Country Matters



"If you see Kay

Tell him to-day

See you in tea

Tell him from me"

- James Joyce, Ulysses

Let's not beat around the bush. This is an article about the word "cunt."

Specifically, how (at least in North American works) it's the one word nobody ever uses unless they want to break someone down and in the process make themselves look like a total and complete Jerkass. Even shows comfortable with using other swear words hesitate to use it, and Internet filters sometimes block other words that happen to inadvertently contain it. Also known as "the C word". In North America, it is among the worst insults in the English language. It's virtually always used to express bitter, mocking contempt, and is more likely to be directed at women than at men. Calling someone this doesn't mean you think the person is subhuman slime; it means that you think that comparing him or her to subhuman slime is a grievous insult to subhuman slime. Considering that the word's literal meaning is simply "female genitalia," the extremely negative connotations attached to "cunt" have Unfortunate Implications. Fortunately, another word, "pussy," exists as a slang word for that female anatomy which also has the benefit of sounding relatively cute and innocent.

In other English-speaking countries, it's nowhere near as mind-blowingly offensive (but still a strong expletive) and it's generally unisex or (as in Britain) mainly directed at men, being something like a stronger version of "asshole". In some situations (ie. among young Glaswegians or Australians) it might even be a term of affection. See Trainspotting where it's not a word, it's a punctuation mark; it's also likely to be practically a catchphrase for any London Gangster. Other languages can have similar uses for the word. In the Dutch language, in particular, it's considered mostly harmless: you're having a cunt day when there's cunt weather outside and the cunt dog ate your cunt homework, which is, as the Dutch say with heartfelt compassion, "cunt for you". . Strangely in French speaking countries the word "con" means simply "fucking idiot" and is a mild insult only. (that helps that almost nobody uses it in a sexual meaning)

When the two meanings combine, you can end up with some major Values Dissonance - for instance, the Englishman who can't understand why his Canadian friend just broke his nose; after all, he was only having a larf, right?

Also see T-Word Euphemism.

Advertising

 * Back when they could actually run cigarette commercials on television and radio, the Salem brand had a jingle, "You can take Salem out of the country, but... You can't take the country out of Salem." The singer (female) always pronounced country as "cunt-tree", and when they ran the jingle more than once, it always ended on "but..."

Anime and Manga
"Revy: Listen closely Rock. I'm about to light up like a goddamn firecracker, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. When that happens, it's pretty much over. I'm not even gonna warn you before I give you a second asshole. When she decided to use that shell on me, she made a big fucking mistake. I'm gonna make that bitch wish she was still home cleaning shitty toilets. It's time to go teach this fucking cunt the meaning of pain."
 * Black Lagoon's dub has the word used only once during the Roberta arc, as Revy is preparing for her one-on-one battle with Roberta.


 * In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, there's a scene where a man on a nearly empty train is trash talking his girlfriend, and in some translations, the word "cunt" is used. This is arguably
 * In Seitokai Yakuindomo, Shino tries to teach Tsuda the meaning of the English phrase "dry eyes" by writing "ma_ko aren't getting wet" on the chalkboard. It's supposed to be filled in "manako" (eyes), but it looks a lot like the censored form of "manko" (see Real Life below).
 * In one Fullmetal Alchemist scanlation, Olivier Armstrong gets called a "cunt" by a Central Command general.

Comicbooks
"In England, the word "cunt" is punctuation."
 * There's a Y the Last Man comic where the leader of the Amazons gets called "cunt" by a girl she's taken prisoner and calmly explains the origins of the word and claims its origins don't justify how it has come to be used as the most offensive swear in the English language... Then, after the girl calls her a bitch, she orders Hero to kill the girl.
 * She also goes on a weird rant about how "Only in America" could it come to have that meaning, and claims that in Britain the word isn't particularly offensive. This is inaccurate.
 * Probably to show how batshit insane she was.
 * Garth Ennis has no problem with the word, especially in The Boys, where the first line of dialogue in the series is a protagonist saying, with regards to superheroes, "I’m gonna fucking have you. You cunts."
 * Not to mention the "Kitchen Irish" arc of The Punisher, which featured an aging Irish gangster who threw the word around like it was confetti.
 * In one issue of Power Girl Satanna can be seen wearing a shirt that says "CU Next Tues" in a flashback, making it a case of Getting Crap Past the Radar.
 * Warren Ellis's viciously accurate historical comic Crecy features this gem;


 * In Savage Dragon, two superwomen named Rapture and She-Dragon fought each other for reasons that aren't important here. Rapture manages to get as far as "You stupid cu -" before she is cutoff mid-sentence.

Fan Fics
"Ryan Lee: Some people need to realize that you do not use the C word unless you're among the 1% of the school that's looking for a fight, even if you are being possessed by a demon at the time."
 * Pretty Cure Hollywood Stars has its sole instance of the word courtesy of Cure Western. Shortly after her friend gets offed by Scratch, she channels Hit-Girl and says, "OK, you cunt, let's see what you can do now!" Notable as one of few times in any Pretty Cure series (canon or fanmade) the word is ever used explicitly instead of merely alluded to or as a Curse Cut Short; see below for another instance.
 * Futari wa Pretty Cure Dragon has the martial arts club leader (who is being possessed by one of the villains at the time, mind you) at Ichiban High (a girls' school) call Ryan Lee a cunt. Big mistake. Ryan does not take kindly to that term being thrown at him or his friends, and he punches her halfway across the room for the effort. He later notes that he's an equal opportunity fighter if someone pisses him off enough and that he'd never use such a word as that:


 * In Naruto Veangance Revelaitons, Ronan and several of the other characters repeatedly refer to women this ways, ranging from as an insult to a term of endearment. When vaginas aren't called "pussies," this term is used.
 * In Fuck the Jesus Beam, the author refers to readers this way, but it turns out that it stands for "Cool Understanding Never Terrorizing Superpeople".

