Boner - Growing Pains (1985) Discussion

[–] SteverB 11 years ago

Because in the mid-80s, things weren't SO politically correct as they are now. Watch a PG rated movie from the 70s or 80s and see what you see and hear that you wouldn't now. We've regressed since Janet Jackson's boob got exposed at the Super Bowl. It's pretty sad.

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[–] demonlord6696 10 years ago

Yes regressed thanks to liberals.

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[–] soul-prospector 10 years ago

Wait. You're saying that the reason we can't be more risque in TV and film is because liberals are against nudity or coarse language? lol! Look up the word "liberal". I'll do it for you: liberal - open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values. Now let's see what conservative means: conservative - holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation. Yes, it's liberals who wish to maintain Victorian era norms.

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[–] deem_bastille 9 years ago

yeah! where have you been? the first ones to cry racism/sexism/genderism/whateverism are the ones who also claim to be DEMOCRATIC LIBERALS!

PS: my neighbor works for the democratic board in my town and is a loud democrat at that: she still says Orientals and mulignanes.

all 'conservatives' want is to protect the children from terms and concepts they are not ready for. I teach in an elementary school and we now have a transgender discrimination clause for teachers and students. I am all for equality and anti bullying but I dislike even the thought of something like this being exposed to a 4 year old! no four year old should know about this unless there is someone in their immediate family who is transgender [or whatever]. I am not a prude but I do think that exposing children to things like this TOO SOON is a recipe for trouble!

Reading the paper can really be depressing. Mr. Dithers fired Dagwood again.

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[–] baran_erik 9 years ago

Yeah, I'm sure it was liberals that complained about a flash of a nip on TV. Couldn't have been the bible thumping repugnantcans.

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[–] soul-prospector 10 years ago

The use of the word "boner" has nothing to do with political correctness. Political correctness means "the avoidance, often considered as taken to extremes, of forms of expression or action that are perceived to exclude, marginalize, or insult groups of people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against." It isn't about using cuss words.

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[–] spike71 11 years ago

His name was Richard Stabone so I don't think Boner is exactly an inappropriate name.

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[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] markdown474 10 years ago

I loved how in the graduation episode Mike tells him that he should stop going by Boner and go by something more mature....like Dick.

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[–] spike71 10 years ago

Poor kid...he really had no way out with the name Richard Stabone!

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[–] ihpsdm (3) 7 years ago

The best part is in the credits of that episode when one of the kids is credited as "Little Boner". I still crack up at that.

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[–] brynerma 11 years ago

"Boner" also means a silly mistake.

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[–] jayme_franklin 11 years ago

There was one episode, I kid you not, where Mike said, "Boner blew his wad last night." It was about Boner spending all of his money on something. It has got to be on YouTube bc it's hilarious. I was young teenager then, and I wondered how they got away with that.
I can't stand the über-religious Kirk Cameron. Makes me sick.

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[–] annamarie05 10 years ago

Because people weren't so uptight and easily offended back then.

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[–] bote 10 years ago

Who doesn't like a boner?

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[–] bpbfde4-1 9 years ago

Mine is OK. Some other guy's? Not so much. I'm straight so.....

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[–] richard.fuller1 10 years ago

Wow.

Because boner did NOT mean an erection at that time when this show was out and being watched. It had nothing to do with political correctness or anybody being uptight.

Boner being an erection is slang, and slang comes about on a whim and pretty much goes out as well.

Wad also did not mean ejaculated semen since the beginning of time. It too came about in the past several years, long after this show had left the air.

As someone else pointed out, boner did indeed mean a foolish mistake.

It goes back to Superman and Batman comic books in the 30s and 40s.

If we want to believe in some Beavis and Butthead way that slang words must always apply, then let's lose sleep at night trying to figure out why Santa Claus is calling for prostitutes. What sort of example is that to teach young children?

For the record, for those who wish to complain about political correctness as something that has only recently come about, Bill Cosby and Robert Culp were told on I Spy they couldn't say to one another about a third party, "he's crazy, man" because it would offend crazy people.

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[–] raygunpunx-465-246490 10 years ago

Boner as slang has been around since the 50's

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[–] richard.fuller1 10 years ago

It goes back earlier than the '50s as comic books in the 40s had it spoken by Batman or the Joker in stating the other had made a mistake even then.

Wizard magazine reprinted them with rather childish comments.

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[–] shandy8 10 years ago

I remember using 'boner' to mean hard-on in elementary school (back in the early 1970s); however, it was more common to use it as a synonym for a faux pas. I remember Lucy Ricardo saying it in 'The Star Next Door".

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[–] richard.fuller1 9 years ago

I suppose if we apply 'elementary slang' to why this character's name was Boner, it would fit, but who on Earth wants to go through life dictated by elementary slang?

I NEVER cared for slang when I was in school and to this day don't partake of it, for this simple reason of this discussion right here.

In the seventies, game shows celebrities couldn't say 'leaf' without bursting into hysterics. EVERYTHING had an innuendo.

Also being a child from the seventies, the most I recall about an erection was I was told I had to go to the bathroom, and all I knew was my penis was stiff.

'Wood' has also come to mean an erection, much the same way boner did. Are we once again going to do Beavis and Butthead snickers when someone says wood?

"A beaver taking on wood".

That laughter was canned from seventies game shows.

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[–] Bubbathegut (18094) 6 years ago

Actually it goes back the 30's, it was common slang in silent movies.

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[–] Dan_Garten 9 years ago

Agreed, richard.fuller1

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[–] mistersparkle 8 years ago

Because boner did NOT mean an erection at that time when this show was out and being watched.

It certainly did in the school I went to. Boner as a joke or faux pas, not even a little bit, that stuff was from our grandparents time or something far as we knew, if we knew of that version at all.

--
You have many question, Mr Sparkle. I send you premium -- answer question, hundred percent!

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[–] perspiringwriter 10 years ago

It makes me think of that infamous baseball play called "Merkle's boner" as in a bonehead play because Merkle's error cost his team the game. Nowadays, if you saw a headline that said "Yankees lose World Series on Jeter's boner" it takes on a whole new meaning.

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[–] mancityjinx 10 years ago

Richard is right. While it may have had that connotation to some it was not widely known for that. A lot of these 'lewd' connotations were not widely made back in the day...I don't think it was to do with sensors at all...more of an innocence that I really miss a lot. I grew up in the 80s and 90s as a teen.

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