(Don't) Putting Spaz

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Maybe this is a UK/US thing. Over here loads of people say the word and feel a little transgressive, but someone in Tiger Woods's position wouldn't say it publically. Which made it even funnier when I read his quote. Belatedly, a fuss seems to be being made about it.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 08:50 (eighteen years ago) link

The world No1's remarks were not helped by the exaggerated awkward stance he adopted for a short putt at the third hole.

?!???!?!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 08:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Did he demonstrate by pulling a face, waving his hands, and saying 'Joey'?

― Teh HoBBler (the pirate king), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 08:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Well if they put a "spaz" on the green and let them have a go at putting, it'd surely show what he meant and clear him of any wrong doings.

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:18 (eighteen years ago) link

For some reason that comment that "The world No1's remarks were not helped by the exaggerated awkward stance he adopted for a short putt at the third hole" seems MORE offensive than Tiger Woods' remarks

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:21 (eighteen years ago) link

US media cover-up

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/sport/2006/04/11/sgaffe11.xml

The LA Times, changed the word to "wreck" while The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe all expunged the word completely. Only two US sports news services ran his words in an unedited form.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Cheney-Rove strikes again!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Not just the US media:

"when I got on the greens, I was an idiot." reports the BBC.

Taking Sides: Insulting idiots vs insulting spastics.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:44 (eighteen years ago) link

BEHOLD TEH SPAZZY TIGER

― Gerard (Gerard), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh boohoo:
http://members.tripod.com/mr_piechart/enter/images/tiger2.jpg

― Gerard (Gerard), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 09:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Alba's thread title hasn't yet received the respect it deserves. It's ace.

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:03 (eighteen years ago) link

I don't get it

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:05 (eighteen years ago) link

get lost

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:34 (eighteen years ago) link

just a suggestion

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:34 (eighteen years ago) link

Drop dead you cunt

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:38 (eighteen years ago) link

Just running it up the flagpole

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:39 (eighteen years ago) link

lost is a TV prog

I bet dead you cunt isn't

now you look like the badman

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:44 (eighteen years ago) link

* weeps uncontrollably *

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:47 (eighteen years ago) link

what a pathetic badman you are

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Please don't hurt me

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:49 (eighteen years ago) link

; )

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 10:51 (eighteen years ago) link

[insert moran photoshop jpeg here]
"when I got on the greens, I was a moran."

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 11:17 (eighteen years ago) link

I applaud, in the golf-clap manner, the excellent title of this thread.
I like Tiger Woods more now that I know he said spaz. It's that it's a pretty funny word.

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:14 (eighteen years ago) link

best use of "Spaz" is still the movie "Meatballs"
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_movie/meatballs.JPG

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:21 (eighteen years ago) link

what does the title mean?

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Putting = what you do on a Green, etc.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:28 (eighteen years ago) link

Drop Dead You Cunt starts on E4 next week!

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:29 (eighteen years ago) link

Best use of said word is a throwaway line in Buffy where the adults regress to kiddies after eating ENCHANTED CANDY. Buffy starts to drive off (somewhat erratically, some might say), and as the car drives away, we hear Principal Seymour comment:

"Hey Summers you drive like a SPAAAAAZ"!

which reduced me to HELPLESS LARFTER last night. Then I felt a bit bad. WHO IS THE REAL WINNER IN THIS SICK SOCIETY?

― Lucretia My Reflection (Lucretia My Reflection), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:30 (eighteen years ago) link

A term of abuse, e.g. you're such a spastic (also colloquially abbreviated to "spazz", "spack", "spacko", "spanner" and "spacker"), derived from a popular misconception that those with any physical disability resulting in spasticity would necessarily also have a mental or developmental disability. When a "spacker" has a fit, it is often referred to as a "spack attack."

i don't think i've ever heard the spack- variations! they are funneyz :(

― sleep (sleep), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Ha ha, RJG totally pwned me on this thread!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:42 (eighteen years ago) link

4 uninitiated: Wehn u make Walt talk backward backwards on Lost he be saying DONT PUDDING SPAZ k, so thread title is a reference to that. i am the nice guy cos i helped out all you ppl what didn't get it. HOW TO MAKE ILE USERS TO LOVE ME

― teh_kit says 'dont fight u nubs just run in teh instance!' (g-kit), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:49 (eighteen years ago) link

i think computers have developed to the detriment of society in retrospect.

