The Huffington Post featured a ten-minute video about "The Greatests Movie insults." In advertently, they exposed just how far the screenwriters' languaqge has deteriorated since the time of Shakespeare and Pope. The "greatest Insults" is almost totally a compilation of people of all ages (from children on up)merely saying "Go f**k yourself."
Not sure "deteriorating" is the correct word. Remember, our language is evolving. Besides, I'd hardly trust screenwriters' language to be a test of where the English language is today.
One of my favorite insults, albeit more subtle than f**k, is Rhett Butler's closing words to Scarlett: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." When I was a teenager, that comment affected me so much that I wrote a sequel to Gone with the Wind, giving it a much happier ending.
