By Billy S. Garland
The city of Louisville is known for a lot of things. Whether it is the Kentucky Derby or Rick Pitino, this town holds the events and people that catch and hold the attention of the nation. Now, thanks to a recent article published by businessinsider.com, the ‘Ville has one more unique achievement to set us apart.
The article, written by journalist Eric Krangel, cites evidence compiled with the help of Google that ranks Louisville as the most obscene city in the nation. Working from the basis of George Carlin’s, “7 Words you Will Never Hear on Television,” Krangel composed a list of the cities with the highest percentage of searches pertaining to any of Carlin’s listed obscenities. Perched perilously at the top, right above Philadelphia and Los Angeles, was our glorious city.
This brings to mind several questions. First, what exactly are we searching for? Obviously, this answer is out there and can be found. But at the risk of sounding like an old comedian, there are some words that you will never read in a newspaper. These words, unfortunately, seem to be imbedded in the search queries that sparked this article, making it very difficult to answer this question without looking into the history tab of your roommate’s Internet browser.
This leads us to our second question of the day: Who exactly are these gross Googlers? If you are an individual who is honestly able to ask this question without a pang of guilt, then you no longer seem to be in the majority. The data compiled for the ranking was based on percentage of searches, not simply the number. The point is not that so many searches of this type went out; the point is that when Louisville is searching the Web, we tend to be using it to delve into these topics that would make our mothers blush, on more of a regular basis than the rest of the country. Perhaps I shouldn’t assume so much. It could likely be our mothers that are typing red-handed.
Finally, I have to ask: How bored are we? Seriously, do we have nothing better, as a community, to do than sit around looking up poop jokes and peep shows on the Internet? It is an old idiom that idle hands are the devil’s play things. Who knew the devil liked to mess around on Google?
It must be recognized that U of L students undoubtedly played a role in Louisville reaching this status. The popularity and continued success of sites such as collegehumor.com serves to illustrate the point that we, as college students, tend to have a sense of humor that encompasses the off-color. Don’t worry though—no data was taken on the people making the searches. So, if you were about to throw your computer out the dorm window, just sit back down and breathe.
When the Internet began to become an American household staple, it was common to see public service announcements asking parents one question: Do you know what your kids are looking at online right now? Taking into account Louisville’s newly achieved number one ranking, and the role that we most likely played, perhaps the question we should be asking is: Do you know what your roommate is Googling right now?
