What's Wrong With This Picture??

Happy 4th of July weekend, folks! This big firecracker is about to explode...

I joined thousands of other people this holiday weekend and went to see Will Smith's new movie, "Hancock." If you're at all a fan of superhero movies, I strongly encourage you to check this one out. I still felt a little empty at the end, but overall it was an enjoyable summer blockbuster.. running about 100 minutes, which is good for the season of OTHER superhero movies (I'm looking at you, Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton) that are running close to 2 hours and 15 minutes plus.

Anyway, I'm sitting in the theater with plenty of open seating when a couple and who I perceive was their young (8-10ish) daughter sat at the end of my row. Then the daughter scooted one seat closer to me and was sitting right beside me.

The movie starts, and I shit you not, I heard every possible swear word in the first 20 minutes of this movie with the exception of f*** and any form therein. And this little girl is laughing, either because she understands those words or because she was laughing along with the audience. She apparently thought it was funny that Will Smith was "pissed" when others called him an "asshole," and after saying "shit" for the second time so far, calling a woman a "bitch."

Now, for those of you who know me personally or just read this blog, you know that I have no problem with expletives. I will drop an f-bomb at a moment's notice if I think it gets my point across. I also have no problem whatsoever with a movie dropping however many expletives they like..though "Superbad" might have officially tired out the word "fuck." What I have a problem with is this family staying for the rest of the movie... or at least not doing their homework in seeing the movie is PG-13.

It's entirely possible they had a discussion about the language before or after the movie, but this girl now believes it's funny to say the word "shit." So, general populace, here's my deal... parents get all upset when children swear, but other parents have no problem exposing their children to that language. No, I'm not going up on my high-horse for this one... make a decision. Either decide NOT to expose your children to the language, or desensitize them to it so the words can become more commonplace and lose their meaning. Because THEN the FCC won't start fining people for every little "shit" that drops on TV. Let's face it... the 6 o'clock news would be a LOT more fun if anchors started describing "the angry-looking suspects caught on this surveillance tape" as "these cocky-looking motherfuckers who shot up some poor bitch at the convenience store." And it'd be a lot more fun for producers like me to write it.
-B-