The Trouble with THAT Word
Shit Piss Fuck Cunt Cocksucker Motherfucker Tits
Those are, of course, “The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” the legendary George Carlin routine by the legendary — and now very dead — George Carlin. Sad face. Very sad face.
George Carlin was the first public figure I ever heard who accurately articulated the uncommon nonsense of theism. He broke rules. He told truths. There’ll be a lot of talk today about those Seven Words and in very much of that talk one of those words is going to be referenced in the most oblique fashion.
We’re talking, of course, about the word “cunt”. A poster at a largely-female message board to which I belong listed off all the words today, all of them except That Word, reducing it to “****” and I totally, totally understand why That Word, so often used as the ugliest, most mysogynist epithet imaginable, should be — and is — avoided.
And that’s a big problem for America these days. Because, in an effort to be ultrasensitive to those who take offense at its utterance, to be respectful of those at whom That Word has been thrown in an effort to injure, it’s become acceptable to not mention it even while discussing its injurious ugliness.
Because in 1992, U.S. presidential candidate John McCain called his wife a cunt.
And that’s news. Big, huge news. And you should be hearing about it in the mainstream media, as loudly and as frequently as you would a news report of Michelle Obama saying whatever Fox News has decided is embarrassing to her husband’s campaign.
But you won’t hear about John McCain calling his wife a cunt, or an analysis of whether he actually did call his wife a cunt, and you won’t even hear about it by referring to That Word as “the C-word”, because we trip over ourselves being hyperoversensitive to certain words without defending the notion that they’re words, ideas, and that there’s a proper context for the appropriate discussion of any idea.
And I can’t think of a more proper context to discuss That Word than when That Word comes out of a presidential candidate’s mouth in an effort to wound his wife.
And I wonder what George Carlin would’ve had to say about that.
But let’s not end this particular post on the use of an ugly word uttered by an ugly man, let’s let GC have the last word. I had originally posted a rather uplifting passage attributed to him but have found out that “The Paradox of Our Time” was not his. Here are his comments which kinda fit his passing, too:
One of the more embarrassing items making the internet/e-mail rounds is a sappy load of shit called “The Paradox of Our Time.” The main problem I have with it is that as true as some of the expressed sentiments may be, who really gives a shit? Certainly not me.
I figured out years ago that the human species is totally fucked and has been for a long time. I also know that the sick, media-consumer culture in America continues to make this so-called problem worse. But the trick, folks, is not to give a fuck. Like me. I really don’t care. I stopped worrying about all this temporal bullshit a long time ago. It’s meaningless. (See the preface of “Braindroppings.”)
Another problem I have with “Paradox” is that the ideas are all expressed in a sort of pseudo-spiritual, New-Age-y, “Gee-whiz-can’t-we-do-better-than-this” tone of voice. It’s not only bad prose and poetry, it’s weak philosophy. I hope I never sound like that.
And, perhaps my favourite:
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
7 Responses to “The Trouble with THAT Word”
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bstewart23
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Here, here. Words to live by. RIP, George. You will be missed.
Thank you for this, bstewart. Like many, George Carlin was an influential part of my youth, making me realize that critical thinking was a good thing.
RIP, George. You rocked better and harder than anyone. Thank you for sharing your insights with the rest of us.
I think the “Why is Chelsea Clinton ugly?” joke, a joke that McCain planned to tell is more revealing of his character than the words he said (or didn’t) in anger.
It is difficult, as a person who wants to defend all jokes as being a person’s right to tell, to simultaneously hold the understanding that there are some jokes I would like to have the right to not hear. BUT. I believe what Carlin did was tell the jokes he wanted to hear, the same way that I think Vonnegut (and RAWilson, for that matter) wrote the kinds of stories he wanted to read, which is the purest kind of creativity. And when you find people who also want to hear your jokes (or read your stories), it’s one of the purest feelings of connection, and it means something, really. It is almost impossible to mourn their passing, when they accomplished –at least in my mind– their goals so very well. I mourn them anyway, though: no more of those jokes, those insights, those stories. Those “four star epithets”, man, leaving us here to fend.
YOu know, one of my absolutely FAVORITE jokes has the C word in it. I ONLY say this joke when I want to absolutely stun people into silence:
You know why the call it a cunt??
Because that’s the sound it makes when you kick it.
I’ve been trying to desensitize myself to the word “cunt”, and not just because I need a handy term to refer to Ann Coulter. The world isn’t going to get nicer, if it ever was in the first place, and it doesn’t do one any good to visibly flinch when the word gets thrown at you. I fling around language around my parents that they sometimes flinch at, which is still tamer than what got sent my way from some of my peers, when I was a minor. To any parents who read this board, if you believe that dressing your daughter in a “non-slutty” manner will magically protect her from the pervs and creeps and Humbert Humberts of the world, you are being seriously naive.
I think in the case of discussing it in the media, especially any mention of McCain using it towards his wife (and the one he DIDN’T divorce, no less) there is the whole FCC issue, and the perception that saying the word would generate so much mental static in the audience that no one would pay attention to the actual story.
My first exposure to Carlin was by way of Nickelodeon, of all places. Obviously it was not the Seven Words Sketch, but enough to get the hang of his humor. He was part of a proud lineage of wiseass lapsed Catholics who realized, much to the dismay of the nuns at their schools, that rules for the sake of rules soon becomes ridiculous.
brett,
where can i get more information on mcCan’t’s use of That Word?
sincerely,
a canadian democrat.
e
wish you had put this clip up in memory of Carlin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI5EY5kqiBU
although the swear words controversy was spectacular and got all the press, i think it really distracted from the more real issues that Carlin was pointing at. Especially relevant in this day and age of the incomplete to wholly misleading 911 Commission; see the petition read into Parliament couple weeks ago, and the articles of impeachment for Bush given in Congress also couple weeks ago. And Bush’s hedge fund/private equity buddies making off like bandits (nevermind the oil, banking and other corporate interests).