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:53 (eighteen years ago) link

I think this might be the best thread ever.

― Dan (Roffle At Everyone, Esp. Tiger) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Kit! You've spoilt Lost for all the Englishers who haven't seen pudding spaz yet!

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:54 (eighteen years ago) link

The world No1's remarks were not helped by the exaggerated awkward stance he adopted for a short putt at the third hole.

I repeat, ROFFLE.

― Dan (Tiger! Don't Pudding Spaz!) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link

i don't think i really spoiled it Jim. i doubt anyone really understood what i said.

― teh_kit says 'dont fight u nubs just run in teh instance!' (g-kit), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:57 (eighteen years ago) link

Golfers all be putting spaz

Joe Durant, 12th in Ryder Cup points, struck the ball well Saturday but putted terribly on the way to a 72. Durant is at 1-over 211 for the tournament and tied for 50th.

"I putted like a spaz today," said Durant, who hit 11 of 14 fairways but needed 31 putts.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link

esp. as he's not REALLY saying 'don't puddin' spaz'

also, wrestling is FAKE.

(xpost)

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:58 (eighteen years ago) link

''All the players are going to be saying, 'Oh, she shot sixty-niiiine,' '' Jones said in a voice commonly used by those of kindergarten age. ''That's where I'll get it from, so no. I shot a hell of a 69. I played great, but I just didn't hit it very good. ... I endured the whole day. I didn't panic. I didn't spaz out. I don't know if I'll hit it good or bad over the weekend, but I hope I keep playing well.''

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:59 (eighteen years ago) link

esp. as he's not REALLY saying 'don't puddin' spaz'

DON'T SAY THAT

― Dan (LALALALALALA CAN'T HEAR YOU) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Publicly, not publically. Spaz.

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:00 (eighteen years ago) link

I assume this is the image I couldn't open upthread?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/graphics/2006/04/11/sgaffe11.jpg

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:01 (eighteen years ago) link

http://static.flickr.com/2/2604774_8ee2e01787.jpg

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:02 (eighteen years ago) link

maybe they were all referring to the infamously rubbish golfer: Mr Alan Spass (aka A. Spass)

― ken c (ken c), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:03 (eighteen years ago) link

BOOTAY TOTALLY SPAZ
http://www.mcfarland.co.uk/sarah/scans/spaz.jpg

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:04 (eighteen years ago) link

The world No1's remarks were not helped by the exaggerated awkward stance he adopted for a short putt at the third hole.

If they find that offensive what on earth do they make of Jim Furyk's swing??!!?!

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link

A. Spass? Fun guy.

(xpost: ROFFLE)

― Dan (LOL At German Jokes) Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:05 (eighteen years ago) link

One of the regular customers in the shop I used to work in was a Russian dude called Spas Spazov!

― JimD (JimD), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 15:48 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm so disappointed this isn't a LOST thread.

― Sparkle Motion's Rising Force, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 16:56 (eighteen years ago) link

i think computers have developed to the detriment of society in retrospect.

them's some long words lol

― teh_kit says 'FACES' (g-kit), Tuesday, 11 April 2006 18:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 56 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

awesome new username, noodle

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Mong

wtf?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:39 (eighteen years ago) link

I dunno, maybe I'm a jerk but if calling disabled people spastic or retarded is no longer PC, surely those words are up for grabs for other uses? ie: insults :)

I kind of agree with this, the kate said way upthread, but it can't be an immediate "it's no longer the preferred term, therefore it's up for grabs as an insult" thing. It has to be left a while, I think. Like, I think most words for people with low IQ (idiot, cretin) were once proper medical terms, but that's such ancient history that it's (probably) absurd to deprecate using such terms as insults nowadays. At least not when it comes to insulting people of normal intelligence. WHEREVER YOU DRAW THE LINE.

Anyway, the Spastics Society (for people with cerebral palsy) changed its name to SCOPE in 1994. I think that's probably too recent for the terms "spastic" and "spaz" to be unharmful in the UK, but I dunno.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Mong = Mongol = someone with Downs Syndrome

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link

"Psycho" in the US obviously has connections to the clinical "psychotic," but it's generally used as a descriptive adjective, and almostly solely in cases where you're clearly not talking clinically: either it's random description ("I got home late and my mom when totally psycho about it") or it's like horror-movie cartoonish (like the term "psycho killer," which gets used to describe actual mentally-ill killers, but in this broad layperson way that's obviously not diagnostic). If a person honestly thinks another person is psychotic, "psycho" is not a term that would be used in serious discussion of that fact.

