rib·ald/ˈribəld/
Adjective:
Referring to sexual matters in an amusingly rude or irreverent way.
Example:
“Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding”
― Betty White
This is, as my father's generation would offer, one funny broad.
For those who would like to repeat that analogy but might have a little problem with the R rated nature of the V word, though, I have an alternate suggestion.
Coming up right after this.
With every generation comes certain rites of passage. Benchmarks and/or milestones that, while inevitable, are only apparent as they are experienced.
Usually, these moments come in some form of "that was/this is'. Or as it has been phrased in a more pedestrian fashion, "in my day...".
And, again, in those cases, most often it's about music or art or movies or something/anything that brings into sharp and unavoidable focus the contrast between what "was" and what "is".
Believe it or not, for example, it was not so long ago that The Rolling Stones, for example, were considered to be Satan's own spawn and the music/presentation they offered was, in the eyes/ears of that generation's parents, almost certainly a one way ticket to eternal damnation.
Today, of course, the Stones are just some old guys who are fondly remembered by that generation and, at best, politely tolerated by today's generation.
Believe it or not, for example, it was not so long ago that sitcom characters could not share a bed, even if married. Check out any TV Land rerun of "The Dick Van Dyke Show" or, even "I Love Lucy" and you will see nary a double, let alone queen or king, bed to be found in said boudoir.
Today, of course, a sitcom featuring a robust rumpy pumpy requires nothing more than two individuals, regardless of gender, ready to ride whether they have a saddle or not.
Let alone a bed.
And believe it or not, it was not so long ago that the idea of skipping school for a day and wandering around the city in a "borrowed" car was considered such an outlaw adventure that an entire feature film portrayed just such an escapade, becoming a classic example of youthful rebellion.
Even going so far as to...wait for it....treat a snotty maitre'd with disrespect.
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off".
He was a righteous dude.
From my admittedly lofty, albeit Ben Gay scented, perch of elder statesman status, I reminisced today that I was an impressionable elementary school student growing up assuming that Rob and Laura and Ricky and Lucy were blissfully happy regardless of how much space they had to negotiate to procreate, a young teen in danger of losing my immortal soul by being in Sympathy For The Devil, via Mick and Keith and a young man with young kids of my own when Ferris and Cameron and Sloan made a ruin of Rooney with their adolescent antics.
And, now, here I am, still in relative possession of my faculties and bearing witness to a world filled with Kourtneys and Khloes and Kims (oh, my).
Not to mention Gagas and Sitches and Snookis. (on Donner and Blitzen).
Not to mention "Family Guy" that makes "The Simpsons" come off like "Ozzie and Harriet".
And chuckle though I might at the wisdom and obvious wit of the wonderful Ms. White, I believe, as mentioned earlier, I can offer up a more "family friendly" option for retelling the aforementioned ribaldry in such a raucous fashion.
Having been inspired, as it turns out, by fifty years, give or take, of witnessing the continued cultural pushing of the envelope.
To wit...
“Why do people say "grow some balls"? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow an envelope. Those things can take a pounding”
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