Film
"Ken: Harry, you're a cunt. You've always been a cunt, and you'll always be a cunt. And the only way you're gonna change is you're gonna become more of a cunt. Maybe have some more cunt kids.
 * In The Hangover 2, during the bachelor "brunch", Phil calls Stu's ex-girlfriend Melissa "a cunt." This resulting in Phil getting dirty looks for the other customers.
 * The transsexual woman Stu has drunken sex with calmly states while revealing her true nature: "This is Bangkok, not Bangcunt"
 * In P 2, the antagonist, demonstrating just how insane he is, decides that the best time to use this insult is when the woman he's been terrorizing all night is walking away with his taser after cuffing him to a wrecked car that's leaking gasoline. Predictably, this is the final straw that provokes her into using the taser to ignite the gasoline.
 * In an HBO Original Movie about the Mike Tyson rape case, Mike uses this word during a fight with his girlfriend, who then proceeds to denounce him on national TV in the very next scene. Don King notes while watching the TV footage that "You must have called her the C-word."
 * In the British film "Nil By Mouth" Ray Winstone's character can not go more than three or four sentences without referring to someone else as a cunt.
 * Kill Bill Volume Two: averted. Bill uses it at the end, when,
 * In the TV broadcast, humorously, the last word is altered to "sore-head."
 * It's also used in Volume One by Buck, the scumbag rapist orderly, in telling his latest "customer" about the Bride's spitting tendencies, unaware that she's just come out of her coma, just a few minutes before both of them get what's coming to them in a big way.
 * Also in Volume One, the Bride mentions that she can still "see the faces of the cunts that did this to [her], and the dicks responsible"
 * In District 9, a movie which drops Cluster F Bombs all over the place due to most of its dialogue being improvised, has the word "cunt" used twice, both by The Dragon Koobus, and both of which are used to refer to prawns he is persecuting.
 * In Memento, Natalie finally gets Leonard to snap and punch her when she refers to his dead wife with the word.
 * Mrs. Lintott uses the word to describe the headmaster in The History Boys. It's notable in a show that flings other curse words around a lot, this is the only time the word is used.
 * Gay Perry in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: "He called her a... Well, a bad name. (Beat) 'Cunt'."
 * In Bruges gives us this gem:

Harry: Leave my kids fucking out of it! What have they done?! You fucking retract that bit about my cunt fucking kids!

Ken: I retract that bit about your cunt fucking kids."

""Sorry about the cunt at reception.""
 * Clarice Starling's first visit to Hannibal Lecter is made even more unpleasant when one of the other patients snarls "I can smell your cunt!" at her. She then repeats those exact words to Hannibal when prompted.
 * Kick-Ass: Said by Hit Girl to a room full of criminals ("OK, you cunts, let's see what you can do now!"). Given she was a 12-year old, Moral Guardians everywhere rioted.
 * Being John Malkovich uses it twice in close succession.

"Ed: Can I get any of you cunts a drink?"
 * Used to refer to Jim in 28 Days Later.
 * In a female-insulting-a-male example, Amber Sweet of Repo! The Genetic Opera calls her brother Luigi this during the song "Mark It Up." (The same song also features a slight cluster F-bomb in the opening.)
 * "I don't take lip from a cunt!"
 * This gets Kristen Wiig's character fired from her job in Bridesmaids.
 * Ed from Shaun of the Dead uses the affectionate version, but it's very jarring and used to illustrate what an obnoxious oaf he is.

"Playground girl: You were only in Seventeen once, and you looked fat! So stop acting like you're goddamn Christy Turlington!
 * There's a semi-affectionate female-to-male usage early in the Australian horror film Primal. Then Mel, the female in question, teases Anja for her aversion to the word, trying to get her to say it. And indeed, "Cunt" ends up being the film's last line of dialogue, said as a Post Mortem One Liner by Anja after killing.
 * Used in a startling way in American Beauty:

Angela: Cunt! I am so sick of people taking their insecurities out on me."

"Edgar: What words can we say on American TV?
 * Mel Gibson is officially the first person to ever drop a C bomb in a PG-rated movie (unsurprising, as it was the 1990 film adaptation of Hamlet). The line in question was the Trope Namer ("Do you think I meant Country Matters?").
 * Ryan Reynolds in Blade: Trinity: "You cock-juggling, thundercunt!" (Trying to decide if that was a Crowning Moment of Awesome or a Crowning Moment of Funny).
 * Twenty Four Hour Party People introduces Joy Division with a scene where Ian Curtis repeatedly calls Tony Wilson a cunt.
 * Inverted in Hot Fuzz, when a Swear Jar is shown. Each swear is given various rates, while some letters are replaced by Symbol Swearing. Except the word with the highest rate, Cunt.
 * In the extra features, Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost are on a promotional tour for Hot Fuzz. They're about to do a TV interview.

Nick: Cunt. (beat) Shit-cunt. (degrades into Cluster F-Bomb)"

"Oliver Queenan: Do you know what we do here? My section?
 * "Well, that's all right, then, Einstein. Sit down. Have a scone. Make yourself at home. You CUNT! You stupid, bird-brained, flat-headed--"
 * The Departed

Billy Costigan: Sir, yes, sir. I have an idea...

Dignam: [interrupting] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's say you have no idea and leave it at that, okay? No idea. Zip. None. If you had an idea of what we do, we would not be good at what we do, now would we? We would be cunts. Are you calling us cunts?

Oliver Queenan: Staff Sergeant Dignam has a style of his own. I'm afraid we all have to get used to it."


 * Amadeus has the word "cunt" yelled audibly when Schikaneder confronts Mozart after discovering he's been writing a requiem instead of the vaudeville he had assigned him. Even in the PG-rated theatrical version.

