“Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits”
by Dan Sally (exclusively for TMRzoo.com)
I’d imagine no one’s offended seeing these words.
Sure, you probably wouldn’t send an e-mail to IT telling them the printer is being real “cunty”, but a good “cocksucking motherfucker” can really make your point clear when used in the right context (although I will say a fetish for both sucking cocks and fucking mothers does seem mutually exclusive, unless the mothers being fucked have cocks to be sucked – which brings us into a dark, dark area I’m not prepared to take you).
In the context of stand-up comedy, audiences generally give performers the option to use these words at their discretion. In the context of a performance in Milwaukee in July of 1972, these words landed George Carlin in jail.
While I’d say some comedians might be too concerned with how the audience might react to do a routine on the mechanics of simultaneous cocksucking and motherfucking, the ones who aren’t can thank Carlin for not having to worry about making bail.
Carlin crossed the line and erased it, opening the door for comedians to explore material that might have been considered taboo before him. As an unfortunate side effect, it seems some might have lost sight of the real meaning of those seven dirty words.
Good comedy makes people laugh. Great comedy makes people laugh at parts of themselves and the world they’re too afraid to discuss. While the world George Carlin left today has the seeming appearance of limitless tolerance of any and every topic, it wouldn’t do justice to his legacy to continually cross old taboos like a college kid in a Che Guevara t-shirt.
There’s still shit, piss, fuck, cunts, cocksuckers, motherfuckers, and tits to be found, and the best way to honor Carlin’s memory is to make people comfortable enough to laugh at it.
(In a very fuckly manner)
Dan Sally is Boston comedian who has been featured on Comedy Central’s Live At Gotham check out his blogs on Myspace
