dirty

• shit
• piss
• fuck
• cunt
• cocksucker
• motherfucker
• tits

On his next album, 1973's Occupation: Foole, he did a similar routine simply entitled "Filthy Words", dealing with the same list and many of the same themes. This version was broadcast by Pacifica radio station WBAI, which eventually led to a Supreme Court case, F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), that helped define acceptable free speech limits on broadcast television and radio in the United States.

History

In 1973, comedian George Carlin had recorded a monologue known as "Filthy Words" containing seven different obscenities. The Pacifica radio station WBAI-FM broadcast it uncensored on October 30 of the same year. A man driving in the car with his son heard the broadcast and complained to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) because of his son having heard the broadcast.

Following the lodging of the complaint, the FCC proceeded to ask Pacifica for a response, then issued a declaratory order upholding the complaint. No specific sanctions were included in the order, but WBAI was put on notice that "in the event subsequent complaints are received, the Commission will then decide whether it should utilize any of the available sanctions it has been granted by Congress."

Pacifica appealed against this decision, which was overturned by the Court of Appeals. The FCC in turn appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the FCC, see: F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation 438 U.S. 726 (1978) and First Amendment Library entry on the case.

This decision formally established indecency regulation in American broadcasting. In follow-up rulings, the Supreme Court clarified that the words might be acceptable under certain circumstances, particularly at times when children would not be expected to be in the audience.

Carlin later expanded his original list to include the following words:

• fart
• turd
• twat

Since then Carlin's expansion of the list has included hundreds of words and phrases, including "beating the bishop," "yodeling in the gully," and the ever popular "Mongolian Cluster Fuck."

In 1972, Carlin was arrested for indecency when he performed the "Seven Deadly Words" at Milwaukee's Summerfest.

In the South Park episode "It Hits the Fan," there is a reference to 8 "words of curse", with the eighth one being "Meekrob", a new swear word suggested by Cartman to take the place of shit after it became acceptable to say.

Several of the words on Carlin's original list have since been used on broadcast television to varying degrees. The word "tits" was uttered on the first episode of The Trials of Rosie O'Neill in 1990, sparking some controversy. The word "piss" (usually used in the context of the phrase "piss off", both as a verb — "This is going to piss somebody off" — and as an expletive) has been commonplace since the late 1990s although generally limited to dramatic programming. The word "shit" has been heard on rare occasions, such as an episode of Chicago Hope, while TV show producers have also on occasion flirted with the word "fuck", although often in an obscured fashion. For example, the NCIS episode "Bete Noire" has a character clearly utter the phrase "fucking bastard" but the first word is obscured by a sound effect. One of Carlin's later additions to the list, "fart", is also used frequently.

Four words/phrases not cited by Carlin that have also become commonplace are "son-of-a-bitch" (used for the first time on a network by an episode of M*A*S*H in the early 1980s); "bastard" (now commonplace but rarely heard before the late 1980s); "asshole" (famously introduced to television by NYPD Blue); and "bullshit" (also used in the later years of NYPD Blue as well as in other dramas such as FX's The Shield, though apparently limited to one use per episode).

FCC regulations regarding obscenities on broadcast TV

During the court case over Carlin's monologue, the Supreme Court established in the Pacifica decision the safe harbor provision that grants broadcasters the right to broadcast indecent (but not obscene) material between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and 06:00 a.m., when children are thought not to be awake. Thus the FCC has mainly been concerned with indecent content shown or heard between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The FCC has never maintained a specific list of words prohibited from the airways during this time period but has maintained general guidelines regarding obscenities [1]. As such the seven dirty words had been assumed to be likely to elicit indecency related action by the FCC if uttered on a TV or radio broadcast and thus the broadcast networks generally self-censor themselves with regard to the many of the seven dirty words. While most of the original seven dirty words are still viewed as inappropriate for broadcast television and radio (based on previous actions by the FCC), the words tits and piss are generally no longer deemed unacceptable for broadcast over public airwaves during restricted hours in the United States.

The FCC has often looked at the context of the use of an obscene word when judging whether it is objectionable. This has at times led to controversy, such as when a bureau of the FCC deemed the utterance of the word "fucking" (as an intensive) at the live Golden Globe Awards broadcast by the front man for the band U2, Bono, not indecent under its criteria since they said that under the context of its use, it was not intended to describe or depict sexual and excretory activities and organs. [2] The full FCC, however, later reversed the decision in early 2004 though a fine against Bono has not yet been levied.

