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I heard a character in a children's cartoon use it and was a bit shocked given that it was like a PG/Y7 rated show and I have thought of the word as a vulgar phrase, albeit a mild one.

That being said, is this phrase considered ACTUALLY an vulgar phrase or at least too harsh for young children, or is this just my viewpoint?

For context, here is the scene it was used in(at 5:49): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjfFmMaG8Ek&ab_channel=ZeeToons%E2%80%93CartoonsforKids

Conan Highwoods
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    "Is the phrase 'screw up' or 'screwed up' considered profanity..." Who is doing the considering? Presumably the makers of the show didn't think so. People's attitudes to profanity vary greatly depending on their social background and beliefs, so you're just going to get a set of opinions. – KillingTime May 16 '23 at 20:16
  • More colloquial than vulgar. My opinion, for what it's worth. – Graffito May 16 '23 at 22:07
  • It depends entirely on the way the character used it. It could either be synonymous of "messed up" in a less polite way, or it could be a relatively polite way to say the f word. I used to grow up with DC Comics cartoon, which had the tendency to try to circumvent the age rating with some play of words (like a bad guy telling Superman he's going to kick that red S of him for example, since he has a red S logo on his torso). – Clockwork May 17 '23 at 05:17
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    What country is this? Standards vary. I'm guessing you're American but not 100% sure. In the UK, media regulators publish a list of offensive language, which doesn't include "screw", not sure if there is anything similar in other countries. That's more of a question for Movies and TV SE though. – Stuart F May 17 '23 at 08:22
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    Anecdotally - Facebook considers it grounds for dismissal. I once used it without really thinking it 'too rude' in a post in a [public/open] sound engineering group about having got something wrong… to find I had not only been auto-ejected from the group but the group itself completely hidden from me. I only discovered this by messaging one of the admins, who could see the post's deletion [but he could do nothing about my group membership, which I cannot rejoin even a year later]. – Tetsujin May 17 '23 at 10:26
  • It is Martin Mystery, a Canadian show. I am a US native, correct. @StuartF – Conan Highwoods May 17 '23 at 12:14
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    Does this answer your question? "Screw" slang terms — are any socially acceptable? Also Is "I'm screwed" a rude expression? and A more formal term for ‘screwed’? and Question about likely vulgar expressions, among others. – FumbleFingers May 17 '23 at 15:59
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    "Screwed" is a substitute for "fucked". You can decide if that makes it profane. – Hot Licks May 17 '23 at 20:52

4 Answers4

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Depends completely on which state / country / social setting you inhabit.

In my UK workplace, "I screwed up" would be a completely normal but colloquial way of accepting that one has made a mistake. For a young child one might prefer "messed up" (which means much the same). Not sure whether that's because of profanity or because "messed" is more likely to be in a child's vocabulary.

An adult will recognise that "screwed up" is a milder form of "f*cked up" -- which in the UK might well be used in the same workplace for a worse than average screw-up, but it might offend some. Well, maybe. Alternatively, grabbing a sheet of paper and crumpling it into a ball is screwing the paper up, possibly because you have messed up (screwed up) what is written on it.

nigel222
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    Note that "I screwed up" is not on the same level of profanity as "he screwed me up" for example – Teleporting Goat May 17 '23 at 09:07
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    Completely coincidentally within an hour of this, one of my colleagues used "I screwed up" in the context of something somewhat expensive and very fragile now being in pieces in the bin. We're buying another one. Coincidences bug me. – nigel222 May 17 '23 at 11:40
  • Whoa. You think coincidences are bad? Check this out. I was googling "screwing up" and I found a 1990 article by William Safire of the New York Times. (see https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/08/magazine/on-language-screwing-up.html). In it, he quotes a guy named Mankiewicz who said that screw-up is similar to SNAFU. – mankowitz May 17 '23 at 20:52
  • @Tel Also of note is that "I screwed him/her" is stronger than that, but can still be non-profanity (e.g. "I screwed him out of a promotion"). When used to directly reference sex, then it becomes more of a euphemism, a bit stronger than something like "I slept with them" or "I hooked up with them." – Aos Sidhe May 18 '23 at 13:50
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Profanity exists on a spectrum from mildly insensitive to downright intolerable. This spectrum changes over time and in different contexts.

However, since the word screw often refers to intercourse, I would argue that this at least mild profanity, even if the listeners may not be aware of the connotation.

Consider the following usages of the same word as they progress from acceptable to inacceptable in public discourse.

