SOURCE: Rickels, Milton. “Inexpressibles in Southwestern Humor.” Studies in American Humor 3, no. 2 (October 1976): 76-83.

In the following essay, Rickels argues that the abuses, curses, profanities, and improprieties utilized by Southwestern humorists “are a cultivated stylistic form, achieving a significant set of esthetic functions.”

The humorists of the Old Southwest are sometimes credited with being the frankest of the ante-bellum writers in their situations and language. In 1930 Franklin Meine even called one of them Rabelaisian. However, during their time, 1830-1860, taboos against obscenities and profanities were strong and complicated. The best of these writers were close observers of American frontier and backwoods life; most were to some degree sophisticated craftsmen; and most relied heavily on the tradition of folk humor for some of their most striking effects. As students of the comic mode know, the use of obscenities and profanities is abundant enough to create within the culture of...