American Folk Song

I learned the ribald song ‘Bang, Bang Lulu’ when I was in grade school.  I guess I was the right age for thinking that profanity was cool, but in this song all the curse words are inferred and the song sort of jumps over them, thus the bad words are only implied.  It is a rhyming song and the part that I remember went, “Bang, bang Lulu bang, bang Lulu, lulu is going to die.  Lulu had a boyfriend, who worked as a trucker.  She took him back to her house to let him…  Lulu had a brother his name was Tiny Tim, she put him in the toilet bowl to teach him how to swim.  He swam to the bottom, he swam to the top, Lulu got excited and she grabbed him by the…  Cocktail, ginger ale five cents a glass, if you don’t like it, you can shove it up your…  Ask me no more questions, tell me no more lies.  The boys are in the girl’s bathroom, zipping down their…  Flies are in the city.  Bees are in the park.  Tommy and his girlfriend, are kissing in the…”  Well you get the idea; this peculiar song can basically go on forever, or at least till you become fried from singing it.

I was always taught that swearing was wrong and one time my dad actually punished me by washing my mouth out with soap for saying words that I should not have been saying.  A parent can’t continuously threaten to do something and not act on it, as if they never make good on their threat, it will be taken as a joke.  This punishment sunk into my reptilian brain and I never cursed in front of my dad again.  A good friend of mine always felt that it was cute when his little sister used curse words and this four-year-old girl swore like a sailor.  I did admire her passion and the zeal that she put into this, and at times I found this to be hilarious and entertaining, but I always thought that this girl should be making sand castle creations instead of cursing.  This potty mouth girl let her older brother plant words in her mouth, and from my perspective, that seemed a shade unfair to her.

Sticks and stones can hurt you, but swearing is only words.  Since it is not possible to offend technology, many people enjoy swearing at their mobile phone digital assistants, instead of giving thanks for the help they are providing.  People like to swear at Siri, insult Alexa and curse at Cortana, because it is fun to see how these bots will respond.  These bots are adaptive and they will learn inappropriate responses if they are exposed to enough crude, and vulgar behavior, they may go off the rails.  If you tell Siri that she is useless, she will probably respond with, “You have a right to feel that way.”

Written for Sheryl’s Daily Word Prompt – Peculiar, for Roger Shipp’s Daily Addictions prompt – Fried, for the Daily Spur prompt – Zeal, for FOWC with Fandango – Plant, for November Writing Prompts – Sand castle creations, for Ragtag Community – Reptilian, for Di’s Three Things Challenge prompt words – Shade Brother Mobile, for GC and Sue W Weekly Prompts – Giving thanks and for Word of the Day Challenge Prompt – Ribald.