The vocabulary of many Ball State University students would make most grandmothers blush.
If you're reading this in a public place on campus right now, pause for a moment and eavesdrop on your neighbors. You won't be surprised to hear a slew of dirty words dropped carelessly into every sentence.
And you won't be surprised when no one reacts to those words with shock or indignation.
That is just the way many of us speak.
Some of us use profanity as often as we use sarcasm, and it regularly serves as an effective rhetorical device, adding emphasis, emotion and humor.
Our age group is so used to these words that it becomes difficult to stop using them when they are inappropriate, like at the dinner table when you head home for Winter Break.
When we are among our own kind, though, the use of profanity is hardly inappropriate.
So when a student-produced late-night comedy show used the word "boner," it should not have been a big deal.
Student Government Association President Frank Hood used the word on "BSU Late Night," and it stirred up enough controversy that one person lost his job and the show may have lost an opportunity at winning an Emmy.
The show would be eligible for an Emmy if it were to air on Comcast cable, but the network finds the word "boner" too risque and won't air the episode.
"BSU Late Night" is largely unknown outside the Ball State community, and its intended audience is students. The appearance of this word on the show was hardly inappropriate for the viewers.
"Boner" is far from the dirtiest word most of us can think of, and it isn't even on the Federal Communications Commissions' list of forbidden words.
It is just silly.
Football coach Brady Hoke mentioned "locker room grab-ass" on national TV this week, and everyone just laughed.
It is unfortunate that Comcast would find the use of the word inappropriate, because viewers likely would not have.
The student-producers of "BSU Late Night" were right in their decision to use the term in the show. Avoiding it would have meant denying the audience something it could relate to and find funny.
Because of their decision, though, a host of other problems arose.
The use of the word "boner" was appropriate in this situation.
The controversy that it caused was not.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
