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Rhetors use humor to persuade their audience to understand their point of view and to gain their audiences attention. As a group we decided on the YouTube video “The Seven Words” by George Carlin. As a comedian he talks about the seven dirty words you can't say on television. The way the rhetor portrays his humor is by cursing excessively. The exigence he creates with his audience is how cursing is a double standard in which certain phrases like the “Seven dirty words” are perceived as acceptable to be used by one group of people, but are considered unacceptable when used by another group of people. His prejudice towards this argument that he creates shows all types of listeners the grudge that most people hold against those seven deadly curse words.

Humor is an exaggerated prose and it’s done to make a point to his audience, in this case the media, in a very funny and interesting way. In this stand up act, George Carlin who is the rhetor, is humorously sending a message to his audience telling them about how ridiculous it is that these 7 words are very far apart from each other in terms of how vulgar they are. He states to his audience about how laughable it is that the words “fart” and “tits” are in the same group of words such as “fuck” and “cocksucker” considering how the first two words aren’t even considered to be vulgar words in our society. He also informs his audience about how amusing it is that you can’t say these words on television but are ok to refer to them on television. An example Carlin suggested was the word “fuck” and how you can’t actually say the word but that you can show people that are “fucking” in the next bedroom.

Carlin further entertains the audience by using the seven curse words excessively. In the beginning of the performance, Carlin engages his audience by screaming out, “shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits!” Now that’s an attention grabber. His audience includes his paying fans at his comedy show, YouTube viewers, and anyone else interested in standup comedy or humor. His intended audience would not be offended by his choice of language, and should not be if they knew what type of performer Carlin was. Carlin entertains the audience with his use of language by also incorporating in situations to which almost everyone can relate. Most comedians are successful at amusing their audience when their audience feels a connection with them. Carlin, for example, does this when he goes deeper into the explanation of the word “cock” as itself without “sucker.” He states how cock isn’t always thought of as a bad word when used alone. He recalls third grade, when teachers used to read the Bible aloud and eventually come across the word “cock” but of course it wasn’t used vulgarly, yet children would still laugh. Almost all people can relate to this situation. Most people cannot help but laugh when hearing a bad word, this, the audience can agree with and thereby laugh when Carlin mentions it. Carlin successfully creates a connection with the audience. This connection is key to generating laughter, enjoyment, and amusement from the audience. 

In addition to talking about the seven dirty words, Carlin, the rhetor also discusses some extra words that have been added to the list that one cannot say on television; in particular “fart”, “turd”, and “twat”. He talks about the different contexts of the words and even dissects some of them to show his audience why they are appalling words to some, and harmless to others. Right at the beginning of his rant, he states that “motherfucker” is a duplicate of “fuck”, just used in a different context and therefore is not needed on the list because “fuck” already is. At the end, while talking about the newer words on the list he uses “twat” as an example of a word that the reason it is not allowed on television is because it only has one meaning. But on the other hand, a word such as “prick” can be said on television but only if used in an inoffensive way. This is the main argument of his entire speech; he discusses why some words can be said on television and why others cannot. He states that some are not distasteful if used in a different context than what they are most often used in. He goes further by saying that sometimes it is just the word that is offensive, not the idea. All in all, the rhetor presents to his audience that it is completely ridiculous about why some of these words are on the list, and how this problem is a problem of opinion, and the solutions are purely opinion as well.

“Seven Dirty Words” was originally preformed in the seventies, a time in which the separation between what is allowed and what is not, on television, was being challenged (“EFF” Legal Cases). Since then the word “fart” has become common place, finding its way into children’s cartoons; Words such as bitch, pussy, and fag, were not even place on the list because either there were that bad, or not thought of yet, are now used in popular music along with fuck and shit. It’s easy to overlook the social changes that have happened since 1978.

"EFF "Legal Cases - FCC v Pacifica (George Carlin `7 Dirty Words` Case)" Archive." 13 mar 2003. Electronic Frontier Foundation, Web. 13 Sep 2009. .