Tonight, I re-watched the classic family comedy Meet the Parents with my wife. Or, at least, I re-watched most of it.
In my memory, it was the cat jokes and the tense relationship between Ben Stiller and Robert DiNiro that I remembered and stuck with me in this comedy about how awkward it can be to meet your future in-laws. I was shocked at how casually a PG-13-rated comedy tossed around foul language, however.
My wife and I have a three-strike rule. We’ll tolerate most cursing, but if the movie takes the name of God in a curse, we’ll only tolerate it two times. On the third use, it goes off… right away, no matter how close the end may be. It’s a reasonable rule of thumb that works well for us.
Meet the Parents didn’t make it the whole way, but what struck me was how casually it was inserted, in situations where such a strong expression wasn’t even motivated. Now, I’m not saying that Hollywood should ban all cursing, but as writers, are we really that limited these days in our vocabulary?
I hope not. Whether it’s drama or comedy, I hope there are still writers out there who have the golf balls to avoid the easy way out and find a better way for characters to express frustration in a real and believable way, without muddying up what otherwise is a chaste and wholesome family comedy like Meet the Parents.
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