Bits and pieces of it turn up on YouTube and, well, it’s a well trodden path. Yes, Tourette’s is horrible and so on. But so the story is sufferer, meets a few folk who are able to overcome it and his embarrassment, gets asked to talk to other suffers, swelling strings and redemption in aiding overcoming society’s indifference to etc.
OK, so no I’m not being dismissive of the story. It’s just that it’s a well trodden path more generally. And the reason it keeps getting told is becuase it’s a damn good story. Gets those story listening juices of the audience going.
Excellent. But as ever in such stories who is going to be the near saint who first is able to dismiss the problem to see the real person underneath? What exact form is the redemption going to take? How many near misses will there be on the path?
Except Tourette’s. This gives an obvious interest and excitement. What, actually, are they going to have the bloke – involuntarily – say? As I understand it those involuntary utterances are not random. It’s not wee doggie one time and sperm smeared the next. There’s a definite selection to the words uttered – for all the involuntary nature of it all. That selection – as far as I understand – being statements that cause maximal embarrasment at the time they’re said. It’s *not* shouting out randomly. It’s involuntarily shouting out the most embarrassing.
OK, well that’s Dr Worstall, MD, there and no doubt wrong in detail but I am sure there’s a truth in it all the same.
So, this gives huge opportunity to the scriptwriters. You get to get the character to say the most wondrous jokes, if that’s what you want to do. And maybe they do that – I’ve only seen the occasional clip.
But I do have a feeling that they’ve not used the best joke about this of all. That the bloke himself goes to an awards ceremony about the film and as an award is being given to some diversity or other he shouts out “Nigger!”. Which is, of course, hugely embarrassing for all concerned. Which is one of the points of the affliction itself. The beauty of the joke coming from what then happens, as the varied strata of diversity privilege make themselves apparent. Is he someone ill – disabled – that allowances must be made? Is the use of that word the modern ineradicable sin? Plus those being mischievous get to ponder why it’s OK in rap songs presented awards at award shows but not OK at an award show.
Ah, so much good comedy is aboutthe subersion of the established order, eh?
Yep, Tourettes is involuntary but it is also generally the stuff the sufferer knows he/she shouldn’t say. Hence “nigger” when a black fella is on stage, “fuck the Queen” when meeting her late Maj and “paedophile” to Alan Cumming. Speaking of Cumming, I am not a fan but I thought he dealt with it sensitively and appropriately and the slating he is getting is equally unfair.
What the whole thing reinforces for me is that black Yanks don’t give a fuck about equality or fairness and their pearl-clutching about a word they use all the time reflects their constant demands for things (like respect) which they haven’t earned.
Indeed, which is why ‘black fatigue’ is now a thing
That explains why I’m so worn out, then.
100%
Martin Luther the Plagiarist was wrong, we’ve been judging them by the content of their character all along.
Indeed. In far too many instances the skin colour simply turned out to be an accurate proxy. Hence the stereotype.
‘OK, well that’s Dr Worstall, MD, there and no doubt wrong in detail but I am sure there’s a truth in it all the same.’
No, the film itself makes this point, when he gets his MBE from the queen his tic zeros in on ‘Fuck the Queen!’ as the thing to utter.
And I would guess that Her Late Majesty handled the situation with grace and dignity. How times change.
Prince Philip responds, “That’s my job.”
Only n-words can use the n-word.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcBCy5SYEps
I worked with a bloke who has Tourettes. In conversation he was perfectly normal, but when working on his laptop he would grunt quietly every so often.
As with Tim, my question has always been, “why do they have to say something offensive”?
The easiest answer is: shortcircuit bypassing the “social filters” directly to the speech center.
The ..gestalts.. you generally really think in are a *lot* more primitive and direct, and normally a *lot* of things gets filtered out or modified through socially-trained filtering circuits into “socially acceptable” speech.
Y’know.. how your *thought* of “Utter Cunt” regarding a certain Solanum gets transformed into slightly more verbose utterances portraying the actual *thought* into “socially acceptible” speech or writing, severity depending on the audience.
Auti’s, like me, already have diminished filtering in this department, so we *tend* to use more “coarse” language to begin with.
Especially when stressed when we can’t be arsed to *consciously* rifle through our sets of Euphemisms to present the “correct” set of words for the occasion.
We want to get our point across, and the *meaning* is the same anyway… Why Bother?
Tourette sufferers have even *less* filtering capacity in that department, *and* that tick where the whole Library of Euphemisms gets sidelined to begin with.
So they utter the raw “gestalt” associated with a thought.
In case of ( thoughts of) a delectable piece of the other sex: Titties/Nice Ass!
Facing the Queen (stressful as that is for antisocial beings….): Fuck this! + Oh! the Queen.. = Fuck, the Queen!
See a black person you don’t like: Nigger!
A lot of stressful situations are comprised of a *lot* of negative feelings, which then …. escape …
So yes… they tend to be “socially inacceptable”.
And let’s be fair…. What we think inside is … a lot different… than what we utter..
And half of us would *like* to be able to express their *real* thoughts in public..
Except we haven’t got Tourette as an excuse…
I’d buy that theory, if people with Tourette’s ever said involuntary nice things about someone. If the ‘social filter’ theory you describe were true, how come none of them ever compliment someone involuntarily? How come everything they immediately think of is nasty?
If on the other hand the filter theory is correct but they only ever think nasty things about the people they meet then they are just cunts anyway aren’t they?
Does that not count as a nice thing?
How do you know they don’t? How many Touretters have you known?
I swear at my computers constantly.
Always have.
Try throttling them round the neck, aka, monitor stand.
Worked better with CRTs.
I simply tell them I don’t take shit from bits of tin and plastic. It generally works.
Must admit they’ve never answered me back yet.
I wonder how many people will catch this disease now that experts say it’s even more transmissible than COVID?
Grist should I get my face rag out of the drawer and begin ‘social distancing’?
And when do we get our ‘vaccine’?
I don’t believe in Tourette’s fucking syndrome. It’s just an excuse for using cuntish language.
Or so my GP told me.
Wanker.
I suffer from Corporate Tourette’s Syndrome. The urge to tell everyone at work to “Fuck off, you useless cunt” is overwhelming.
Apparently, I talk in my sleep – or so I am informed – but it’s more like ‘mutter in my sleep’ because it’s inintelligible. Except once, when my better half tells me I yelled, quite distinctly, “Oh, you fucking moron!” She asked me in the morning if I remembered any dreams, which I didn’t not, and told me what I had said. My immediate reply was “Oh, obviously I was dreaming about work.”
Commie turds tied in knots over conflicting social constructs. You must accommodate the disabled and treat Blacks! as gods.
Delightful!
Any court jester jobs available?
Gamecock is going to start a campaign: All Men Have Tourettes – So We Can Say Whatever the Hell We Want To.
We’re all on the Tourette’s spectrum.
It was my pitch for a sequel.
“The King’s Speech 2 – This time it’s Tourette’s”
But no studio was interested, despite the scope for lots of jokes.
Did the people who designed medieval castles have Turrets syndrome?
Starmer! Starmer!