The New York Times was a little nonplussed: 'Just to clear up any confusion: the four stars in the box accompanying this article do not represent a rave review, though I did quite enjoy the movie in question.' The four stars were for another reason, because the review by the acclaimed critic Anthony Scott was for a film which had 'the big swearword' in the title. And the Times does not print big swearwords, however commonly they are used.
The F-word is still, despite its almost constant use, tricky. Rarely a day goes by when I don't hear it, see it, say it, or think it and those FCUK tops still catch my eye. So what is the appeal of this four-letter word, if it's not just about sex?
One man in America is determined to find out. 'It all started as a joke,' said director Steve Anderson, whose latest film, Fuck: A Fuckumentary, has just been released in America to much chin-rubbing commentary. Scott described the effort to get the bottom of the word's unmistakable power as 'rowdy and contentious'.
'I have been known to use the word in mixed company and even, I blush to admit, around my children,' Scott said. 'But only pedagogically, to call attention to the laxity of other drivers on family car trips. Never in front of the readers, though. Which is as it should be. Mr Anderson's movie is staged as a talking-head culture-war skirmish between embattled upholders of propriety (or repression, if you prefer) and proponents of free expression (or filth), but its real lesson is that the two sides depend upon each other. Or rather, that the continued vitality of the word rests on its ability to mark an edge between the permissible and the profane.' Quite.
'I thought it would be fun to make a documentary about the word,' Anderson said. 'A word that so many people love to use.' The film has musings on the history, use and etymology of the word from the late Hunter S Thompson, who wasn't afraid to use a swearword or 20, the rapper Ice T, pornography star Tera Patrick, singer Alanis Morissette, and comedian Billy Connolly.
Perhaps predictably, the film has caused great debate in the US. Why does the word have such a peculiar place in the English language? Is it too rude for mainstream cinema and are the likes of my brother being inappropriate when they use the f-word in front of their family, around the dinner table?
As an ex-English teacher to foreign students, the f-word would have been great lesson fodder. It must be the most versatile word in English. It can be conjugated with almost any preposition, stuck in front or even between most adjectives, used as an intensifier, noun, exclamation, interjection and verb. And yet I still wouldn't have been allowed to teach it, nor would I have felt comfortable doing so.
Connolly loves it for its cathartic quality. 'It's a brilliant word, it's onomatopoeic. It sounds exactly what it is. I don't think it sounds like sex. And if it does, I don't think I'm interested in having sex like ... FUCK!'
Unlike some swearwords whose roots are unpleasant and derogatory, Morissette says: 'The f-word is special. Everybody uses the word breakfast, but not everyone feels comfortable using the word fuck so there's an extra power behind it.'
American rapper Ice T, who was instrumental in creating gangsta rap, doesn't actually use the f-word that many times in the film. 'We have moments in our life where we have words that translate the feeling,' he said. The f-word may be used for effect, but his real issues are political. 'I don't really have much faith in the constitution. The same day they signed the constitution you've got all these geniuses in the room, and they're like, OK, you've got the right to bear arms, you got free speech, you can own niggers. Look's good to me - let's sign. So obviously all those people were insane.' Or maybe f-ing insane, or as insane as f, or in-f-ing sane. You could go on.
The exact origins of the word are a mystery. They may be Germanic, akin to the synonymous German ficken, which means 'to strike'. Its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary wasn't until 1972, well after DH Lawrence had used it in Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1928. Constantly shrouded in controversy, perhaps that's where its beauty lies. Anderson 'was always amused by the word fuck'. 'I thought it would be great to look at the word in all aspects of popular culture,' he said. 'Some people are very offended by this simple word, but that's the power it has. Some people are intrigued by it - others run for the hills. "Fuck" polarises public opinion.'
Anderson knew 'it would be a challenge' to use it as the title for his film, but 'it was the honest thing to do - that's what the film's about'. He also knew the Los Angeles Times as well as the New York Times wouldn't print the title or give any advertising to the film, referring to it as F*** and ****. Does it bother him? No. The fact that other papers such as the Village Voice will print the title, shows 'the idiosyncrasies and different attitudes towards the word'. The film has received good write-ups from racier publications: Variety called it 'hilarious' and 'informative.' But not everyone is laughing, The New York Post says it is 'repetitive and unenlightening'.
Is there a notion that, like smoking, swearing is cool? As Scott says, its very inadmissibility is very much part of its allure. 'Allowed free rein in the pages of respectable publications - however much my fingers may itch, at this very moment, to type its four constituent letters - the word would quickly lose its power, its flavour, its interest. And then, lovers of the mother tongue, where would we be?'