The Seven Dirty Words You'd Never Hear Today
Now is the time when bloggers, pundits, and your immediate family will act like they were personally invested in George Carlin's artistic acts of bravery. Everyone will crow about the great man because he was great, and they'll declare his "Seven Dirty Words" routine a pillar of modern American comedy and also a landmark case in censorship.
Those barely old enough to remember Carlin's mugshot, (and those old enough to remember his arrest and simultaneously crotchety enough to dismiss the opinions of anyone under 30) will masquerade as loyal Carlin soldiers. They'll bitch and moan like they were standing beside the man at his trial, U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5-4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's right to regulate Carlin's act on the public airwaves.
The internet will erupt into an orgy of suffering because that's what happens when a great man dies. And a great man did die. So even if it's a tad contrived, Carlin should be paid his due respects. Every flattering statement, every overzealous compliment will still be too few for one of the greatest comedians ever to shout his fearlessness into a microphone.
Counter-cultural icons are always beloved and admired retrospectively. The people that faint after reading an expletive on the internet are the same people that buy t-shirts with Lenny Bruce's face airbrushed across the chest. These are the same individuals that bemoan a great man like Carlin dying because -- weirdly enough -- there seems to be a shortage of independent artists fluttering around our corporately-owned media.
Thirty years ago, the FCC functioned much the same way it does today. Let's say there's an uptight asshole -- a real bible-thumping lunatic -- who has a little cherub offspring that overhears a grown-up comedian drop the F-bomb. Logically, the parent turns off the radio, explains the evils of the English language and Satan's constant onslaught of temptations, and calls it a night, right?
Wrong. In 1973, a man complained to the FCC that his son had heard a similar routine to Carlin's Seven Dirty Words, which was broadcast one afternoon over WBAI, a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in New York City. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC, and later the Supreme Court upheld the FCC action, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene", which is a way of saying, "You're making us nervous as hell but we have this thing called free speech, so we can't technically lock you up."
Though, Carlin would have gladly gone to jail. He'd been there before with another great man: Lenny Bruce. When the cops arrested Bruce for obscenity, Carlin allegedly mouthed-off to the cops and joined Bruce in jail. It's difficult to imagine a performer today exerting such willful defiance and breathless indignation in the presence of a ridiculously corrupt world.
George Carlin hated censorship, and that hatred steadily grew through his life as he watched corporate mergers and an overbearing government sedate its citizenry with dumbed-down entertainment and materialistic toys like iPods and iPhones.
Who would embrace a performer like George Carlin today? Clear Channel? FOX? What major network -- what radio station -- would broadcast his words? When would the admiration for his bravery stop and the fear of corporate retribution begin? Today, many suits would have patted Carlin on the shoulder and sincerely apologized, "Gee, kid, I love it. It's just...my boss is a real square! I mean, the guy is SO out-of-touch. I can't stick my neck out there."
The greatest tribute for Carlin isn't to worship him as the last brave performer. The idea is to take the torch and run with it. Carlin famously said that it's the duty of a comedian to find where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately. He meant that oftentimes we only truthfully engage with one another when we violate some unspoken social contract. The best conversations, debates, and ideas spring from uncharted interactions. Carlin wanted us to surprise the hell out of each other, in our dull little lives and in our government. Maybe it says something about our culture that he needed to scream "FUCK!!!" in order to get the message across.
Follow Allison Kilkenny on Twitter: www.twitter.com/allisonkilkenny
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Carlin had his day, but like most comedians was less funny in his later years. As he championed Lenny Bruce, so too have other comedians championed him. The truth is that the reasons he was important are soon forgotten as our culture never seems to tire of trying to establish a code of conduct that will ensure the sheeple do as they are told.
I wish people would stop misquoting him. He never said "The seven dirty words".
There was a piece on his Occupation: Foole album called 'Filthy Words', which was the pre-cursor to 'The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV', but he didn't say 'The Seven Dirty Words'.
I suppose with every great artist, there will always be your share of both fans and psychophants. But I'll always be baffled by how so many people can consistently quote the essay he's most noted for, and get it wrong every time.
I am sorry to say that you have missed the boat. There are many comedians on HBO, SHOTime, Fox, etc who do challenge society. You would be much more accurate if you argued that Carlin opened the way for them. I can't think of any who equal his talent, but their voices are heard thanks to his audacity.
I'm almost George's age and have been a huge fan for as long as I can remember. My favorite recollection is receiving angry phone calls from my son's friends parents because he was bringing their kids home to listen to the 7 words. If I could have met and conversed with anyone in my life my fantasy was JFK and George Carlin. A really great man and I am very sad about his passing. I want to shout, "no, let us have him for a little while longer.
