The benefits of a well-timed curse: What science says about swearing

Few things are more paradoxical than the way American television deals with the possible utterance of a swear word on air: with a beep. Watching the speech of a public personality punctuated by beeps ultimately underlines those swear words and, in addition, the beep itself becomes a comic resource. In a 2012 episode of Modern Family, Mitchell Pritchett and Cameron Tucker’s two-year-old daughter Lily blurts out “fuck” in church, causing those present to fall silent in stupefaction for a few seconds, before bursting into laughter. “I have two weaknesses: kids swearing and old people rapping,” Cameron says, looking into the camera.

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