Literature
"I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
 * Pops up in The Canterbury Tales, where it's spelled "queynte". An old Anglo-Saxon word.
 * Andrew Marvell takes advantage of this archaic spelling to pun on "quaint" in "To His Coy Mistress" ("...then worms shall try/That long-preserved virginity,/And your quaint honor turn to dust...").
 * Pretty much a Berserk Button for Stephanie Plum.
 * In the Smith and Jones book based on the 1980s British comedy series, there's a mock front page of The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in the style of a modern British tabloid, which includes a correction notice apologizing for the misspelling of King Cnut's name and assuring readers that the editor responsible has been fired. "Stupid cnut."
 * In Ian McEwan's novel Atonement (and the film adaptation), Robbie uses the word twice in a short, obscene love letter which is accidentally delivered to Cecilia, the object of his affection. One thing leads to another, and in the end it doesn't turn out well for either of them...
 * One of the tracks on the film's soundtrack makes a subtle reference to it--the track's name: "Cee, You And Tea"
 * Its inclusion in Lady Chatterleys Lover was a major issue in the Penguin Books obscenity trial of 1963. A much more recent BBC play about the trial included an uncensored reading of the passages in question. Post-watershed, naturally.
 * The Good-Morrow, by 17th century metaphysical poet John Donne:

Did, till we loved? were we not weaned till then,

But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?

Or snorted we in the seven sleepers' den?"

"See you when tea is hot!"
 * In Robert Anton Wilson's Masks of the Illuminati, a repressed man is repeatedly mocked by otherworldly spirits - one of their favourite jibes:


 * From George RR Martin's A Dance with Dragons: "Cunt again? It was odd how men like Suggs used that word to demean women when it was the only part of a woman they valued."

Live-Action TV
"McNulty: You know something? My ex-wife, the way she acts sometimes, the way she deals with shit.... You would think a less enlightened man than myself, cruder man than myself, a man less sensitized to the qualities and charms and value of women, a man like that; not me, but a man like that: he just might call her a cunt.
 * The first recorded instance of the C-word on live British TV (or the whole world for that matter) was on ITV's The Frost Programme on 7 November 1970, when Felix Dennis let one slip. Here's the uncut video.
 * There was a classic Monty Python sketch about a man who pronouces all his 'C's as 'B's. At the end of the sketch the other man suggests he try spelling these words with a 'K' instead, leading the first man to observe "What a silly bunt." This actually got the BBC into a lot of trouble.
 * Curb Your Enthusiasm has an episode where Larry David's use of it during a poker game causes an effeminate acquaintance to have a slow motion nervous breakdown. Made all the funnier when David later mentioned in retrospect, he "should've said pussy".
 * And let's not forget
 * Marty Funkhauser's joke he tells Jerry Seinfeld
 * Susie in "The Grand Opening": "Fuck you, you carwash cunt! I had a dental appointment!"
 * The Sopranos, series 2, has a scene where Tony applies it to Big Pussy's wife, causing Carmella to stop him mid-sentence and shut him up.
 * This show doesn't shy away from this trope in general. Two particularly memorable examples are as follows: Uncle Junior, a by-definition old geezer, breaks his hip in the shower and exclaims "YOUR SISTER'S CUNT!"
 * In another case, Christopher gets to go on a movie set and suggests a curse word alternative to bitch - pucchiacha. When asked what it means, he simply deadpans: "Cunt."
 * The Wire has a scene where its use causes Stringer Bell, a drug dealer and multiple murderer, to stop in his tracks and look shocked. The full line: "Oh fuck the meet! You harder to get at than my fat wife's cunt, nigger!"
 * On a different occasion from the same show.

Greggs: You just called the mother of your children a cunt.

McNulty: No, I did not call her that.

Greggs: Yes you fucking did!

McNulty: No, I did not! Let's just leave this, I've got some stuff to do."

"Michael: Get rid of the Seaward.
 * Thirty Rock: an episode appropriately titled "The C Word" centered around Liz being called this and freaking out. The word was never actually spoken, but a supporting character played by Rachel Dratch screamed "Runt!" whenever it was about to be spoken. It Makes Sense in Context.
 * Averted in a future episode, in which Kenneth says to Liz, "You're acting like a real C-word right now! That's right -- a Cranky Sue!"
 * In Arrested Development, Tobias was interrupted when arguing with his wife by his daughter: "You selfish count...ry music loving lady!"
 * In addition, the name of the family yacht was The Seaward. It's not pronounced to rhyme with steward.

Mother: I will leave when I'm good and ready."

"Emmett: Well I may be a silly faggot, but you know something Mel? You're a Cunt."
 * Of course, Gob's new yacht is actually called The C-Word. Come on!
 * It shows up a few times in Queer As Folk, mostly fairly casually, but in one case, it was enough to end a friendship.

"Naomi: * walking away from Cook while giving him the finger* "See you next time!""
 * There's an episode of CSI where the B-plot involves the victim being killed in a case of "road rage" after striking back at the driver who used "that word." The word is, of course, muted in the flashback depicting the incident. As Catherine and Sara are the ones going over the case, they don't use it themselves; Sara just says, "I hate that word."
 * Dexter:
 * "An Inconvenient Lie." Dexter has a serial rapist car salesman bound up on his table; the killer's trying to buy time by picking through Dexter's mind, eventually calling his girlfriend, Rita, a cunt. Dexter, who claims to be completely emotionless, responds by driving a knife into the guy's chest with great force. "DON'T! (Stab)...talk that way about my girlfriend."
 * In season 4 Arthur loves this, using it against his wife,, and a random barfly.
 * Season 3, Debra to Yuki: "You're really a cunt, aren't you?", or something along those lines.
 * For How I Met Your Mother Word of God says this is the word Narrator Ted changes to "grinch" when talking to his kids.
 * Skins has no qualms about the use of the word ("DON'T YOU DARE USE 'CUNT' AND 'OXFAM' IN THE SAME SENTENCE!"), but still couldn't resist the temptation to go with a Fun With Acronyms version at least once.

"Emily: "Cook, any chance you could go and be a cunt over there?""
 * And later that same episode, the show demonstrated that it still knows how to use the word to shock.

""Tucker's Law: If some cunt can fuck something up, that cunt will pick the worst possible time to fucking fuck it up because that cunt's a cunt! I've got that embroidered on a tea towel at home.""
 * The Thick of It is full of Cluster F Bombs, and the writers aren't afraid of Country Matters either. In one episode an eight-year-old girl is accidentally sent an email reading "Christ, who is this cunt?" and Hilarity Ensues. In another episode spin doctor Malcolm Tucker receives a birthday cake iced with "Happy Birthday C* nt".

