"Putain" is a most flexible word. If you drop a heavy object on your foot, you shout it. If the light turns red while you're in a hurry, you utter it between clenched teeth. If someone hands you an unexpected check or your team pulls off a last-second win, it applies as well. And it's also suitable, apparently, for an Oscar speech.
"Putain" is also a generational divide. The Frenchmen with memories of American soldiers handing out sticks of chewing gum will likely say "merde" when thrilled or upset. Their children talk like Jean Dujardin.
It isn't like French is some manner of secret code -- whole continents full of people speak it and you can learn it from books or junior college night courses. So it's odd that a man joyously shouting "WHORE!" in front of a billion television viewers largely went unmentioned -- or simply edited out of existence -- by the English-language press.
Not so across the Atlantic. More than a few headlines simply recapitulate Dujardin's speech.
That's better. Like it or not, you shouldn't pretend it didn't happen.
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