Johannesburg- Sonofabitch! I’ve heard that insult so many times that it lost its sting.
In fact, I picked it up from watching movies and, back then, we could not pronounce it well. It was more like sanamabitch as we left a movie house.
Yes, there was a time when English was not easy on my ear.
Then I encountered the insult in novels and it still did not rankle.
As insults go, son of a bitch is pretty lame even though I hardly ever use it.
Where am I going with all this?
Well, two weekends ago South Africa woke up to the terrible news of the death of veteran thespian Patrick Shai.
In the days leading up to his death, he had been involved in verbal sparring with musician Cassper Nyovest, who has started a trend of celebrity boxing.
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In the online video, Shai had called Nyovest a son of a bitch, all in jest. However, the snake pit that is Twitter was unforgiving and the backlash was swift.
Clearly, some people mistakenly found it unpalatable and made a link with Nyovest’s mother, which in my book was misconstrued. The actor was quick to apologise as the storm raged. However, a few days later, he took his life.
As we were left reeling after the news, many people could not resist but make a link to the social media backlash and his demise.
Still others made a tenuous connection with his well-publicised personal problems like his confession to domestic violence. Others even conjectured about his age, as if at 66 years he would have outgrown suicide.
That’s simply daft because suicide does not have an age limit. The demons that reside inside a troubled soul have no age limit. Since he did not leave a note, we will never be wiser to what led to his untimely death. But back to son of a bitch. People of a certain age routinely use the insult without malice. However, context is king.
For instance, US President Joe Biden was reportedly caught on hot mic calling FX News White House correspondent Peter Doocy “a stupid son of a bitch” for asking about inflation.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, drew sustained negative coverage in 2017 for using the insult to refer to NFL players who refused to stand for the national anthem to protest police brutality.
The rule of thumb will be to avoid vulgar words altogether. May Shai’s soul rest in peace.
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