George Carlin and Nietzsche

In the words of the late comic George Carlin:

    I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I uh, I think is important. I love..as I say, they're my work, they're my play, they're my passion. Words are all we have really.

    We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. You know, [humming]. And, then we assign a word to a thought, [clicks tongue]. And we're stuck with that word for that thought. So be careful with words. I like to think, yeah, the same words that hurt can heal. It's a matter of how you pick them.

    There are some people that aren't into all the words. There are some people who would have you not use certain words. Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous, to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you seven. Bad words. That's what they told us they were, remember? 'That's a bad word.' 'Awwww.' There are no bad words. Bad thoughts.  Bad Intentions.

    And words, you know the seven don't you? Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, huh? Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that will infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war.

For a full transcript: http://www.erenkrantz.com/Humor/SevenDirtyWords.shtml
 

I never tire of Carlin’s “7 Words You Can’t Say on Television” – but when I was listening to it recently, it struck me as completely relevant to our class. Three things I’d like to note:

• Carlin’s reverence and adulation for words and their capabilities.
• Carlin’s sensibilities in agreement with Nietzsche in regards to truth.
• Carlin’s dissection of metaphors in “bad” words. (for more evidence of this, see transcript)

    Without words, where would we be? Frustrations aside, our ability to communicate without words is often uproariously comical. Consider the age-old game of Charades. Generations of people have gathered around and attempted to communicate words through only physical actions. The humorous result of watching Uncle Walter acting out “To Kill a Mockingbird” is in the visual imagery of an aging man flapping his fictional wings while trying to express some kind of forcible death. Laughter erupts because without words, we are reduced to goofy improvisation of symbols for objects and concepts. Our mis-communication even with words can be hilariously funny. The list of unintentional gaffes, malapropisms, and made-up words (think SNL's mockery of G.W. Bush with “strategery”) goes on and on, and it it through this medium that many comics can elicit laughter by pointing out the obvious humor in our misuse of words. Mitch Hedberg’s often quoted line that “An escalator can never break--it can only become stairs. You would never see an "Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order" sign, just "Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there."” relies on our knowledge of words and their associated meanings/metaphors. That Carlin makes a note that “thoughts are fluid” shows the permanence of words and the impact of their meaning at one particular time. Once uttered or written, either in the sand or in spray paint on the side of a building, a word has left a lasting impression in this world, one that is different to everyone who sees or hears it.

    After our online discussions about Nietzsche, I hadn’t (and still haven’t) been able to shake the notion that what one person thinks of as “the truth” is not necessarily what another person thinks of as the truth. What does this have to do with George Carlin and obscenities? Just this: that the truth of a word’s meaning is not irrefutable. Nietszche claimed that words were merely metaphors: representative of a feeling, an object, a concept, for each person. That an individual has his or her own definition for a word is true, but the truth of that particular word is not the same for any two people. In terms of obscene language, we all have different reactions to what we perceive the meanings to be. Meanings can change at different circumstances in different company. Someone referring to her boss as a serious “douche” may garner laughter, but used in a different context, say… a Gynecologist’s office, the same word takes on a new role. Consider people who learn English as a second language. Imagine how confusing many idiomatic expressions are used as obscenities are for them. Some words have dual meaning: A Frenchman would ask why you were giggling about the “shower” or why is “motherfucker” different from “dad”?

    Carlin points out many inane reasons that society (and those in charge of keeping society a happy place full of unicorns and rainbows) avoids specific words. One thing he fails to point out though is those words that, even in English speaking countries, are different on either side of the Atlantic. One of the seven deadly words, “cunt” (often pronounced See You Next Tuesday by prudish individuals) is mightily taboo in American culture and is often deemed the ultimate in insultingly crass words to use in regard to a woman. On the contrary, in England, the same word is a mere comical slight or even positive term of endearment in passing that is used for anyone, male or female. On the flip side, an American prudish-ism “fanny” is a nickname for a woman’s vagina in England. So, wait a minute, same word, same language, different meaning, different location – can this be true?

    I could go on and on, picking away at the uses and versions of “bad” language, but such writing has been exhausted by many others before me. I will just end with one final comment about the “badness” of these words. What is it about these words that is so bad? What stirs fear in those who try to suppress them? What threat do they pose? Are they, like Marijuana, the gateway drug? Will using these words plunge a person into the depths of humanity, opening doors to temptation and evil? I know plenty of saintly individuals with broad vocabularies and serious potty mouths, and I don’t think they are worried about the road to hell being paved with bad linguistic inventions.  

"Strategery"