Bozell Column: Even Bedtime Stories Get Profane
The mass-marketing of profanity just won’t stop. Now’s it topping the best-selling book list – in children’s picture books. You might have heard by now that there’s a “subversive” little bedtime book for adults. It should not be read to children. It’s called “Go the F— to Sleep.” Anyone who’s ever been up at 2 in the morning with a baby or toddler knows exactly the feeling that is being exploited here. “Total genius,” says the blurb on the front cover. Genius it is not. Anybody could have written this book in 90 minutes, tops. It’s just having the “bright idea” of a naughty nighty-night book that might make the get-quick-rich schemers jealous. The book could not be smaller (32 pages, seven ounces, and less than nine inches by six inches), but it retails for $14.95. This could be called getting your cursing bang for the buck. There are 428 words in this stupid thing, and 24 are curse words. That’s about one profanity out of about every 18 words. Shakespearean. But wait! There’s more! Barnes & Noble is even helpful to the buyer of this epic work of “genius” in recommending other tomes in this genre. On the sales slip, they insisted if you like this, of course you’ll enjoy other literary works of high art like “S— My Dad Says,” “Farts,” and “[A-Words] Finish First.”
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on June 25, 2011. Filed under