Mormon Expletives

Flip.

When I was 16 I had a young man in my priests quorum who was the epitome of "Peter Priesthood". He didn't watch PG-13 movies, played the piano and sang in the ward choir, and the only pop he would drink was the store brand version of sprite.
Of all his peculiarities, the most interesting thing about him was how he'd express his frustrations. 
In a moment of heated passion and anger, he would yell out "popcorn!" He would eventually explain to me that he decided early in life that instead of saying words like "crap" or "shoot", he would say a word that was completely void of vulgarity and could even influence him to smile after the fact. 

Popcorn.

Mormon culture is known for many eccentricities, but I don't know that any of them are more baffling, 
and yet widespread, as Mormon expletives. You know- frick, fetch, shiz, hecka, and oh my heck. 
Those attempts by all of us to sugarcoat an otherwise racey expression of emotion.

First off, I often wonder where this started. 
Can you imagine those settling the Salt Lake Valley screaming out 
"Dag nammit! The freaking crops won't grow in this flipping rocky soil! What the h!" 
Obviously not. All I know is that somewhere along the way, someone needed to express something and it needed to not be proper. We've now even reached a point in this evolution where people now make up expletives to be ironic. 
Now you walk down Utah streets hearing "Shatner!" or "Oh my lanta!".

I asked several friends what they thought about Mormon expletives and, although each one expressed that they think they're illogical and they serve the same purpose as the curse words they replace, most of them use one or two regularly. Myself included.


We may be at a point where it's so soaked into our culture that we may as well accept it, 
but may I propose retiring some that may hurt more than help?

1. OMGoodness 
It might be my least favorite phrase ever. Usually used by people trying to be ironic and cute. 
Its annoying and gross. Like adding 5 cups of sugar to a handful of nerts.

2. Flip, freak, fudge, and all other replacement words for what is also referred to as the F-bomb
Can we all agree that might be too intense of a swear word to imitate?

3. Oh my heck
Might be a little too Utah for me. Some Utah is fine, but this pushes it too hard.

4. Sucks
I wouldn't necessarily classify it exclusively as a Mormon term, but we definitely seem to use it more than most 
for the same purpose as any other expletive. Vulgar. Immature.


Mormon expletives are probably most interesting because we all do it knowing how ridiculous it is. 
We've come to terms with being a "peculiar people" and know how we want to express that shiz.

There's The Rub.