At the cineplex the other night, Mabel & Sally’s movie choice was between the one with the secret agent children who curse like this:
“Shi…take mushrooms!”
and the small blue Belgian creatures who curse like this:
“Don’t smurf with us!”
Since they’d just seen the expletive-repleted cinematic landmark The Blues Brothers on DVD a few days earlier, the girls and I were unfazed by all the blue language in The Smurfs:
“Smurf me!”
“No smurfing way.”
…but it did make more sensitive dialogue like “Smurf you later!” seem casually obscene.
Other Online Arnott Writings
- Daily Nutmeg I write several features per week for this new New Haven culture magazine, available online and via a morning email. Please subscribe!
- Engine28 An audacious “pop-up” site covering a slew of L.A. theater festivals and conferences in June 2011. I reviewed and reported alongside 20 other USC/NEA Institute in Theater and Musical Theater fellows.
- New Haven Advocate, Hartford Advocate and Fairfield County Weekly I worked full-time at the New Haven edition of this Connecticut-wide chain of alt-weeklies for 17 years. As a freelancer, I continue to contribute features and reviews.
- New Haven Theater Jerk Dedicated site for Christopher Arnott’s theater writings and reviews
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- Yale Alumni Magazine I am not an alumnus of Yale myself, but have covered their arts scene for eons.
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The Last Couple of Batches
- The Works of the University Prez
- Exclusive! Meriden Daffodil Festival Line-Up for 2013! Read it first here!
- What is a Love Light?
- Just Finished Reading…. Gold, Frankenstein and Myrrh
- Rock Gods #284 : Adventures in Our Little Music Scene
- For Tomorrow We May Die: Diary of a College Chum #236
- Four Musical Goings-On
- Just Finished Reading: Corleone vs. Cromwell
- Rock Gods #283: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene
- For Tomorrow We May Die: Diary of a College Chum #235
- For Tomorrow We May Die: Diary of a College Chum #234
- Rock Gods #282: Adventures in Our Little Music Scene
Months Ago!
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“Smurf” makes a handy bowdlerizer. I am currently working my way through Deadwood via Netflix. On Deadwood the F word is dropped so often that it has lost all its effect on me, which the writers clearly realized because early in Season 2 there’s this marvelous exchange:
[character enters whorehouse looking for specific woman] Where’s smurfing Dolly?
[response] Smurfing!
Because of the Smurfs, I can repeat that exchange sans blush.