Maybe calling yourself Holy Fuck isn't quite so clever after all

Canada's Conservative Government has announced that it's pulling funding from two programmes which helped local bands sell their music internationally. One of the reasons given is that some of the bands using the funding are rude:

"the money was going to fringe arts groups that, in many cases, would be at best, unrepresentative, and at worst, offensive"

Yes, it turns out that funding Holy Fuck was all the excuse the government needed to axe the money for everyone: why should tax money be used to fling Canadian filth at the world's pop kids, ran the justification. Holy Fuck, though, are reluctant to carry the can:

"I guess more than anything it's a little bit annoying that we've been made the scapegoat when you consider how much money we receive relative to the budget for the entire program," [bassist Matt] McQuaid said.

"So all of these other larger groups who need money more than we do to travel abroad - like ballet and symphonies - we become the scapegoat for the cutting in their funding."

Well, yes, it's clearly a trumped-up excuse - if the real worry was that the music being promoted through the scheme was profane, you could just introduce a box on the application form which asked "will you have the f-word, or the c-word, or the k-word on your records?". But on the other hand, you don't call your band Holy Fuck because you think it's a quiet name that will let people focus on your music instead. It's a childish, look-at-us name; in this case, it's clearly worked in attracting attention. It's a bit much to moan that an attempt to be outrageous has wound up with people being outraged.