"Jamie MacDonald: "Well, if it isn't Humpty Numpty, sitting on top of a collapsing wall like some clueless... egg... CUNT!"
 * The film Spin-Off, In the Loop, turns the use of the word into an artform:

Malcolm Tucker: "Y'know, I've come across a lot of psychos, but none as fucking boring as you. You are a real boring fuck! ...Sorry, sorry, I know you disapprove of swearing so I'll sort that out. You are a boring F-star-star-CUNT!""

"Mark: "Fuck off out of my house, you miserable Scottish cunt!""
 * The actor who plays Tucker, Peter Capaldi, is known for being exceptionally good at delivering the C-word. In an ad for MacMillan Cancer Support he talked about cancer as "Not my usual Big C".
 * And, when the last two shows combined and Peter Capaldi met Skins...

"Calamity Jane: It's only WILD BILL HICKOCK you got stranded here in the muck! Y'ignorant fuckin' cunts."
 * Sex and The City features prissy Charlotte using the euphemistic version--while having her friends try on bridesmaid dresses, she objects to Samantha's efforts to raise the hem line--"No! I don't want anyone to see your... see you next tuesday"
 * The United States of Tara: One of Tara's alters defaces one of the murals she had been working on with "Die Yuppie Cunt". When Marshall and Kate discuss which alter did it, they repeat the word. A lot.
 * Copious usage in Deadwood.
 * Noteworthy, in that the first use of this word in the show is within ten minutes of the very first episode, and by a woman, at that.

"Jerry: Well, of course there's a God.
 * In the pilot of True Blood, Denise Rattray, a trashy dealer of vampire blood, spews it out to the main character, who in turn drawls "That just proves how low-rent you really are".
 * Debbie and Pam drop the C-bomb a couple times too.
 * Spartacus Blood and Sand is not afraid to use this word as a part of being Darker and Edgier retelling of the story.
 * House: Cameron, of all people, gets away with the "see you next Tuesday" variant, though It Makes Sense in Context--this is during Chase's attempts at courtship by saying he likes her once a week; the line's delivery didn't suggest the hidden meaning, but the euphemism is not hidden.
 * All things considered, it was probably inevitable that Gene Hunt would turn out to be known in underworld circles as "Hunt the --" * disapproving glare*
 * Dead Like Me has Delores Herbig using the "see you next Tuesday" variety, IIRC.
 * Louis C.K.'s HBO sitcom Lucky Louie has this exchange come up in an argument about the existence of God:

Rich: What proof is there of that?

Jerry: Well, what do you think made you, asshole?

Rich: The fuck does that mean?

Jerry: Where'd you come from?

Rich: My mother's cunt.

Jerry: Okay, well where'd she come from?

'Rich: Her mother's cunt. And her mother's cunt before that. And it goes back like that from cunt to cunt to cunt to cunt all the way back until eventually you get to that slimy fish with no legs.

Jerry: Okay, well where'd the fish come from?

Rich: His legless mother's cunt. You see, everything and everybody comes from their mother's cunt.

Jerry: Well, uh, with all these cunts, I mean, they had to come from somewhere. Well, where'd they come from?

Rich: I guess they all come from one big giant cunt.

Jerry: Yeah-- and that's God!"

"Karen: (to Lorraine) Hit the road, you syphillitic toad.
 * One episode involved the word more prominently when Louie and Kim have a fight, things get heated, and he calls her a cunt. Obviously, she shuts down and refuses to talk to him, and he ends up accidentally calling her a cunt again, twice, during his apology.
 * Will and Grace: Almost said by Karen, unsurprisingly:

Lyle: Karen, if there's one thing I will not tolerate, it's rhyming insults.

Lorraine: Sow.

Karen: Cow.

Lorraine: Runt.

Lyle: (to Karen, who is very clearly about to say something starting with "C") Stop it!"

"Pierce: (referring to Shirley) Well, I guess now we know what the C in Captain stands for ...
 * In an episode of Penn and Teller Bullshit on Profanity, it's the only word even the anti-censorship commentators are hesitant to say. Most of them do, but radio host Mancow refuses, claiming his wife will kill him.
 * On the other hand, there seems to be some implied use of it as immediately after the stream of the word "cunt" it cuts to a scene of the main opponent of the matter for the episode, a woman.
 * Averted: Caprice Bourret used it live on daytime television while discussing The Vagina Monologues without any uproar at all.
 * Similarly, Jane Fonda blurted out on The Today Show how she offered to do a monologue titled "Cunt" and nothing came of it... except for the guy on the seven-second delay likely having an aneurysm.
 * The BBC had to be astonishingly careful when discussing the word on the Oxford English Dictionary Word Hunt show Balderdash And Piffle, including Content Warnings both before and during the show. (It aired pre-Watershed.) It sought out the etymology of various words. One episode explored 'cunt' in some depth.
 * It carries less stigma in Britain, of course, but one episode of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue had Stephen Fry describe "countryside" as "the act of murdering Piers Morgan."
 * "Dirty" Den on Eastenders once failed to Get Crap Past The Radar when the actor left rather too long a pause in the middle of addressing a PC as "constable" - there's a fine art in getting the insult noticeable but not blatant. Try it at home, kids!
 * In An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder, while speaking in London, Kevin talks about the difference between saying the C-word in England (Right on, mate!), and saying it in America (Ugh. Cunt?).
 * At a Mystery Science Theater 3000 convention, Trace Beaulieu almost referred to Kim Cattrall with the word, but caught himself halfway through. His censored version also showed up on an actual MST3K episode.
 * British comedian Will Smith (not the Hollywood actor) hosted a documentary called The C Word: How We Came to Swear By It.
 * Averted in the Community episode "Beginner Pottery":

(everyone gasps)

Pierce: ... crabapple!"

