Heh! You have to BE here to get it, Peter K. It works this way: the mere word or the symbolic reference itself offends the listener...regardless of the context it is put in, and regardless of the intention behind it!

Thus the kind of brilliant satire performed in more enlightened times by such as Lenny Bruce or the people who made "A Fish Called Wanda" is simply...OMIGOD...just totally, like, unacceptable in today's fear-ridden North American society where appearances are all that counts, keeping up appearances is all that counts, and be damned with content or meaning!

Remember, for instance, the case of a public offical who got hell for using the word "niggardly" to describe people who were cheap and stingy?

The many people who were outraged by his use of the word were apparently quite unaware of its origins in Scotland and the fact that it has nothing whatsoever to do with Black people, and never did have anything to do with Black people.

But.....superficial appearances and knee jerk reactions are all that count in America. So never analyze anything, never attempt to understand the context, always assume the absolute worst, always interpret it as an attack on YOU and YOURS...and you will have found the American approach to dealing with such thorny social issues. ;-)