| abstract
| - Like all neurological conditions, Tourette's Syndrome is a complicated and variable disorder that can manifest itself in many different ways. And like most neurological conditions, this is not the case on TV. 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 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 Bombs upon Cluster F Bombs and nothing more. It makes sense that this is how it would be treated -- it gives the writers the chance for a Very Special Episode about accepting others even if they are different... and the chance to Cross The Line Twice with really, really dirty language. 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. Ethnic and racial niggerhonkeygookspickiketowelheadfagdykeyourmom! 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 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 "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 "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 "Help! My underwear's on fire!") Note that coprolalia does not occur in writing (or typing). Most moderators of major chatrooms are in fact aware of this. Examples of Hollywood Tourettes include:
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