That's not a defense of the term, or anything, just a description of how it gets used here.

(Ha, I used the word "cretinous" earlier today and stopped for a second to think about "cretinism" as a medical condition and what that meant as far as me using the word!) (I used it anyway.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link

gabb, "Mong" = "Mongoloid."

x-post of course

― phil d. (Phil D.), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:41 (eighteen years ago) link

HANDICAPABLE!

― kyle (akmonday), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:42 (eighteen years ago) link

If a person honestly thinks another person is psychotic, "psycho" is not a term that would be used in serious discussion of that fact.

Oh, not here either. The poll is a bit confusing, because it makes no distinction between patronisingly well-meant terms that are actually used of people with disabilities (like "brave") and ones that are playground insults (like "mong") and ones in between (like "cripple").

Pretty much everyone would know that calling someone with a mental illness a "psycho" was offensive.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:45 (eighteen years ago) link

I tend to believe there's no outright offensive word shorn of context (though I'm still honestly ashamed about my stupidity last night), but there's certainly a sliding scale somewhere between "nearly always offensive" and "hardly ever offensive" that language works within. And then there's the old "two nations divided by a common language" thing, as Mike Skinner recently reminded us.

xposts

pssst, it's from Todd Rundgren, yeah?

― Dogfight Giggle (noodle vague), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:47 (eighteen years ago) link

...and I can see how patronisingly well-meant gets very annoying, very quick.

― Dogfight Giggle (noodle vague), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link

The extent to which "retard" is used by Americans and Australians surprises me, but that could be because the term "mental retardation" is not *that* dead a terminology in Britain. Or maybe it's just that you're all bastards.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Well I wonder, what's elementary education like in the UK as far as, umm, mentally challenged children? The US usage is basically childish, and it stems from a specific kind of school organization where there was a kind of separate sect of "the retarded kids."

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:58 (eighteen years ago) link

That's special education! Not "retarded kids"!

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Hmm... well there used to be special schools here for kids with learning disabilities, but over recent decades there's been a push to try and include them in regular schools, and in the same classroom as other kids, yes. But it's a controversial area and I'm not very informed about what the current situation is. Anyone else?

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:02 (eighteen years ago) link

UK? Mad rush for "inclusion" which has led to a lot of cases of families having to fight for their child's right to go back into non-mainstream schools where they were happier and learning more. If I was cynical I might suggest that this zeal for inclusion has more to do with cutting spending on expensive specialist education than it has to do with the wellbeing of the children.

― Dogfight Giggle (noodle vague), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:12 (eighteen years ago) link

alba, you spaz, check your e-mailssss!

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:33 (eighteen years ago) link

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/searchresults.php?board=1&mode=threads&q=spaz&titlepart=&name=RJG&email=&username=&dateafter=&datebefore=&catid=all

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 19:35 (eighteen years ago) link

What if Tiger had said 'menk'?

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:22 (eighteen years ago) link

So am I right in assuming the difference is that in the UK there's some actual history of referring to people with palsy as "spazz" or "spastic?" I might be ignorant on this one, but I don't know of any similar habit in the U.S. -- our use of "spazz" seems to connect strictly to "spastic" as, like, a general descriptive adjective. (I even feel like the article -- a spazz -- is a later modification, not descended from actually identifying anyone as a spastic.) I don't think you could use "spastic" to refer to a medical condition in the U.S. and expect to be understood.
We do all this stuff with "retard" instead.

this is pretty much what i was thinking. but tiger's display on the 3rd makes it pretty clear that he's aware of the british usage.

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:35 (eighteen years ago) link

It would have been quite cool if he'd said, "I putted like a total raspberry", in a Dick Van Dyke Cockney accent

― D.D. Disappointed Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:38 (eighteen years ago) link

'a spanner'

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:40 (eighteen years ago) link

a nus

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:42 (eighteen years ago) link

A remmer.

