Ass, bum, fart, pee

According to the BBC, former vicar was ejected from a school in Cornwall for using the above words in a talk to 12 year olds. GP Taylor, author of Shadowmancer, was on a nationwide tour promoting modern language.

Head teacher Mrs Barbera Vann:

He is a national novelist and I would expect him to be able to speak to young people without using that sort of language.

Quite right, too. “Ass” is American. He should have said “arse”. The poo-head.

UPDATE: Digital Spy has a different angle on the story. They claim that teachers ejected Taylor for making homophobic comments about Harry Potter: “he’s not the only gay in the village,” claimed the controversial cleric.

(Thanks to Andrew Nixon in the comments)


7 Responses to “Ass, bum, fart, pee”

  1. Adam Bowman says:

    If you’re in the Yorkshire area, you may have seen this guy being interviewed on Look North, by a newreader who seemed genuinely outraged by the idea that children! as young as 14! may have heard the word “fart”. She actually seemed to be taking that lovely attitude of spluttering, high-minded condemnation we all love so dearly. (The one that I always hear when I read a Mail editorial).

    This was followed by Harry Gration bellowing viewer’s texts about the whole St-Georges-cross-in-prison thing, including repeated references to Political Correctness Gone Mad.

    Thank God for the Liberal Media Elite.

  2. Monitor says:

    What alternative is there to the noun “fart”? What do people teach their children? It’s a perfectly good Anglo-Saxon term. If it was good enough for Chaucer…

  3. Marc says:

    The proper term is to be “flatulent” but there is no noun associated with it; I imagine it would be “flatulate” as in “Oooops, I flatulated again…”

    Or perhaps “flatussed”

    Na.

    I’m going with fart. Let ’em rip, Britney!

  4. G. Tingey says:

    Bring back Flanders and Swann!

    “Mummy’s out, Daddy’s out,
    Lets be rude!
    Pee, po, belly, bum, DRAWERS!”

    Oh dearie dearie me, can’t these puritans go and stick their heads in the nearest available pig, please?

  5. Adam Tjaavk says:

    I think I’m right in saying that ‘fart’ is even far older than Anglo-Saxon, being traced back to Proto-Aryan – Sanskrit has ‘pard’. Like the American ‘ass’ for ‘arse, ‘pee’ is also euphemistic.

    _

  6. Andrew Nixon says:

    They just said bum and pee on the radio 2 news. I’m writing my complaint letter now!

  7. Andrew Nixon says:

    There may be more to this story than meets the eye. See this article:

    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds25003.html