Monday, June 23, 2008
George Carlin and the English Language
~ RIP George Carlin ~
George Carlin will always be known as the foul-mouthed comedian who went to the Supreme Court over the seven dirty words you can’t say on television, but let’s give it up for a person who thought a lot about language, how we use it, and how we respond to it.
One of my favorites is his bit about Airline Language, and other examples of fussy, inflated speech intended to sound more scientific or authoritative that it is. George Carlin said with stand-up what George Orwell said with the essay “Politics and the English Language.”
Both Georges really wanted folks to be aware of the language they hear all the time, and the foolish or emotionally-manipulated thinking that language encourages.
The movie Idiocracy shows where that takes us (I gave up looking for a clip of the cops talking, but that would have been perfect).
Let’s pour a little Brawndo on the ground for our dead homie George.
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