"Alisha: Shut up you chav.
 * Nathan uses it relatively often in Misfits, frequently when he's chatting up a girl (his seduction techniques are notoriously terrible). The pilot episode also features this argument between two girls:

Kelly: If you call me a chav one more time, I'll kick you so hard in the cunt your mum will feel it."

"Nathan: *points at Simon* The Invisible Cunt!
 * And the season 2 finale, when the boys are discussing what their super-hero names should be:

Simon: Why am I the Invisible Cunt?

Nathan: You just are, man. Get used to it."

"Chas: His name's easy. Rhymes with my favorite word. In fact, we used to call him Hunt the-"
 * HBO's Rome loves this word, frequently combining it with Roman blasphemy ("Juno's cunt!") Justified in that ancient Roman curses were almost entirely scatological and the equivalent of "cunt" was one of the milder ones.
 * Showtime's Californication has a scene where an obnoxious party attendant calls Karen a cunt and even presses his luck with her in front of Hank Moody (Catch You Next Tuesday). Hank then causally walks up to the man and in the words of Les Grossman, punches him in the face really f'in hard.
 * Saturday Night Live had a sketch about music executives trying to get Cee-Lo Green's single "Fuck You" changed so it can air on TV (as "fuck," like "cunt," is one of the seven words you can't say on TV). One of the executives (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) calls a female censor a "...world-class Country Strong." (Also counts as a Incredibly Lame Pun and a Title Drop to the Gwyneth Paltrow movie of the same name).
 * In Life On Mars, Irish suspect O'Brien asks whether Gene Hunt is rhyming slang. What for is discreetly left out.
 * Which makes for a great Brick Joke in episode 1.06 of Ashes to Ashes, where a character demonstrates:

"Bronn: There's no cure for being a cunt."
 * On RuPaul's Drag Race, the drag queens are encouraged to display their Creativity, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent.
 * In Game of Thrones one of our early signs that Joffrey Baratheon is in fact a Complete Monster is when he uses this term to refer to Arya Stark.
 * Bronn isn't a terribly bad guy (Only in It For The Money at least) but he makes his opinion of Joffery quite clear in "Garden of Bones":

"Asha: Are you the dumbest cunt alive?"
 * Asha Greyjoy unleashes an awesome Cluster C-Bomb as she verbally bitchslaps her dumbass brother Theon in front of all his troops:

"Kendall: Oh, well if it isn't Little Miss Teen Getaway. Your dad and I were just dealing with a little trouble.
 * Played with in Veronica Mars, episode "Look Who's Stalking":

Veronica: Like, trouble with a capital "T", that rhymes with "C", that stands for...

Keith: Veronica!

Veronica: What? I was going to say "cute.""


 * A recurring segment on This Hour Has 22 Minutes is “Computer Corner”, in which Gunter Wilson teaches the audience about computers despite knowing virtually nothing about them. One sketch dealt with Instant Messaging and Gunter used several abbreviations including an unfortunate one for “See you next Tuesday.” The audience doesn’t see the abbreviation but the implication is clear.

Music
"Go to a vagina orchard
 * Parodied in Kevin Bloody Wilson's song You Can't Say Cunt In Canada.
 * Averted with Anal Cunt, obviously.
 * Not really, as the band is more commonly known by the acronym A.C.
 * Guns N' Roses' Greatest Hits album includes a Precision F-Strike in "Since I Don't Have You" ("Yeah, we're fucked!"), but their Cover Version of the Dead Boys' "Ain't It Fun" has the radio version due to the line "Ain't it fun when you tell her she's just a cunt?". It also shows up in "Bad Obsession", with the verse "I call my mother/She's just a cunt now/Said I'm sick in the head".
 * Used as part of a pun in Bo Burnham's I'm Bo, Yo showing that he's not afraid to be offensive and brash.

Count 1-2-3

Spin that plant around

You've got a third world country."

"I've [done something evil or disgusting] and I've [something else, etc]; so what, so what, you boring little cunt?"
 * The Death! Death! Die! song "Kiss of Poseidon" has a series of PG-13 verses regarding women of rather indiscriminate affections, which each chorus is simply the repeated phrase "Cause you're a cunt! A stupid cunt! Such a stupid cunt! Yeah!"
 * The song "In My Country" by the Lemon Sisters features a female singer entreating lonely sailors to come and visit her country. That is, the nation in which she lives. For some reason, she keeps pausing in the middle of words.
 * In his song "Dr. Stephen", Stephen Lynch sings about being a gynecologist. After spending the entire song tap-dancing around this trope with last second word swaps and euphemisms, he announces that he "could never say "cunt" to an audience".
 * This Fantastic Four Filk where Sue Richards-nee-Storm redefines the phrase "country mile" thanks to her Fantastic elastic husband Reed.
 * Shooter Jennings (son of Waylon) titled his first album Put The 'O' Back In Country. Not a Toby Keith fan, we're thinking.
 * In the Sex Pistols song "Pretty Vacant", guess how Johhny Rotten pronounces the last syllable of the title?
 * And Sid Vicious' version of Frank Sinatra's My Way changed the line, "My friend, I'll say it clear", to "You cunt, I'm not a queer".
 * Last-Second Word Swap in the Emilie Autumn song "Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches": "Hell-o to the surgeon with scalpel old and blunt/ he'll tie you to the table and he'll mutilate your/ come, it's nearly teatime ..."
 * TISM's song 'I might be a cunt, but I'm not a fucking cunt.' Amusingly, early in the song they promise, 'I might have screwed your sister, but I'll never screw your mum...' only to declare at the end, 'I mightn't tell the truth all the time, hey, but what's your mum's number?'
 * One of the verses from The Police's song "Rehumanize Yourself" is "Billy's joined the National Front/He was always a little runt/He's got his hand in the air with the other cunts/You've got to humanize yourself".
 * The Anti-Nowhere League, So What:
 * The Anti-Nowhere League, So What:

""Who invited Steve? That Steve is a cunt!""
 * The Lonely Island Just 2 Guyz

""I like my friend. He's a real guy's guy. He's not a loudmouth like that cunt-hole Steve!""
 * Also used in We Like Sportz, again in regards to Steve.

