What the actual f–k?
Despite all the curses spewed at every delayed subway and rat scurrying out of the trash in our own city, New York itself doesn’t even make the top 15 of the most foul-mouthed states, according to a new study published by the word wizards at WordTips.
In fact, New York State only hit the damn list at number 17. (Seventeen!)
Researchers analyzed 1.7 million English-language geotagged tweets and calculated the share of posts containing swear words by X users to determine where the most expletive-launching speakers live.
More shocking: New York City didn’t even rank in the top 50 most swear-happy cities. Buffalo, of all dumbass places, landed at No. 23 on that list, making it the most foul-mouthed town in the Empire State.
Meanwhile, the study determined that the rowdy residents of Baltimore, Maryland, spew the most profanity. Should Charm City be renamed Cuss City?
Those down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Atlanta, Georgia, came in second and third, respectively, followed by Detroit, Michigan, and Houston, Texas.
But, my heavens, the polite people of Lexington, Kentucky, sure have a reason to cheer: They were found to swear the least of all US cities, by golly.
Well, bless their hearts.
Maryland beat everyone to top the potty-mouthed states list, followed by Louisiana and Georgia (57.4).
Overall, though, the US ranked as the world’s most potty-mouthed country — hell, yeah, we’re number one! — with the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada following behind.
English speakers sure love some profanity.
“It used to be that the only media you could consume was highly edited,” Benjamin Bergen,
author of “What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves,” told the swear masters at WordTips regarding the new normalization of trash talk.
“With social media, all of a sudden now, we have direct access to people’s informal language. If we have
access to people’s informal communication and it includes more profanity, that just means we’re
going to be exposed to more of it and that’s going to normalize it, and so people have become
inured.”
And which curse words do Americans actually prefer?
Overall, the word “s–t” seems to be the s–t with 15 states — mostly on the East Coast — using the swear word most often.
But those on the West Coast prefer a good, ol’ f-bomb, with 13 states using it the most when strongly expressing themselves.
Now, cut the s–t — maybe New Yorkers aren’t so f–king rude after all.