― Mike W (caek), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:44 (eighteen years ago) link

putted like a total fucktard

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 13 April 2006 11:56 (eighteen years ago) link

"Disabled" is most generally used because it has connotations that the individual's impairment is not their biggest problem, but that they're disabled by society's inability to cope with their impairment.

Really? That comes across as a politically expedient reading in extremis. I'd have guessed if you surveyed the average man in the street, they'd say people were disabled because their legs (or whatever) didn't work.

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:59 (eighteen years ago) link

Ha ha, that's political correctness gone errrrrrrrrrrrr psychiactrically errrrrrrrr challenged

― D.D. Disappointed Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:08 (eighteen years ago) link

is it wrong to talk about spaz-rock then? but spaz-rock is a compliment...

― emsk ( emsk), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago) link

Spatzel-rock.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:19 (eighteen years ago) link

tard-rock?

― jhoshea (scoopsnoodle), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:20 (eighteen years ago) link

gay-rock

― ken c (ken c), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:24 (eighteen years ago) link

sham-rock

― D.D. Disappointed Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 13 April 2006 14:18 (eighteen years ago) link

six months pass...

(still ROFFLing at Tiger Woods)

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 2 November 2006 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link

oh noes I have the phrase BOOTAY TOTALLY SPAZ stuck in my head again

― ONIMO's losing the plot (GerryNemo), Thursday, 2 November 2006 15:43 (seventeen years ago) link

All is right with the world!

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 2 November 2006 15:50 (seventeen years ago) link

VAJAYJAY TOTALLY SPAZ

― rrrobyn, the situation (rrrobyn), Thursday, 2 November 2006 16:05 (seventeen years ago) link

All those months of not ilxing, so THIS is what I was missing.

― polar bear flashback episode (nickalicious), Thursday, 2 November 2006 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

VAJAYJAY TOTALLY SPAZ

i am incapacitated with laughter

― The Android Cat (Dan Perry), Thursday, 2 November 2006 21:53 (seventeen years ago) link

eight months pass...

Nintendo withdraws game that taunts 'spastics'

― Alba, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 09:46 (sixteen years ago) link

"Andrew Rickell, executive director of Scope, the disability charity, praised Nintendo for withdrawing the game"

That'll be Scope, formerly known as The National Spastics Society.

― onimo, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 09:53 (sixteen years ago) link

http://images.tradera.com/297/42225297_1.jpg

I bought mario party 8

― RJG, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:05 (sixteen years ago) link

"Nintendo has been forced to withdraw a computer game from sale in the UK because it contains the word 'spastic' in its script."

But we give knighthoods to writers who 'taunt' 1.5 Billion Muslims world wide? Amazing!

"Spastic' is an extremely offensive word."

So is 'Satanic Verses'

Mohammed, London, UK

― acrobat, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:12 (sixteen years ago) link

"Magikoopa Magic! Turn the train, spastic! Make this ticket tragic!"

― blueski, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:12 (sixteen years ago) link

RJG - can I come over tonight and play with your taunting game?

― Alba, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:29 (sixteen years ago) link

I have a headache

― RJG, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:33 (sixteen years ago) link

in real life I am not in town but will let you know

― RJG, Wednesday, 18 July 2007 10:34 (sixteen years ago) link

That's not the only game banned for use of "spastic" in the past couple of months!

http://kotaku.com/gaming/ubisoft.s-mind-quiz/another-offensive-game-gets-pulled-273614.php

I dunno, but where I'm from spaz/spastic are about as offensive as dumb or idiot. "Spaz" doesn't even mean "act disabled" here, it's more like "get really mad."

― Will M., Thursday, 19 July 2007 20:19 (sixteen years ago) link

I bought mario party 8 but am not getting it

― RJG, Thursday, 19 July 2007 20:32 (sixteen years ago) link

awesome I have a totally offensive game

― El Tomboto, Thursday, 19 July 2007 20:35 (sixteen years ago) link

wish I did : (

― RJG, Thursday, 19 July 2007 20:40 (sixteen years ago) link

I dunno, but where I'm from spaz/spastic are about as offensive as dumb or idiot. "Spaz" doesn't even mean "act disabled" here, it's more like "get really mad."

Yeah, it's like when I was a kid 'gay' used to mean lame, but then it meant homosexual and people got upset about me saying it.

― dowd, Thursday, 19 July 2007 21:11 (sixteen years ago) link

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