2. South Park: The Movie
Swear words can carry all sorts of power anyone whos seen Jules Winnifields wallet can tell you that. There are occasional times, such as when you stub your toe or when somebody has really annoyed you, that only a swear word will describe your situation adequately. And thats fantastic. Yet children have not yet been awakened to the big, terrible world of swearing. Some of them still think bum is a rude word, for gods sake. But then South Park: The Movie came out and the world was changed forever, with Trey Parker and Matt Stone teaching us a lesson in profanity. The reason they cut so loose on the swearing was as a big up-yours to the critics people were scared of what a South Park film would be, so they wanted to live down to the labels moral guardians had slapped upon them. So what we got was a huge barrage of swearing, and I guess thats fine if youre 15 or over, as you could probably appreciate the satire. But children have no real concept of satire, and to them the swearing was cool. Festooned with songs like Uncle F*cker, South Park broke down the barriers of swearing to a whole new generation of kids. Playgrounds were suddenly awash with children practicing the new swears theyd learnt from an animated show, and having great fun doing it. If you watched this film as a kid, youll understand what I mean.