If you’re familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn‘s oeuvre, then you know that the man works with profanity like some artists work with watercolors. He’s also a prolific Twitter user, so recently, Gunn combined his two passions by crowdsourcing the correct spelling for, ahem, “asshat.”
According to Gunn’s tweet, the writer/director wanted to use the term in his latest script, but he ran into a good question. Is asshat hyphenated or unhyphenated? After turning to Google, Gunn learned that opinions are split, so he started a Twitter poll to settle the matter once for all.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1302748969160732674
As over 48,000 Twitter users shared their preferred spelling for “asshat,” Gunn fielded questions on the preferred spelling for some other profanities. While revealing what the term “scumbucket” really means, Gunn shared an anecdote about why he was forced to remove the word “dork” from a PG script. Turns out the childhood taunt isn’t just another name for a nerd.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1302751451135922176
Once the poll closed, the results were clear: “Asshat” is one word, no hyphen, and Gunn made sure to tag the Merriam-Webster Dictionary so they could properly note this very important distinction for future generations.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1303217617293832193
After his brief foray into exploring the proper grammar of everyday profanities, Gunn returned to discussing The Suicide Squad, which marks his first collaboration with DC Comics after delivering the smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel. According to Gunn, he doesn’t make it a practice to write roles with a specific actor in mind, but he couldn’t resist when it came to Idris Elba who plays Bloodsport in the upcoming sequel slash quasi-reboot.
“You went beyond my expectations as an actor AND as a human being,” Gunn wrote in a tweet celebrating Elba’s birthday.
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1302705059952697344
(Via James Gunn on Twitter)
