George Carlin, Speaking Blue to Power
Linguist Geoff Nunberg reflects on the life and language of the late comedian George Carlin, who died last month. (Read Nunberg's full essay.)
In the 1970s, Carlin observed: "There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them you can't say on television. What a ratio that is: 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad."
Then, famously, he proceeded to say them.
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