"To filmmakers like Herlihy, the word is a darling of movie dialogue for its ability to add emphasis, rhythm and shock value. (Yippee-ki-yay, you old rascal! just doesn't have the same ring to it.) But its potency has also made it a singular focus of the Motion Picture Association's ratings board. Even as the F-word has proliferated on smaller screens, a rule from the 1980s that limits its use in PG-13 movies has endured, influencing the way some filmmakers write, shoot and edit."
"We knew we were only allowed one, Herlihy recalled, and we wanted it to be the best one. So with the movie ratings board looming in their minds, the writers went about cleaning up Billy Madison's language. You want it to be in a place where it makes an impact, Herlihy said, but you kind of want to throw it away too because that's funny to just waste your one on something dumb."
Tim Herlihy and Adam Sandler wrote a 1993 screenplay for Billy Madison with numerous uses of the F-word that exceeded the PG-13 limit. Filmmakers removed excess profanity and debated which single allowed instance to keep, choosing placement for maximum impact or comic waste. The F-word is prized for emphasis, rhythm and shock, yet a Motion Picture Association rule from the 1980s continues to constrain PG-13 films. That constraint affects how writers craft dialogue, how actors vie for lines, how editors shape scenes, and how test screenings measure audience reaction to a single expletive.
Read at www.nytimes.com
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