Skip to content

Pain in the _____

2026-08-14 · explainer · Hank · 6:52 · watch on YouTube

Topic: History & curiosities · mode: Curiosity & trivia

Prompted by a stiff neck, Hank uses Google's Ngram viewer to test whether 'pain in the ass' replaced 'pain in the neck'; it did not, as neck usage held steady while butt phrases grew alongside, and he hypothesizes the two idioms do different work: unavoidable annoyance versus annoyance that did not have to happen.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank's mysterious neck pain and the thought that it is a pain in the butt and the neck

  • ★★ Hank says a few weeks ago he woke up, as he does once or twice a year, with something mysteriously wrong in his neck, which he finds annoying. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Hank's hypothesis that butt idioms replaced neck idioms, and what Google's Ngram viewer can and cannot show

  • ★ Hank apologizes that the video will say the word 'ass', noting that Vlogbrothers does not tend to curse much. — 00:00:29 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Hank's starting hypothesis: 'pain in the butt' and 'pain in the ass' had been taking over from 'pain in the neck' as language taboos loosened. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • ★★ Hank explains that Google's Ngram viewer is a searchable word-frequency-over-time database drawn mostly from books and other print, not from speech. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank says that because Ngram covers print only, it cannot show whether 'pain in the neck' or 'pain in the ass' came first in speech. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ Hank notes Ngram shows phrases as a share of all words printed each year, not absolute numbers, because publishing volume changes over time. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — Ngram results: 'pain in the neck' holds steady, butt-area pains grow alongside and pass it in 1996

  • ★★ Hank says a plain search for 'pain in the neck' shows a bump in the 1940s, perhaps when the idiom spiked in print. (hedged) — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank says searching the phrase in quotation marks shows an explosion of authors quoting the idiom in the 1940s, trailing off as it became naturalized. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Hank finds 'is a pain in the neck' remarkably consistent in print: its 2010 peak is barely below its 1940 peak. — 00:02:55
  • ★★★ Hank concludes his hypothesis was wrong: 'pain in the ass' did not replace 'pain in the neck' but was almost entirely supplemental. — 00:03:24
  • ★★★ Hank reports that pains in the butt area surpassed pains in the neck in print in 1996 and never looked back. — 00:03:24
  • ★★ Hank first thought we simply complain more than we used to, but says the data cannot show that, since many other ways of calling things annoying are untracked. — 00:03:24

00:03:53 — Do the idioms mean different things? Dictionaries say no; Hank's examples suggest unavoidable versus avoidable annoyance

  • ★★ Hank says dictionaries mostly define the two phrases identically; the Cambridge Dictionary gives the same definition for both. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ Hank says a kid is not really a pain in the ass but a pain in the neck, until about age 13, when they become a pain in the ass. (playful) — 00:04:22
  • ★★★ Hank feels 'pain in the neck' means an unavoidable source of annoyance and friction, while 'pain in the ass' is more frustrating because it did not have to be that way. — 00:04:52
  • ★★ Hank's example: a flat tire is a pain in the neck, but someone stealing his tires is a pain in the ass, since it should not have happened. — 00:05:21
  • ★★★ Hank's new, unprovable hypothesis from introspection: 'pain in the ass' could grow while 'pain in the neck' stayed steady because the two do partly different work. (hedged) — 00:05:21
  • ★★ Hank says he does not know how language decides what it will become, but it does, and one can always look deeper. (unsure) — 00:05:50
  • ★★ Hank says in British books 'pain in the arse' led 'pain in the ass' for a while, but America appears to have won. (hedged) — 00:05:50 · United Kingdom, United States

00:06:05 — Other findings: British 'arse', less taboo butt phrases, a graph of the rise leveling off; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says less taboo butt phrases arose: 'pain in the rear end' has always led, while 'patootie' and 'tush' are now cratering. — 00:06:19
  • ★ Hank guesses 'patootie' and 'tush' are cratering because people are now more afraid of being cringe. (playful, speculative) — 00:06:19
  • ★★ Hank shows a graph of pains in the butt area versus the neck: the rise has been smooth and finally appears to be leveling off. (hedged) — 00:06:19

In the description and comments

Mentioned

Central: Google Ngram Viewer · idiom

Also: Cambridge Dictionary · Language change · profanity · taboo · United Kingdom · United States

← Previous: Hollywood, Ending · Next → My Nemeses