under a surface of "Some of my best friends are....." which I will admit is sincere.
It's a great illustration of what George Carlin has said about offensive words. Should we be concerned about the words people are using, or the thoughts behind them? I've known plenty of people who have used offensive language without an ounce of malice, and people who were utterly polite and nasty as all hell under it. I just find there's a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to offensive language. Too many people equate being nice with being good.
I can think of a great story from a few years back. We were visiting my parents. Ro was still too young to understand spoken words, much less repeat them. In a conversation with my dad, I tossed in one F-word for deliberate emphasis. My mom gets indignant, and tells me with no small amount of pride that she was 16 before she heard her father swear. I pretty much just raised an eyebrow at her, and gave a little wave of my hand toward MY father, as if to say "Why didn't you say this 30-odd years ago, when this guy was constantly talking like a sailor?"
As for this Shatner show, it doesn't even sound like the content is an issue. It's all about the title. I must again quote George Carlin, who placed certain people in the categories of "stupid, full of s**t and f**king nuts" with some occupying all three. This Winter guy seems to think there is an actual expletive in the title that has been bleeped out. For that alone, I'd put him in all three.
Carlin is a great example. I don't necessarily agree with his views, but he used to go out of his way to offend people's sensibilities, and he was also a man of strong principles, honest and sincere. And I have to say that the odd time Carlin offended me, mostly in his later years, it was what he was saying - the meaning - and not how he said it. I had a lot of respect for the guy.
Carlin was one of those precious few who were able to be crude and a class act at the same time. How anyone could start off a show immediately talking about p***y farts and garner as much respect as he did is beyond me. He also had an uncanny ability to have very strong views, express them in offensive ways, yet I don't ever recall a single person every really coming out against him on them. The man was a genius.