A light has gone out of the world: George Carlin is dead. Not only was he a brilliant comedian, but a fierce opponent of dogmatism and political correctness. In an obituary in Tuesday's New York Times, Jerry Seinfeld wrote of his friend's performances, "It was like the naughtiest, most fun grown-up you ever met was reading you a bedtime story."
I believe that one of the most distinguishing marks of Carlin's stand-up routine was his majestic use of profanity. Carlin understood that profanity is a mere flavor enhancer, kind of like the MSG of jokes.The humor itself emanates from the content of Carlin's routine, not from the four-letter words that attend it. Unfortunately, this point is often lost in today's anemic campus discourse.
Take, for example, the anonymous column published in every issue of the Dartmouth Free Press, titled "F*ck that Shit." The principal failing of the column is that it mistakes the f-word and its kin as being humorous in and of themselves. Admittedly, I felt the same way -- in fourth grade. Perhaps I've grown jaded, but that sort of amateurish stab at comedy is more apt to leave me yawning than giggling. The same goes for any fumblingly vulgar cunnilingus instruction manuals in The Mirror.
Certain comedians have a rule: if you want to make a joke with the f-word in it, take the f-word out and see if it is still funny. If it is, then put the f-word back in. I think that this is an admirable code of conduct, and it serves comedy well. Take a look at any of Carlin's routines, or Louis C.K.'s, or Chris Rock's and you'll see what I mean.
These comedians have material that is innately funny, and they use profanity like well-placed exclamation points. In fact, I think that should be the guiding light for the proper usage of cuss-words: use profanity as punctuation, not as actual words.
Perhaps in the 1950s vulgarity without any redeeming content was an acceptable goal as a means of broadening free-speech protections. I remember reading Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (which was itself the subject of an obscenity trial) in middle school, and I was struck by the phrase "fcked in the ass by saintly motorcyclists." Outside of any value to the gay rights movement (which I would say is limited), this line lacks any real worth by itself or in the greater context of the poem. "Fck" is just hanging there, intended to shock all the housewives who probably weren't reading it. "F*ck that Shit" has carried along this illustrious tradition of fatuity, except it will never find itself the subject of an obscenity suit. All it will do is make us yawn and mar the credibility of liberal discourse on campus.
I suppose that the author(s) of "F*ck that Shit" are not entirely to blame. In his essay, "Politics and the English Langiage," George Orwell says that the denigration of language is something that naturally occurs along with the growth of bureaucracy and the increasing complexities of modernization.
Rather than expressing ourselves in lucid and muscular English, we resort to the desperate cry of "f*ck" in the wilderness. I'm sorry if this sounds like an attack solely on that column in the DFP -- but it is a fertile ground for criticism. The same critique can definitely be applied to the racist "Blarflex" comic that appeared in The D, or that silly vagina in The Mirror. The point is that the palette of contemporary discourse seems to have limited its range to flippant contempt.
Using "f*ck" like confetti was shocking when my mom was in school. Now it should be time to bring liberal and radical writing back to its roots, making it more rigorous, clear and logical, like it was when Voltaire criticized religious bigotry or when Martin Luther King wrote his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."
While certainly not on a literary par with King's writings, Carlin's routines had hard nuggets of comedy that concisely expressed observations about the human condition. The profanity just added a little verve and spice to it. Progressive publications should give up their jaded vulgarity and get down to some serious business.
But they shouldn't lose their verve and irreverence, because I mean, f*ck that shit. Right?