  1. I tightened the screw with a Philips screwdriver.
  2. They screwed me out of my bonus this year.
  3. I screwed that girl.
mankowitz
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    "You screwed up! You were supposed to add sugar to that cake!" would be somewhere between 1 and 3 – Clockwork May 17 '23 at 05:23
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    I don't see how this answers the question. Where does screw up fall on that spectrum? – Chris H May 17 '23 at 07:55
  • I think it's pretty clear that the questions asks about 2 (or a variation of 2) and this doesn't answer the question. – Teleporting Goat May 17 '23 at 08:58
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    While I agree that, ultimately, this is subjective, I still think you have a missing part in your scale. That is, I would argue that "I screwed up" -- which can also be "I messed up" -- doesn't necessarily evoke intercourse in the minds of the listeners while "They screwed me up" -- a milder alternative to "They f*cked me up" -- definitely does, and is therefore more vulgar, as far as I am concerned. – Matthieu M. May 17 '23 at 10:09
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    what makes you think blasphemy is the most extreme form of profanity? The two words commonly held to be the most offensive swear words (beginning c & f) both relate to sex, and neither are at all blasphemous. In fact, blasphemous swearing (e.g. "damn", "bloody", etc) are generally felt to be fairly weak ime – Tristan May 17 '23 at 13:38
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    I also don't think the argument that because screw is a euphemism for sex it must count as profanity. The same is true of saying something "sucks", but this is frequently heard in children's media (albeit not usually for the youngest children) without complaints – Tristan May 17 '23 at 13:40
  • I second the disagreement; just because something can be used to refer to intercourse doesn't mean it is. By that logic, "to smash", "to bang", "to nail", "to score", "to blow", "to tap", "to have", and even "to do" are all mild profanity, as all of them can be used in the exact same way that "to screw" is to refer euphemistically to sex. Alternatively, we can accept that terms can have very different meanings depending on context, and that saying "I screwed up" is about as related to having sex as "I nailed that solo" or "I scored a sweet deal" are—I.E., not at all. – Aos Sidhe May 17 '23 at 15:04
  • @Tristan - I meant blasphemy in the sense of something that was so egregious that anyone hearing it would be repulsed. Is intolerable better? – mankowitz May 17 '23 at 20:35
  • @AosSidhe - In my mind, the real question is how much of an intellectual leap is required to get from the intended meaning to the nefarious meaning. While I agree that all of your listed verbs can be sex euphemisms, I maintain that screwed up is closer to f-cked up than the others. – mankowitz May 17 '23 at 20:49
  • @mankowitz yep, intolerable is much better! – Tristan May 18 '23 at 12:57
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That being said, is this phrase considered ACTUALLY an vulgar phrase or at least too harsh for young children, or is this just my viewpoint?

As already commented, standards of rudeness are both cultural and personal; but here's the BBFC (the UK film censors) taking on exactly this phrase:

U stands for universal.

It means films that anyone can watch, including children as young as four.

...

In a U rated film, you might hear infrequent use of very mild bad language.

Here’s some examples from well known films.

...

Onward

[rated U for] mild threat, very mild bad language

Onward is an animated fantasy adventure in which two elf brothers attempt to bring magic back to their world from which it has disappeared.

...

What's the bad language?

"You act like you know what you're doing, but you don't have a clue! And that's because you are a screw up... And now you've screwed up my chance to have the ONE thing I never had!”

What we say:

In Onward, the term screw up is used in place of the word “messed up”, and the phrase is not used as a substitute for strong language, or used in a sexual sense. In this context, this word is acceptable at U. However, if the character directed the phrase at another character in an aggressive or angry manner, then this could result in a higher classification.

My emphasis in the last paragraph. From A Parents' Guide To Language on the BBFC website.

AakashM
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That being said, is this phrase considered ACTUALLY an vulgar phrase or at least too harsh for young children, or is this just my viewpoint?

All responses to words and phrases are learned responses. There are no words/phrases that are vulgar per se.

Children are not born with a response to a particular word or phrase. The response is a cultural meme that is passed down through the generations. To the child, "to screw up" is neutral. Once the child sees the reaction of a respected adult, the child imitates that reaction.

Thus, as a broader, non-language issue, the suitability for a child of any word is that which the parent shows. This is purely subjective.

TV programmers tend only to use words which they feel can be defended against objection.

Greybeard
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  • This is not a useful answer. Everything about language is "learned responses", nothing has any inherent meaning. The language community assigns meaning and nuances to utterances, and some of them are considered vulgar. It's no less meaningful to ask questions about this than about whether something is grammatical. – Barmar May 17 '23 at 16:15
  • @Barmar You need to define the term "The language community" and explain how it "assigns meaning and nuances to utterances". As it stands, my answer is an answer with a reasoned explanation. You seem to have done no more than paraphrase it. – Greybeard May 18 '23 at 09:34
  • I'm not a trained linguist, but my understanding is that this is a well known concept in that field. A language is defined by how it's used, and the users comprise the language community. E.g. the only reason that "head" means the thing at the top of our body is because that's the concensus understanding of English speakers. – Barmar May 18 '23 at 15:10
  • And similarly, the reason the F-word is vulgar is because that's the concensus opinion of English speakers. Meanwhile, "screw up" is not generally considered as bad. – Barmar May 18 '23 at 15:11
  • And similarly, the reason the F-word is vulgar is because that's the consensus opinion of English speakers. This does not explain anything. It is circular. It certainly does not explain why a word can be vulgar to one generation, but not another, and why degrees of perceived vulgarity exist together in one society, nor yet why a word can suddenly rush to the top of the vulgarity list after being seen as inoffensive for hundreds of years. – Greybeard May 18 '23 at 15:53
  • Of course it's circular. There's no authority that defines what words mean or how they're used, everything comes from the users. – Barmar May 18 '23 at 15:55
  • And yet the answer I gave breaks the circle... See the second paragraph. And how does your circular answer differ from "Because it is"? - which is not an answer. – Greybeard May 18 '23 at 16:02
  • Yes, it's cultural. The question should be understood as "Is the phrase 'screw up' considered vulgar by the English-speaking culture?" Because there's no other way to answer questions about meaning and interpretation of words/phrases. – Barmar May 18 '23 at 16:04
  • It would be a mistake yo impose your own question when there is a clear actual question "is this phrase considered ACTUALLY an vulgar phrase or at least too harsh for young children, or is this just my viewpoint?" My answer explains that it is subjective. – Greybeard May 18 '23 at 16:11
  • What else could "considered actually" mean? As you said, there are no inherent interpretations of words, the "actual" meaning is defined by the culture that uses it. Their question is clearly (IMHO) whether this is a personal opinion or a common opinion within the culture. – Barmar May 18 '23 at 16:14
  • And the answer, see above, is that it is subjective... – Greybeard May 18 '23 at 16:16