"My cunt, my cunt,
 * Ronnie Van Zant said it in a throwaway line during the live version of "Gimme Three Steps" found on One More from the Road (and also on Gold & Platinum).
 * Averted with a song by the Asylum Street Spankers.

My country calls to me,

Asshole, asshole,

A soldier I will be..."


 * "Blubber Boy" by Regurgitator might be the only song featuring the c-word ever to have charted in Australia or anywhere in the world. Nobody noticed the line "rub me on your cunt, I'll come back again".
 * "Australia the Lucky Cunt" is an EP by TISM.

Stand-Up Comedy
"Lynch: When your legs are open, I'll begin the gropin', but I fear I must be blunt / I would just as soon not go near your balloon knot, think that I'll stick to your... front. Laughter I would never say "cunt" to an audience... ever!"
 * Perhaps the ur-example in mainstream comedy comes from George Carlin, who naturally included "cunt" in his groundbreaking seven dirty words you can't say on television. Carlin being Carlin he seems perplexed by the peculiar aversion that many people, particularly women, seem to have towards the "C-word" in particular and notes that unlike other words like "snatch", "box" or "pussy" "cunt" is not a euphemism.
 * Christopher Titus - Norman Rockwell is Bleeding: (Talking about the time he fought with Erin over cheating on him when they broke up while they were dating) "And she took everything I threw at her man! She even took the 'C' word! I know! ...she's perfect!"
 * Bill Hicks used the word freely once when handling a female heckler.
 * Averted, then lampshaded and subverted by Stephen Lynch in his Gynecology song.

"BC: You're a cunt. You're such a cunt. Why, you're so much of a cunt, that if there were a contest to find out who the biggest cunt was, you'd come in second. Why? Because you're a cunt!"
 * Louis CK has a whole segment about the word (and how much he loves it) on one of his HBO specials. He says that it sounds "chocolatey and round on the end" and that he sings it to himself in the laundry room. He uses it sparingly in every show, really.
 * Jimmy Carr uses this word frequently.
 * Billy Connolly gave this gem in a recent stand-up:

Theatre
"Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
 * The Trope Namer: Hamlet, act 3, scene 2, by Shakespeare

Ophelia: No, my lord.

Hamlet: I mean, my head upon your lap?

Ophelia: Ay, my lord.

Hamlet: Do you think I meant country matters?"

"Mafala: When God fucks you in the butt
 * There's an instance in Twelfth Night where Malvolio finds a forged note by Sir Toby that appears to have come from the Countess, and proclaims it authentic based on the handwriting: "See how she makes her Cs, her U, an her Ts, and thus makes her Ps."
 * This quote allowed the BBC to get away with saying it very prolifically when they aired the scene at 6:40pm on a Saturday night.
 * There's another example by Shakespeare in Othello. In Act 3 Scene 3, Iago tries to insinuate that Desdemona is not as pure as she seems. He uses the phrase "country disposition", alluding to both the stereotype of the open and passionate Venetian woman and, well...you know.
 * Shakespeare also has a bilingual example in Henry V, in which the French-speaking Princess Katherine, getting an English lesson from her lady-in-waiting, is both horrified and amused to discover that the English words "foot" and "gown" (which Katherine and her lady mispronounce as "coun") resemble the French words for "fuck" and "cunt."
 * Some feminists have attempted to reclaim the word; there's a piece in The Vagina Monologues called (what else?) Reclaiming Cunt. (seriously, it culminates in loud, repeated exclamations of CUNT!!! It is pretty awesome to behold), and there's Inga Muscio's book Cunt: A Declaration of Independence. Hasn't quite been reclaimed on the level that "queer" has been for gays, but it's still something to note.
 * The Ugandans in The Book of Mormon are quite fond of the word, and "Hasa Diga Eebowai" abounds with it.

Ugandans: Hasa diga eebowai!

Mafala: Fuck God right back in his cunt!"

"Ugandans: If you don't like what we say/try living here a couple days./Watch all your friends and family die./Hasa diga eebowai! Fuck you!/Hasa diga eebowai!/Fuck you God in the ass, mouth, and cunt-a,/Fuck you God in the ass, mouth, and cunt-a,/Fuck you God in the ass, mouth, and cunt-a,/Fuck you in the eye!"
 * Later in the song, we get this:


 * The song ends in a great exclamation of "Fuck you God! In the cunt!"

Tabletop RP Gs

 * There was a sourcebook for the superhero Tabletop Game Silver Age Sentinels literally called Country Matters. It was a roster book of female supers.
 * FATAL has no problem with the word. This would not, in itself, be too bad. It then starts throwing around phrases like "mouth-cunt", "cuntress", "cunt-pipe" (really) and the name "Cuntrina".

TV Tropes Wiki

 * Scunthorpe Problem

Video Games
"Varric: So I told him, 'This is a kingdom, which makes you a king. But it's also a country.' What can I say, I like my interrogations to be a two-way street."
 * Thoroughly averted in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, where this word is dropped several times through the course of the game. Considering the other offensive words that are used and the overall cringe worthy subject matter of the game, its not surprising.
 * However, it's thrown in for attentive radio listeners in Grand Theft Auto III: (Head Radio music station is hosted by none other than DJ Michael Hunt, who states his name pretty frequently. He never shortens it to "Mike," but the joke is pretty obvious.
 * Rockstar Games' own Red Dead Redemption uses the word three times, two of which are in fairly quick succession.
 * Both Vico and the narration text throw this around a lot in A Dance With Rogues.
 * Broken Saints has no qualms with swearing, but it's worth pointing out that only Complete Monster Mars uses this word.
 * The Brute Splicers in Bio Shock 2 are about as civilized as they look, language and all.
 * Hinted at a couple of times in Dragon Age II; the way Isabela asks Aveline if Donnic "satisfied the demands of your Qun" is quite...suggestive...and then there's the following gem:


 * In Prototype 2, a mission involves Heller being informed of a Blackwatch Tank Commander who made some inflammatory remarks about his deceased wife and calls Dana Mercer a "pasty hacker cunt". Dana's objection is at being called "pasty".

