Four Choices From the Word Fuck Funny

• #1

Please pardon the obscenity involved, but I currently have occasion to question the origin of the phrase "as funny as all fuck" (or "all-fuck"). I have an idea that the origin of this is in so-called American "ebonic" English, but am not certain of that. Does anybody have any ideas regarding this? Not alot of good info on the web. Thanks.

• #9

Related perhaps to the phrases "...as queer as fuck/folk" and "There's nowt so queer as folk"?

• #11

Please tell us where you saw of heard this expression. And in what context.

I do a bit of editing on Wiktionary, and one of the fellows who I sought for advice on an edit there used it (quite surprisingly to myself, as he is very knowledgeable in IE linguistics) in one of the entries on his talk page. The full sentence was: Your loss, my friend, because it was funny as all fuck.

If you don't want to say "fuck," try "as funny as all get-out."

I would have preferred seeing that, since as Packard has noted, the phrase is crude and vaguely evidential of either illiteracy or emotional instability.

I don't think it's specific to AAVE. It just fills in a common pattern.

I had to google AAVE, being unfamiliar with the acronym...good to know (better descriptor than "ebonics"), thanks.

I agree it doesn't sound particularly AAVE to me. It sounds more redneck.

Sure, that was my other thought.

I agree with your assessment. Stuffing fuck into various phrases seems to be a popular thing to do even when it doesn't make much sense. I suppose that doing this serves as a sort of emotional release.

I think you have discovered the reason for such usage. The phonological "hardness" of the word "fuck" lends itself to such wanton emoting. There seems to be no information available on the origin of this, though. I will have to check for it in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable when I can get to my local library. I sort of doubt that I will find it there, though.

Last edited: Sep 1, 2020

• #13

A lot of you people seem to assume that a person chooses a particular word because they're either ignorant, illiterate or unintelligent. Just because a person chooses "[whatever] as fuck" doesn't mean they don't know other words or are unintelligent or in any other way 'inferior' to people who simply choose different words.

I think it's an unfortunate tendency in this forum that people keep drawing these conclusions about other people based on a single word that really has such little meaning.

• #16

An update: In an effort to save my colleague from a loss of directorial bearing, I tried to edit the potty out of the fellow's mouth by editing his comment from "...as all fuck" to "...as all get-out", but by Jove, he changed it back! I guess that shows that cognitiō sapientiā nōn aequa est!

A lot of you people seem to assume that a person chooses a particular word because they're either ignorant, illiterate or unintelligent. Just because a person chooses "[whatever] as fuck" doesn't mean they don't know other words or are unintelligent or in any other way 'inferior' to people who simply choose different words.

But the other side of the coin is not that it indicates anything about their intelligence, but rather indicates their easy willingness to flout the conventions of "polite" society.

Right kentix, or in other words: cognitiō sapientiā nōn aequa est. (Knowledge doesn't amount to wisdom.)

Last edited: Sep 2, 2020

• #17

Ok, we're getting off topic, but since the last two posts were left to stand I'll just say this (again): There are plenty of people who use "polite words" to disseminate a very impolite message. That many people raise an eyebrow and get borderline offended when they hear the word "fuck" but not when they hear a clearly offensive message says something about those people as well.

"Don't judge a book by its cover", and so forth.

• #23

One is entitled tentatively to think. Is his vocabulary very limited?

Most certainly not... much to the contrary, from what I have seen of his work on Wiktionary, I consider him an expert in IE linguistics, or at least possessed of a certain expertise therein.

Is he a nuclear physicist with Tourette's?

Haha...perhaps I shouldn't laugh, but I am.

There are plenty of people who use "polite words" to disseminate a very impolite message.

But, is it not they who are most deserving of our admiration? (just kidding!) Without kidding, though, I feel that the descent into a ubiquitous general vulgarity is our most significant problem in the U.S. today, and lies behind many of our social and political problems. I feel this to the extent that I would say that at the present time, I might actually prefer the company of the graceful villain to the vulgar saint.

Last edited: Sep 2, 2020

• #24

I actually think it's exactly the opposite: The message perpetuated by many has been poorly opposed because it was wrapped in nice language, in addition to the upset people opposing it weren't to be listened to because of their lack of sophistication. Now that the message(s) have been 'justified' at a higher level it's more acceptable to actually use coarse language to perpetuate the message.

The internet is now filled with such content, by the average person. The message was always there and the problem isn't that it's now expressed in a vulgar fashion, it's that people were too polite and 'respectful' to deal with it because it was wrapped in what's considered socially acceptable expression.

• #26

I actually think it's exactly the opposite...(etc.)

Food for thought...

levinsonspeargons.blogspot.com

Source: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/origin-of-the-phrase-funny-as-all-fuck.3737257/

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