Dumbass Sayings: “You’re Doing a Heck of a Job”

Sometimes when you’re the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane, a guy in a cowboy hat will walk up to you and say “You’re doing a heck of a job!” Heck of course is a politically correct substitute for “Hell.” The problem I have with this saying is that it’s meant to be praise. Doing a hell or heck of a job is considered a good thing, but isn’t Hell a bad place though? Unless you’re a Satanist, doing a hell of a job should be an insult. A proper way to say this would be “You’re doing a heavenly job.” If doing a hell of a job is good then being told “You look like hell” should be a compliment. From my experience, it is not. So in 2005 when George W. Bush told director of FEMA Michael Brown “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” he was actually being very accurate. New Orleans was turned into a hellscape which featured some of the darkest depths of human suffering we’ve ever seen. That’s what a “heck of a job” should mean. We need to start using words properly. Hell is supposed to be bad. Maybe this basic confusion is what’s causing such a deterioration in society and culture. Hell = bad, bad = not good!

Satan is one hell of an interior decorator.