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Hollywood Tourette's: Difference between revisions
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In real life, Tourette's Syndrome is characterized by involuntary "tics" that the person feels compelled to perform fairly regularly; depending on the severity, this can range from an easily-suppressed thought to actions so uncontrollable that it makes [[Monk]] seem perfectly normal. To be categorized by a psychiatrist as Tourette's (instead of a related disorder), the sufferer must have multiple physical tics or at least one [[Verbal Tic|vocal tic]]. These tics can range from something small like uncontrollable breathing patterns or involuntarily pulling a face to hand movements and gestures to specific words. Around 10% of people with Tourette's also display something called "coprolalia" (derived from Greek, literally meaning shit-talking), which is the involuntary uttering of socially unacceptable things.
In TV land, though, Tourette's Syndrome ''is'' coprolalia. In most people's minds, Tourette's is a condition where people fire [[Cluster F
The kind of things people "with Tourette's" say on TV and in movies varies significantly depending on the medium and culture. American TV tends to avoid ''fuck!'' f-bombs and really strong profanity, though cable can ''shit!'' be a little stronger. "Ass" is more common, as are other ''penistitscockpussy!'' naughty parts of the body. Obscene ''cunt!'' words for women are usually out so as to avoid being accused of sexism, but milder ''bitch!'' words are usually cool.
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Ethnic and racial ''niggerhonkeygookspickiketowelheadfagdyke[[Your Mom|yourmom]]!'' slurs are usually out to avoid being racist (except when a person accidentally blurts out "nigger" in a room full of black people, and [[Hilarity Ensues|Hilarity theoretically Ensues]]). Slurs like "fag", "ass pirate", and "queer" have traditionally been fair game, but more recently this has been on the down slide to avoid homophobia. Foreign (which seems to just mean "British") swears like "wanker", "bugger", and "tosser" have always been very popular, as they enable a person to use much stronger language, since fewer Americans are familiar with it. Insults like "retard", "moron", and "idiot" are generally not used, due to the offense being by means of the person being insulted and not the word itself.
Very mild swears like [[Gosh Dang It to Heck|"damn", "heck", and "hell"]] are usually not used, unless to signify how lame the person with Tourette's is. Compound swears generally fall under the rules for the worst swear making up the compound, so "happy tits" would be OK if you could use "tits", and "cunttard" if you could use "cunt" and "retard", and "fagonomics" if you could use "fag" and "[[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|economics]]". The exception to this being compounds that alter the nature of the swear, thus even if you could use "nigger", if you were afraid of upsetting Arabs, you would not use the phrase "sand nigger." Of course, this varies; by the time you read this, what was once shocking may be casual or even lame.
And occasionally, a show might ''just'' even feature a person with Tourette's who ''doesn't'' swear. (An episode of ''20/20'' profiled a real-life sufferer who said things like [[Hilarious in Hindsight|"Help! My underwear's on fire!"]])
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Note that coprolalia does not occur in writing (or typing). [[Genre Savvy|Most moderators of major chatrooms ''are'' in fact aware of this.]]
{{examples
== Films -- Live-Action ==
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* ''[[The Daily Show]]'' presented the disorder slightly more realistically by claiming that Rudy Giuliani had "9/11 Tourette's Syndrome", which caused him to mention that fateful date seemingly at random and often inappropriately.
** Glenn Beck has Nazi Tourette's!
* One of ''[[
* An episode of ''[[Dexter]]'' used coprolalia as a punchline. Deb, up all night and wired on coffee, jabbers away almost incoherently, complete with cussing that would make a sailor blush. The problem with the joke is that Deb uses [[Cluster F
{{quote| '''Batista:''' How much coffee have you had?<br />
'''Deb:''' A metric...fuckton?<br />
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* ''[[Nurse Jackie]]'' has Dr. Cooper ("Coop" to his friends), who suffers from a physical tic when he is stressed or nervous, fairly realistic. However, this tic is [[Thanks for The Mammary|grabbing women's breasts]]. Some people think he's making it up, but he honestly can't help it.
* Discussed in the second episode of ''Episodes'', with Beverly arguing pretty much exactly the same points as this article re: Tourette's not simply being blurting out curse words, only to arrive at the following after a [[Very Long Day]]:
{{quote| '''Beverly''': Open the ''[[Cluster F
'''Sean''' (Apologetically): ...Tourette's. }}
* Averted in [[Boston Legal]]. The vocal tics are non-verbal.
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== Real Life ==
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wcKpoAQKj4 The Tourette's Guy] is a shining example of this. Of course, the website claims that, while [[The Tourettes Guy]] has Tourette's Syndrome, it's [[The Alcoholic|far]] [[Abusive Parents|from]] [[Cringe Comedy|his]] [[Jerkass|only problem]].
** [[Precision F
*** And indeed, there is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46rTXK1G0tk proof] that "shit" is the word that Danny will say when [[Funny Aneurysm Moment|he first meets up with God]]. If he hasn't already.
*** Just a friendly reminder... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8bUjBGRioU Tourette's Guy + Left 4 Dead's Tank = major lulz...]
*** [[He's Just Hiding|Apparently he wasn't really dead, he was just in prison.]]
* Comedian Joel Kopischke's novelty Christmas song, "A Merry Tourette's Christmas".
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TynnOhRtYZw Agustín "Super Taldo" Arenas], who became an icon in Chilean pop culture and very well-known among teens and young adults thanks to this "canned" interview from [[The Seventies]] that was uploaded to YT a few years ago and reached massive [[Memetic Mutation]] levels among Latin American viweers. He became famous for his "poems" and his extensive use of the [[Cluster F
* [[Kanye West]] has diagnosed himself with "Little Baby Tourette Syndrome". [http://www.cracked.com/blog/what-if-kanye-west-is-retarded/ Everyone else thinks he's an asshole].
* There are, incidentally, other conditions (such as Alzheimer's) that can result in this, usually due to executive function damage. Which can lead to interesting situations when combined with a profanity vocabulary built up over a long lifetime.
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