Treatise on a one-liner

Bruce Willis delivered the immortal words "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" in the hit movie Die Hard. For some reason, Slate's Eric Lichtenfeld thought the one-liner was worthy of erudite deconstruction back in 2007: "A quarter of the line (or half, depending on how you count) is profane, and yet 'Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker' is actually a delicate wisecrack. Underscoring the line's bridging of generations is the symmetry of its construction. On either side of the comma, past and present each get four syllables. This balance is manifested in the evenness of Willis' first—and best—delivery of the line. Subtly, he eases off 'fucker,' the word that, by virtue of its syntactical position, and its very nature, we might expect to land hardest on our ears. That Willis does not employ the same deftness in the sequels is a pity. The phrase is most effective not as a buildup to some hammer punch, but as one seamless unit of defiance." Really? I dunno. Though I can appreciate Lichtenfeld's musings, his treatise still strikes me as overthink. Somehow Willis' "Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker" seems no more profane or meaningful than, say, Samuel L. Jackson's "Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" But then, what do I know.