The differentiation between indecent and obscene material is a particularly difficult one, and a contentious First Amendment issue that has not fully been settled. Similarly, the level of offense (if any) generated by a profane word or phrase depends on region, context, and audience.

In recent years, letter-writing campaigns engineered by American public interest groups have drawn attention to the issue of indecency in television. In some cases, thousands of complaints have been received by the FCC, particularly in situations in which children have been exposed to questionable material during restricted hours, at which time it is estimated children are watching.

The FCC does not directly target the networks. Only the stations carrying a network's programming are licensed. Since most of the networks own some of the stations that carry their programming, these stations can be fined, as a way of indirectly fining the network.

The "seven dirty words" and cable TV

The FCC obscenity guidelines have never been applied to non-broadcast media such as cable television or satellite radio. It is widely held that the FCC's authorizing legislation (particularly the Communications Act of 1934 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996) does not enable the FCC to regulate content on subscription-based services, which include cable television, satellite television, and pay-per-view television. Whether the FCC or the Department of Justice could be empowered by Congress to restrict indecent content on cable television without such legislation violating the Constitution has never been settled by a court of law. Since cable television must be subscribed to in order to receive it legally, it has long been thought that ability of subscribers who object to the content being delivered to cancel their subscription creates an incentive for the cable operators to self-regulate. (Unlike broadcast TV, cable TV is not legally considered to be "pervasive," nor does it depend on a scarce, government-allocated electromagnetic spectrum; as such, neither of the arguments buttressing the case for broadcast regulation particularly apply to cable television.)

However, as of 2005, some living in the United States have begun to call for FCC regulation of subscription-based television and radio. One argument for such regulation is that in more rural areas of the United States, it may be impossible to receive more than a bare minimum of broadcast television stations "over the air," and as such not having a cable or satellite subscription is tantamount to having no television at all for residents of these areas. This and other arguments have been made (among others) by Randy Short of the American Family Association. (See also 'The Connection', National Public Radio, 2005-04-12)

Self-regulation by many basic cable networks is undertaken by Standards & Practices (S&P) departments which self-censor their programming due to the pressure put on them by advertisers – also meaning that any basic cable network willing to ignore such pressure could use any of the "seven dirty words." Some networks have already allowed the use of some of the words in shows such as Comedy Central's South Park episode "It Hits the Fan", during which shit is uttered 162½ times in one half hour (a counter was provided at the bottom of the screen). The series also uses the words "tits" and "piss" on many occasions. Comedy Central also has established a "Secret Stash" timeslot after 1:00 AM ET on weekends, when it will air material such as the R-rated films South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) and Kevin Smith's Clerks. (1994), or performances by comedians, including Richard Pryor and Carlin himself, without censoring the language, Images of nudity are however blurred.

Pop culture references

• Blink 182 made reference to the list in their song "Family Reunion" which includes the words from Carlin's ten-word version of the list.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Sailor Mouth", SpongeBob and Patrick say #11 on a list of 13 bad words you should never use, which was censored using a dolphin braying. Squidward asks, "Don't you mean there are only seven?" Mr. Krabs replies, "Not if you're a sailor, heh-heh."
• In an episode of The Simpsons, Krusty the Klown is threatened with legal action over the phone by somebody representing George Carlin. He responds "Oh, come on, my 'Seven words you can't say on TV' bit was entirely different from your 'Seven words you can't say on TV' bit. So I'm a thief am I? Well, excuse me!" (The last line being delivered in a style imitating Steve Martin's use of the catchphrase, thus serving as another example of Krusty's plagiarism.)
• In an episode of That 70's Show, Eric is seen listening to a George Carlin record and remarks on the list.
• On the "Killer B's" E.P., Anthrax make use of - and renounce the banning of - seven allegedly offensive words in the song "Starting up a Posse"[3].
• In the South Park episode It Hits The Fan, Stan, Eric, Kyle and Kenny come across a set of seven rune stones, each devoted to a curse word. Although the list was indicated to contain shit and fuck, it was not identical because one of the words was Mee krob, a thai dish that is hated by Eric Cartman.

See also

• Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on TV Script
• George Carlin
• Communications Decency Act
• Family Reunion (song)