By Simon Crerar
Seven words you cannot say in kindergarten? All the usual suspects, including shit and fuck, and one surprise: evolution.
With the warning that his film contains "foul language and political thought", New Zealand-born techie Nathan Torkington's humorous short satirises the ongoing creationism battles causing deep divisions in the US, where he now lives with his family.
Starring his own children swearing on camera, the film is a riff on comedian George Carlin's notorious Seven Dirty Words, prohibited from use on US broadcast media, aligning the controversy of censorious adults with the ongoing controversy of censoring evolution from school textbooks.
It has spawned what one poster describes as "seriously constipated, uptight responses" from bloggers who are concerned that Torkington may be exploiting his children by encouraging foul language. "A better word than cunt would have been twat," one person comments, "as it's a word that best describes their dad."
"Don't worry about our kids," retorts Torkington. "As far as I know, they have no idea what a "fuck" is, nor what it has to do with "mother", and I have no intention of telling them until they ask."
Torkington's wife Jenine Abarbane – who had been sleeping while her husband made the film – expressed surprise at the negative responses, querying whether anyone could really argue that society has been harmed by "Nat's silly video exercise".
The single use of fuck in Torkington's film leaves it some way short of the record 470 fucks in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth - that's 3.67 fucks a minute.
