Rest Easy, George.

Jeff Cohen

In 1972, George Carlin debuted a monologue which he called "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." It's been almost 40 years, and I'm relatively sure we know which words they were. No need to remind you.

And I'm still astonished at the idea of it.

Words you can't SAY. In a society that supposedly promotes free speech. That's a really odd concept.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not interested in obscenity for shock value, and I write what I'll grudgingly admit are cozy mysteries (and I say "grudgingly" only because I didn't set out to follow any set of rules about what can or can't be expressed; it just sort of happened that way). I don't want to offend my readership, unless there's a really good reason to (so far, I have not found one).

But I'd like to know that I CAN if I want to. If I think there's a point to using a word that some might find offensive, I'm going to do so. And to be fair, in most cases, I think my editor and publisher would be okay with it if the word were appropriate to the situation, the character and the story. If it's not, then I shouldn't use any word, regardless of its ability to piss people off. (Oops!)

And as a father of formerly young children, I can sympathize with those who would prefer not to hear certain words on the broadcast airwaves because they'd rather not accelerate the conversation that will ensue. I remember how I felt when I saw certain words on bumper stickers and my kids would ask about them: "Thanks a lot for THAT one, pal!"

Television is an extremely powerful medium, although not what it once was. If you think keeping some words off TV is keeping them away from your kids, well, I'd like to introduce you to the Internet. Smartphone access. Twitter. Anthony Weiner. Wait. Maybe not Anthony Weiner.

Welcome to the new millennium, friend. TV isn't the power it used to be, so keeping things off of it (and radio) won't shield anybody over the age of three.

I remember a long time ago when my daughter, then maybe six or seven, was just figuring out the Internet and, innocently, typed the word "fun" next to ".com" in the address bar. Let's just say she didn't get what she expected, nor what I would have wanted her to see. She wasn't scarred for life, but I was pretty pissed off (oops!).

The point is, I should have been supervising her. It was MY responsibility to oversee my child. I didn't expect the FCC to do my job as a parent for me.

And when someone on TV is confronted with an extreme situation and says, "Oh, shoot!," "What the frak?" or "Fudge!", I'm taken out of the story and the contract between the storyteller and the audience is broken. 

A word is an expression of an idea. If you don't like your ideas, don't use those words. But some of us don't see the harm in using all the words available to us. You want to label a show (or a book, or a record) with a warning for parents who might not know what's included inside? I personally don't have a problem with that. But don't decide for me what words I can hear, or for that matter what words my children can hear. When I became a parent, I took on that responsibility. I didn't abdicate it to a bureaucracy.

Words we can't say? George Carlin is gone, alas, but his fine sense of absurdity lives on. Rest easy, George. There are still words you can't say on TV. I feel so much safer now.

Comments

[Mare]

I really do like the way that you think!

[Adele]

Some people deliberately use words they know are shocking or offensive just to create an effect. They may see themselves as avant-garde or somehow more emotionally true than the people they are deliberately making uncomfortable. I see them as bullies.

No-one can avoid hearing any word that shocks them - whether it's one of the infamous seven or some word that is not censored but still raw for its audience - because any word is heard or read before your brain knows what the word is. Hence the censorship on TV and the most basic rules of polite conversation.

The question I have is - should we try to create a society where no-one finds any word shocking? If so, having removed that taboo - what will rise to fill the void?

[Jeff Cohen]

I know, Adele. Some people use the words to shock, and I simply don't find that interesting. Words don't generally offend me, but using them as a weapon against my sensibility tends to annoy me. I don't find Howard Stern amusing because he's just trying to shock me, I'm not shocked, and there's no joke underneath. But a society where no one finds any word shocking? Why not just ask for a world in which everyone agrees on politics and religion?