For what it's worth, I recall George Carlin before the "7 words". I was an Ed Sullivan addict as a child---the Beatles hooked me bigtime. Burns & Carlin is rotting in the back memory banks, along with fresher memories of that loveable 'ole "Hippy-Dippy weatherman"---just a natural extention of then hip "underground" DJ's, like Mucho Maas in his Count Drugula phase. Good times. And then, post "Seven Words" one of our strictest parsers of language. The author asks "who would be brave enough to regualrly broadcast the pearls of wisdom/Brain Droppings of M. Carlin", and the answer is HBO, for what it's worth---those wonderful people who brought you "whattabout the fuckin' ziti?", Goddess bless 'em.
I was a DJ on one of them "Pacifica" stations, George Carlin was a subject that came up alll the time. Oh yeah. . . .
I think the big issue was about using the public airwaves to broadcast, and HBO and other cable channels do not broadcast.
Even in his Ed Sullivan days, it's surprising how much he got past the censors. Al Sleet displaying a weather map: "This is a Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high... [going to a new map with the low system divided into several smaller ones] Enough lows for everyone!" I guess CBS censors in the mid-'60s just didn't get drug jokes.
"The temperature today is sixty-eight degrees at the airport-- which is pretty stupid, because I don't know anyone who lives at the airport!"
ipods are not silly materialistic toys. they hold a lot of music in a portable player.
George would have adored the irony of being lionized on a site with a bad words filter.
does that bad words filter piss anybody else off?? it filters out words that aren't cuss words.... like s*x. * = e if you are confused....
Good article but I was hoping it would live up to its title. George's list needs to be updated. I have clearly heard people say "piss" and "tits" on network TV.
Cable is pretty confusing, though. Eddie Izzard can say "shit" on F/X but John Stewart's shit gets censored on Comedy Central.
My heroes die and my enemies live on. Gore Vidal keep on breathing.
George was living proof that art is about intellect. I for one will miss his "big brain".
George Carlin, a hard-core, outspoken atheist, very funny guy and all around good egg. The world is a poorer place, now that he's dead.
Had George Carlin ever believed all those things the nuns tried to teach him in Catholic school, he'd probably figure to be sitting up there alongside the invisible man in the sky laughing his ass off right now at the thought that so many people actually (or claim to) give a shit. All I can say is that I'm 50 years old and for the past 36 years I've never waivered from my belief that George Carlin was not only our greatest comedian and social commentator, but the most clear-thinking individual I'd ever encountered. Today, I'll say a few extra dirty words in George's honor, contemplate my stuff, and reach for the middle of my loaf of bread.
George Carlin was a true genius, a true philosopher and a true hero. An artist who never bowed to money, politics and power, the leading comedian who remained defiant, sharp and accurate in evaluating every aspect of human life: be it religion, politics, war, hypocrisy, or the subservient and cowardly Media. I look at Jon Stewart interviewing McCain, or even Robin WIlliams (whom I like a lot), or Penn and Teller who are eager to "prove" that we should believe Cheney's version of the 9/11 events, and miss the great George Carlin. Let us never stop playing and enjoying George's bits.
I loved george carlin the minute I heard the vinyl with the words loudly said on it. Growing up in rural america I had never heard anyone actaully speak his mind and broadcast it out to the world with pride. He also knew we as a whole were too hung up on the words and what we thought they meant. He had a way to tell us to get over ourselves and laugh at those who tried to shut our mouths with their versions of what was appropriate. Like George I will never believe that the bible tells us those particular words are even bad words but someone omehow somewhere decided they were bad and told the rest of us! God Bless and shout them words loud in heaven!!!
Carlin's legacy should be of a citizen voicing righteous anger at the precise moment when righteous anger was most needed to be heard. He should be placed into his environment: Vietnam, race riots, the growth of suburban conformity, Red-baiting. Carlin was not the only voice in the 60s who was fighting the good fight but his was an instantly recognizable voice nationwide. Kids from Maine to Minnesota would sit in their rooms playing his rebellious comedy albums over and over. For many people Carlin's voice has endured, no less a figure than the Boston Globe's Mike Barnacle was caught red-handed a couple years back lifting entire passages from Carlin's comedy album for his commentary! Its inevitable that icons of an era will outlive their era. Recall the circumstances surrounding their defining moment and you'll be able to catch a glimpse of what made them icons.
When I was 13 or 14, I heard my PASTOR plagiarize Carlin's "Stuff" routine that I had seen George do a few weeks earlier on Comic Relief! At the end of the routine, I mean sermon, he attributed it to a routine he saw on the Tonight Show. He didn't even mention Carlin's name!!
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