I have just been reading about the controversy about Beyonce changing an offensive lyric in one of her songs and I looked at the lyrics (well. I'm not going to listen to it am I?) and understand why people have found it offensive.

As a lover of good poetry and a well crafted song I'd have to say that the whole song offends me. I have rarely read such drivel in my life. As an example of the lyrics NOT considered offensive, may I offer

"Make a pretty girl talk that shitty
Whiskey 'til I'm tipsy, glitter on my kitty (Ooh)
Cool it down, down, down, my pretty
Bad, bad bitchy make the bad bitch glitchy
Fine, fine, fine-fine, fine-fine, fine, fine
Liberated, livin' like we ain't got time
Yadda, yadda, yah, yadda, yadda, yah, yah
Yadda, yadda, yadda, bom, bom, ka, ka"

Shakespeare was never this good.

I couldn't post the offending line on FB because there is a chance that the FB filters would mark it as offensive and delete the post. No such issue here so I can post it and ask my question.

The offending line is

Spazzin' on that ass, spaz on that ass

My question is, what does this word mean to an American? In the UK it has been offensive for as long as I can remember - the noun "Spazzer" is a variation on "Spastic" and is used in an insulting way to refer to people with any kind of physical or mental issues but specifically cerebral palsy. It was a playground insult back in my school days and was actually used by kids at my school to refer to those of us less gifted at sports who were routinely sent to play on the smallest football pitch in the far corner of the field known as the "s******'s pitch".

Anyway, as I say my point is this, nobody in the Uk would ever consider this to be not offensive so why did Beyonce use this? Is it not considered offensive in the US? Does it mean something different there? I believe another singer had a very similar controversy with the word just a few months ago but I can't remember who it was. (I've looked it up - it was someone called Lizzo that I have never heard of other than in this particular context).

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

For truly awful poetry, one needs to consider William McGonagall, the Scottish poet.

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

[and]

I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.

I am sure somebody must love this stuff as it's about railways in Britain, and it all rhymes (which is the defining characteristic of "good" poetry.

I am familiar with McGonagall’s work and if he had been doing it deliberately I would consider him a genius. It’s really hard to write so badly intentionally but I rather suspect he was actually just what he seems to be. As for Beyoncé’s song, co written with Drake according to Wikipedia it’s just awful - as so much modern pop is - and I have a suspicion that the only intentional thing about it was the inclusion of “spaz” to generate controversy and sell more records.

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me,
As plurdled gabbleblotchits, in midsummer morning
On a lurgid bee,
That mordiously hath blurted out,
Its earted jurtles, grumbling
Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer

(5 points to first person to identify both the actual author and the purported author.)

I’m still interested in finding out how offensive “spaz” is considered in the US because it is very offensive in the UK

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me,
As plurdled gabbleblotchits, in midsummer morning
On a lurgid bee,
That mordiously hath blurted out,
Its earted jurtles, grumbling
Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer

(5 points to first person to identify both the actual author and the purported author.)

Your hero Lewis Carroll?

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
I’m still interested in finding out how offensive “spaz” is considered in the US because it is very offensive in the UK

Spaz, in my generation, meant spastic, or physically incapacitated. Who knows what the Lizzards and Bay onces think it means. Given the context, it may now mean jizz, a slang term for ejaculate. BTW, Lizzo is a 300lb beast who's the obese girl's darling.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me,
As plurdled gabbleblotchits, in midsummer morning
On a lurgid bee,
That mordiously hath blurted out,
Its earted jurtles, grumbling
Into a rancid festering confectious organ squealer

(5 points to first person to identify both the actual author and the purported author.)

Your hero Lewis Carroll?

No points to Geoff. It was not Lewis Carroll.

quote:

Originally posted by Geoff:

quote:

Originally posted by BobHale:
I’m still interested in finding out how offensive “spaz” is considered in the US because it is very offensive in the UK

Spaz, in my generation, meant spastic, or physically incapacitated. Who knows what the Lizzards and Bay onces think it means. Given the context, it may now mean jizz,

Precisely the reason I asked. In the context of the line the offensive meaning that I know makes no sense.

Gonna guess, though, that Lewis Carroll is the "purported" author. Haven't got a clue as to the real one. Sounds like a bad translation of Rimbaud.

The actual author as I am sure some know is Douglas Adams - it's from the Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy. The purported (i.e. in-story) author is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz who is the third worst poet in the Universe.