Journal Entry 1

In our second class of Rhetoric and Humor we watched a few clips of stand-up comedy from one of the great comics, George Carlin. Being a big fan of George Carlin I greatly enjoyed his attacks on the linguistic taboos that exist in our society. Although many people tend to shy away from the vulgarity that exists within Carlin’s act, I find it extremely entertaining in the way he points out how ridiculous and absurd the steps are to refrain from using these so called “swear words.” I think it is important to notice how our society and even our government continually try to censor us from ourselves with these linguistic taboos. The reason why I find George Carlin so funny is not just because he uses such words as “fuck” or “shit” not just for the sake of the word, but includes a certain inflection and delivery within his voice that makes you feel like you are agreeing on how absurd this paradox really is.