Reply #2: Well, the F word was getting big during those times

[MADem]

It was still scandalous to say it, but people liked to because it had a certain shock value to it. Nowadays, geezers in FL, to say nothing of geezers on the Senate floor, will tell you to go F yourself!

"FUNK" had three of the four letters of fuck, but it was just different enough so that you could say, and sing, it on tee-vee! Oh, how very....NAUGHTY!

That, in my experience, had something to do with the popularity of the word!