Webcomics

 * A Something Positive strip had this as the next-to-last line of hostility Mike crosses with regards to PeeJee. He even stammers when he says it. The last line? Physical threats. Which of course results in pain from her many friends.
 * Hunter Ravenwood of Suicide for Hire freely drops a Cluster F-Bomb just about every other strip, but only drops the C-bomb for emphasis, e.g. when "encouraging" (at gunpoint) a group protesting against gay marriage to disperse.
 * A near use of it occurs in Gunnerkrigg Court by a schoolmate of Annie's mother in a flashback, before he gets punched out by Eglamore.
 * Blade Bunny expresses a hope that Bunny will get her Money, then giggles and tries to work out other words that rhyme with Bunny. One starts with C and leaves her laughing helplessly. See 'Coney' in Real Life examples below.
 * Jessica to Carrie in this strip of Loserz
 * Penelope in this strip of Questionable Content.
 * this xkcd comic.
 * At ome point in the surrealist comic 5ideways, Emerald is testing out their surroundings. "Hm. Biting into an apple results in a rain of cunts. Hardly useful."

Western Animation
"Brian: "Quagmire's Cross-Country Tour." Uh, isn't there an "o" in "country?"
 * There's an episode of South Park where Wendy dumps Stan. Stan asks Jimmy (the stutterer) to tell her that's she "a continuing source of inspiration to [him]." Unfortunately, Jimmy ends up telling Wendy, "Stan says that you're a cont--... you're a cont--... Stan says you're a cont--cont--cont..."
 * Wendy's reply is, "Well, tell Stan to f**k off!", with the corresponding bleep.
 * Parker and Stone themselves said they couldn't believe Comedy Central let them get away with that one.
 * Also from South Park: "Balzac was a writer, he lived with Allen Funt / Mrs. Roberts didn't like him, but that's 'cause she's a / C[o]nt-aminated water can really make you sick..." ("Something You Can Do With Your Finger")
 * Similarly, Roger in American Dad uses this when Francine orders him off the phone. "I'll call you later, the boss is being a real- Catch U Next Tuesday!"
 * That lady is a real C-word. Hey, we're all guys here; I'll just say it: "Cuckoohead."
 * In an episode of Family Guy, Quagmire asks Brian about the sign on his new RV:

Quaqmire: Nope!"

"Woman (arguably Lady Astor): Ah, Winston. Drunk again, I see.
 * An early episode had Brian call Meg a "whiny, little runt", Lois gasps in shock and Brian assures her that he said runt.
 * One episode has the poster for the school lesbians' club printed with "C U Next Tuesday!"
 * Also, this DVD-only scene in Road to Europe:

Churchill: Yeah, well you're a cunt."

"Brian: We love the work of Allen Funt...
 * And another in the same episode:

Stewie: Or a nicely shaven leg!"

"Brian: I don't know. Although, your sunburn was pretty bad, I suppose it could be... the C Word.
 * The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou episode features this exchange:

Stewie: What the hell does that have to do with anything?!

Brian: No, cancer.

Stewie: Oh, oh, I-I thought you meant... it's not important. Oh no, cancer!"

"Cheryl: My last name isn't Gimble like on my W-4. It's Tunt.
 * In one early episode, someone on Wheel of Fortune has to solve a puzzle: GO UCK YOURSELF . Peter remarks that this one was even tougher than MY HAIRY UNT.
 * Archer:

Archer: Tum again? (Beat) What, nothing?"


 * Not an explicit example, but in one episode of The Simpsons, Bart agrees to do Skinner a favor in exchange for being taught a swear word that he doesn't already know. We don't hear what word he learns, but Skinner tells him it's a noun. Between that and Bart's shock at having never heard it before, it's clear what word was implied.

Real Life
"Australian sovereigntist: We're going to have our own independent state and call it the Principality of Australia!
 * That was a Cunning Stunt.
 * Truth in Television: John McCain was lambasted for using it to refer to his wife. He may have been joking with her at the time, but...
 * This incident was mentioned in the comedy video "He Said It First." Uncensored Version here: and the Censored Version:.
 * Supposedly, the reason the term Earl is used in English instead of Count is because of the similar sound of the title to this word.
 * Of course, it COULD just be that Earl came from the Danish vikings instead. In the old Norse language(s) the world Jarl means chieftain and was for a long time an advisor of the King. In Scandinavia the word became to be replaced with Duke, but in Britain it slowly turned into Earl, the equivalent of Count. Thus it has nothing to do with the topic on hand. It is also worth mentioning that the wife of an Earl is titled Countess without any problems.
 * The Norman French aristocracy that invaded England used the Latinized titles (including Count) in Normandy. Considering that they had displaced the native Anglo-Saxon nobility almost entirely within a decade, *something* had to come up for them to stop using the term.
 * Hmm...while the Normans did wipe out all the other English words for government, lots of the words for nobility survived from old English, like "king", "queen", "knight", and "lord" as well as "earl". So this sounds like folk etymology.
 * "King" and "Queen" (well, King mainly) were used because the Normans claimed to be the legitimate heirs to the West Saxon royal line. "Knight" at this point simply meant "fighting man" and didn't have the connotations of "ritter" or "chevalier" until much later. "Earl" under the Anglo-Saxons was closer to the continental "duke" than "count", and the first creations of Norman "earls" was well after the Conquest.
 * They probably kept the term "countess" because the feminine form of earl would be "earless", which is how you ended up if you were caught poaching in a royal park.
 * "Did you know Stuart Adamson?" "He was a Big Country member." "Oh, I remember."
 * This is derived from the original comment in Australian Federal Parliament by early 1970's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in response to an angry outburst by a member of an opposing party (Country Party - now the Nationals half of the Liberal/National Coalition): "I'm a Country Member!" Gough Whitlam - "Oh, I remember".
 * In a particularly obnoxious possible example, University of Colorado football players have reportedly called teammate Katie Hnida a cunt while brutally hazing her. When CU president Betsy Hoffman was later called on the carpet to explain why the coach wasn't fired, she responded that "cunt", in Chaucer's times, was a term of endearment and perhaps that's what the players meant. Really.
 * Probably apocryphal example doing the rounds:

Her Majesty the Queen: You can't do that, you don't have a Prince.

