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Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language – Emma Byrne

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Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language
Emma Byrne

Genre: Science & Nature

Price: $12.99

Publish Date: January 23, 2018

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Seller: W. W. Norton


An irreverent and impeccably researched defense of our dirtiest words. We’re often told that swearing is outrageous or even offensive, that it’s a sign of a stunted vocabulary or a limited intellect. Dictionaries have traditionally omitted it and parents forbid it. But the latest research by neuroscientists, psychologists, sociologists, and others has revealed that swear words, curses, and oaths—when used judiciously—can have surprising benefits. In this sparkling debut work of popular science, Emma Byrne examines the latest research to show how swearing can be good for you. With humor and colorful language, she explores every angle of swearing—why we do it, how we do it, and what it tells us about ourselves. Not only has some form of swearing existed since the earliest humans began to communicate, but it has been shown to reduce physical pain, to lower anxiety, to prevent physical violence, to help trauma victims recover language, and to promote human cooperation. Taking readers on a whirlwind tour through scientific experiments, historical case studies, and cutting-edge research on language in both humans and other primates, Byrne defends cursing and demonstrates how much it can reveal about different cultures, their taboos and their values. Packed with the results of unlikely and often hilarious scientific studies—from the “ice-bucket test” for coping with pain, to the connection between Tourette’s and swearing, to a chimpanzee that curses at her handler in sign language—Swearing Is Good for You presents a lighthearted but convincing case for the foulmouthed.

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Swearing Is Good for You: The Amazing Science of Bad Language – Emma Byrne

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Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Neighbors” Are the Best On-Screen Couple in Years

Mother Jones

When you think of the greatest on-screen couples in TV and cinema history, a handful of pairs jump to mind: Bergman and Bogart in Casablanca. Cusack and Skye in Say Anything Chandler and Britton on Friday Night Lights.

You can add Rogen and Byrne to the list.

In the new comedy Neighbors (directed by Nicholas Stoller), Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play Mac and Kelly Radner, a married couple struggling to adjust to a new era of parenthood. When a rowdy fraternity—led by Teddy Sanders (Zac Efron) and Pete Regazolli (Dave Franco)—moves in next door, the two houses go to war in hilarious fashion.

Although the film’s advertisements don’t make it look bad, necessarily, Neighbors is much smarter and emotionally deeper than its TV spots and trailers would have you believe. But what sets the movie over the top is the pairing of Rogen and Byrne. As the two plot and execute their campaign of revenge against the frat boys next door, their moments of scheming are infused equally with a delightful chemistry and a sense of strained, fumbled maturity.

And the reason this works so well is because the filmmakers didn’t treat the female lead as a comic prop or as some stereotypical wet blanket, as is the case with so many male-centric comedies: She’s as devious and committed as the boys. “From the start, they wanted to make my character very much a part of the story,” Byrne told the New York Times. “From Day 1, Nick Stoller, the film’s director and Seth were both like, ‘She’s as in on this as everybody else—and as irresponsible as everybody else.’ That was really exciting.”

You can catch glimpses of the Radners doing there thing here:

Their best scenes actually have nothing to do with plotting physical destruction against their neighbors. In one sequence, Kelly and Mac awake following a night of heavy drinking. A hungover Kelly goes to breastfeed their newborn, only to have Mac intervene, warning her that at this hour her breast milk would be like a “White Russian.” In pain from the excess milk, she orders Mac to milk her. The sequence, including the aftermath of the deed, is a thing of comic beauty—chaotic, appropriately horrifying, and just cute enough.

Anyway, the whole movie is very good. TheWrap calls it, “an instant classic.” Slate dubs it, “a surprisingly progressive take on bro privilege that still has lots of dick jokes.” I’m inclined to agree.

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Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Neighbors” Are the Best On-Screen Couple in Years

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