Sweary semantics in The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson’s 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums features a short exchange that’s interesting for its taboo-linguistic detail. It takes place between Royal himself, played by Gene Hackman, and Henry, played by Danny Glover.

If you haven’t seen the film, but you might sometime (do, dammit), don’t worry about spoilers – the images below don’t give much away. And you don’t need to know the characters’ backstory, so let’s jump right in (transcript below the pics; more detail in alt text):

ROYAL: Can I say something to you, Henry?

HENRY: Okay.

ROYAL: I’ve always been considered an asshole, for about as long as I can remember. That’s just my style. But I’d really feel blue if I didn’t think you were going to forgive me.

HENRY: I don’t think you’re an asshole, Royal. I just think you’re kind of a son of a bitch.

ROYAL: Well, I really appreciate that.

I love pretty much everything about this conversation, not least Royal’s poetic use of blue to mean ‘sad’ – though here on Strong Language it tends to have another denotation.

And with those insults, too, the nuances clearly matter. So what is the difference, would you say, between an asshole and a son of a bitch?

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