Australian sovereigntist: All right then, how about the Kingdom of Australia?

HMQ: No, because you don't have a King.

Australian sovereigntist: What do you suggest then?

Prince Philip: Why not leave it the way it clearly is. A country."


 * Similarly, When we had an Emperor, we were an Empire. When we had a King, we were a Kingdom. Now Margaret Thatcher is in office, and we have a country.
 * "Coney" (pronounced "cunny") is an old word for "rabbit" that fell out of use because it sounded like "cunt." "Rabbit" is the main replacement, but it's obvious that "bunny" is a modified form of "coney."
 * Bit more than "sounded like"; "cunny" is also an old word for "cunt".
 * Incidentally, in America, "Coney" (as in Island or Dog) is pronounced exactly like it's spelled, and no one seems to mind.
 * The Fuzzy Knights had some fun with "Cuniculus (later Falic) the Slayer".
 * "Cuniculus" is Latin for "rabbit"... it is also Latin for "little cunt".
 * IIRC the most advanced inn/brothel you could build in the original Medieval Total War was a 'cunny warren'.
 * Trying to talk about the place in England called "Scunthorpe" can prove difficult on message boards with censor software. Averted, as nobody would ever want to talk about Scunthrope anyway.
 * Scunthorpe was the Trope Namer for malfunctioning censor software - see the Scunthorpe Problem.
 * John F Kennedy was hanging out with some friends and his wife when he mentioned that someone was a real Charlie Uncle November Tango). Jackie then asked what a Charlie Uncle November Tango was, since she didn't understand he was using phonetics. No one wanted to answer.
 * The example in the lead to this article was taken directly from a court case said to have taken place in Manchester, England. When the judge asked the Canadian what he'd have done if his friend had called him a child molester instead, he replied that he wouldn't have been nearly as angry, because that wasn't anywhere near the insult that "cunt" was.
 * There was an inn called the "Flying Cunt" somewhere in Transylvania. The local feudal lord AND his entire court were regulars there, and his still living descendant still can't get that name out of his head.
 * The Japanese equivalent of "cunt" is "manko", and is similarly treated as one of the most vulgar words in the Japanese language. It's always bleeped if said on television, and if written down, it very often has the middle "n" character blanked out.
 * Great, now I'll never be able to look at Mako the same way again.
 * In Mandarin Chinese, the equivalent is "bī" (屄), and has about the same effect and usage, with one weird exception: "niú bī" (牛屄, sometimes with a different last character but with the same sound), usually abbreviated as "NB" on Chinese message boards, can mean "really fucking cool" when used to describe something, and either "badass" or "total dick" when describing a person, depending on whether you mean it positively or negatively.
 * On a related note, this discussion was brought up between Quentin Tarantino and Conan O Brien regarding Kill Bill.
 * Used in the second line of the anthem of Bella Guerin Hall, a hall of residence at the University of Ballarat. Restrictions have recently been placed on when the song can be chanted, for obvious reasons.
 * Political protestors upset at reduction in public spending by the Coalition Government in Britain 2011 have been seen displaying placards decrying Cameron and Clegg for "putting the N in CUTS".
 * The Chicago Tribune once printed an article about the use of this word. Even though they carefully avoided the word itself, the article title, "You C*n't Say That" made it obvious enough that the entire section the article was printed in was pulled out at the last minute at great expense.
 * In regards to the example provided at in the page description, Australian men of all ages often use cunt not only as a term of affection(He's a good cunt that cunt), but as a designator(Yeah, it was that cunt over there), descriptor(Oh, that fucking cunt, he's a deadshit), group name(Oi you cunts, Listen up!) or nickname(G'day y'old cunt, howyagoin?). This has also given rise to the curious saying that Australia is "Where you call your mates cunt, and some cunt mate." Another curious phenomenon is that an Australian can - in a similar manner to the local wildlife - pack enough venom into a single word, often "Mate", with vocal inflection alone, that it is exactly equivalent to saying "Cunt" in it's place.
 * Similarly, a Glaswegian asking a friend to join them at the bar will likely say something like "Awright ya cunt, fancy comin' for a drink with that cunt Shug an' all they other cunts?".
 * Gropecunt Lane, which was Exactly What It Says On the Tin
 * Somewhere in coverage of the Tea Party protests in the US, there's a photo of a man wearing a T-shirt that reads "I love my country" below a rebus of Hillary Clinton + a tree.
 * Mr. Vincent Caravella of Giantbomb will not be living down his dropping of the C-word for a long time.
 * Sort of Averted in Russian, where the equivalent of the C-word (pizda/пизда), although by no means socially acceptable language, is not considered the most vulgar word to use. That dubious honour goes to a word for male genitalia (khuy/хуй).
 * Completely Averted in Spanish, where "coño" is thrown around freely even by children and nobody seems to bat an eye. Of course, every fourth word said by a Spaniard is a swearword, third if they're happy, so this is not surprising.
 * The same in Bangla, and likely related languages as well.
 * In fulfilling its guiding purpose, Cockney Rhyming Slang has a completely innocuous way of saying it, Berk, which comes from Berkshire Hunt, rhyming with cunt. Now you know a way to say it without anyone knowing, providing no one around you speaks Cockney...
 * Jane Fonda was appearing in a benefit production of the above-mentioned The Vagina Monologues, and while being interviewed about it on Today, casually mentioned on live daytime tv the title of one of the pieces. Meredith Viera apologized on behalf of NBC, and it was censored for broadcast in later time zones.
 * Western Australia had the unfortunately-named Curtin University of New Technologies (The "new" has now been dropped, probably for this reason).

See You Next Tuesday!