Filth and Loathing in Southern Florida
POMPANO BEACH, FL — If Ray Guhn’s prosecution for obscenity did nothing else for the people of the great state of Florida, it exposed the secret lives of their keyboards. Evidently those keyboards (sans human interaction, of course) have wild, warped and wicked minds when it comes to online searches.Since attorney Lawrence Walters in June raised the possibility of using Google Trends data as a measure of “community standards,” people of all stripes — from average citizens to researchers to legal eagles and reporters — have been checking out Google’s experimental keyword-popularity comparison tool to see just what others are typing into Google’s search interface. When Miami New Times writer Michael J. Mooney took a look, he was both shocked and amused.
“Pompano Beach residents have the filthiest fucking mouths in the whole state of Florida,” Mooney wrote. “Well, maybe not mouths, but fingers…. North Broward Web users have been busy surfing for salaciousness.”
According to Mooney’s research, although people in the state capital have searched for election information more often than any other topic and people in rural areas of the state searched horse-related terms, North Broward County residents — which Mooney noted was represented in Google Trends by Pompano Beach — have been “typing words that, not long ago, would get you a bar of soap in the mouth.”
Among the most popular terms for Pompano Beach Web users: dick, shit, fuck, bitch, slut, porn, whore, tits, naughty, cum, semen, cock, pussy, MILF, anal, blowjob, hardcore, swallow, dildo, creampie…
… and Jesus. (Good lord, what does He have to do with sex?)
Although Pompano Beach seems to be a hot spot for sexual euphemisms, one other Florida city ranks at the top of the list for one specific term gaining popularity among the smuterati: Mooney notes that Delray Beach is No. 1 for “dirty Sanchez.”