Smut, Innuendo and Double entendre

No, not a gag about an Englishman, an Italian and a Frenchman, but a blog post inspired by a comment left in the Chatbox by BooBunny - an all-round good egg, and a forum friend of mine. Anyone who knows me from the forums of Digital Spy might know I can be a teeny bit of a smutbucket sometimes, and it suddenly occurred to me that I haven't yet blogged about the topic. I don't know whether any of you readers had noticed or not, but I'm a big fan of smut and innuendo in general, and the double entendre in particular. It brings a little harmless fun to life, and since I like language in general, to fashion ambiguously suggestive humour out of words amuses me. It's probably not big or clever, but I like it and it's part of my general 'style'. If you don't like it, then you're probably reading the wrong blog.

A quick google found me the dictionary definitions of the word 'smut':

1. A black colloidal substance consisting wholly or principally of amorphous carbon and used to make pigments and ink.
2. Destructive diseases of plants (especially cereal grasses) caused by fungi that produce black powdery masses of spores.
3. Any fungus of the order Ustilaginales.
4. An offensive or indecent word or phrase.
5. Creative activity (writing or pictures or films, etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire.

I guess numbers 4 and 5 might apply to the context here, although I sincerely hope nothing I've ever written is offensive to anyone. A creative activity is exactly how I see it, though to stimulate sexual desire isn't my aim at all - I just want to raise a titter, an eyebrow, a knowing smirk.

The word 'innuendo' is in itself pleasing to me. I don't use it in its legal sense of course, but it's double entendre-ic one. Frankie Howerd might have been a very different kettle of fish to me (believe me, he definitely was!) but his expertise in the application of the double entendre and innuendo was, for me, admirable.

'Up Pompeii' was a tv comedy of the early 1970s (for the uninitiated, it was set in ancient Rome, where Mr Howerd played a slave named Lurcio. His master was named Ludicrus Sextus, the master's wife was Ammonia, their children were Nausius and Erotica and the whole ensemble were sexually busy - which gave Lurcio the perfect fodder for his pun- and double entendre-filled monologues to camera). If I happen to see a repeat, I still snigger childishly. I should add here, that I didn't see the original series when it was broadcast as I was a youngster tucked up in bed, so have only ever seen the repeats; but I know my parents used to watch it, and can still recall hearing my dad's laughter whilst he watched. I suspect it's one of those tv programmes one either loves or hates, but personally speaking the sharp and fast wit (with a smutty slant) appeal to me.

The accidental double entendre is one of the funniest (though perhaps also the crudest) of the whole genre. I googled and found oodles of them, here are just four from the world of sport commentry (apologies if you've seen them before):

Pat Glen, commentating on weightlifting (which is not, ordinarily my idea of fun): "And this is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning and it was amazing!"Harry Carpenter, commentating on the Boat Race: "Ah, isn't that nice? The wife of the Cambridge President is kissing the Cox of the Oxford Crew". Mike Hallet, talking about snooker on Sky Sports: "Steven Hendry jumps on Steve Davis's misses every chance he gets". Ken Brown, commentating on golf (and for those who don't know, Nick Faldo used to employ a caddy by the name of Fanny Sunneson): "Some weeks Nick likes to use Fanny, other weeks he prefers to do it by himself".

So many words ... so much scope for playing with them to produce silly, smuttily ambiguous sentences designed to make folks laugh. Of course much of the humour is only there if you're either looking for it, or have the necessary warped mindset in the first place, so perhaps I sometimes mistakenly perceive it where it was never intended? Perhaps it's a peculiarly British characteristic? According to Wiki, the acceptance [in Britain] of saucy and smutty humour may be related to our "historical reaction to the intolerance of Puritanism". I must admit, I hadn't ever considered the possibility of a theological connection to our humour, although Monty Python married the two beautifully in 'The Life of Brian'. Which, I think, is a nice way to end this post - a bit of innuendo from 'The Life of Brian'. Switch off the mp3 player if you will and have a little giggle:-

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