Today we try our darnedest to offend good taste and/or morals. Don't worry about alerting the FCC; we promise to confine our offenses to discussing what is offensive, not to truly getting down and dirty. Our research was prompted by the question of how to rank the terms coarse, vulgar, and obscene. (来源：专业英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

Coarse implies "roughness" or "rudeness," or a "crudeness of spirit, behavior, or language." The coarse humor of a co-worker might be offensive, for example. Vulgar is a bit stronger than coarse; it adds the notion of ill-breeding or boorishness. You might say that the vulgar table manners of a dining companion leaves you aghast, for instance. Obscene is more powerful still; that adjective stresses impropriety, indecency, or nastiness and is applied to things strongly repulsive to the sense of decency or propriety, especially in sexual matters. Recall that language considered obscene has long been banned from the airwaves.

Are you mumbling about bluestockings and censorship? Time to close with a nod to the adjective ribald. Rooted in an Old French verb meaning "to be debauched," ribald is applied to what is amusingly or picturesquely vulgar or irreverent or mildly indecent. Think, for instance, of a few of the more choice Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.