It was the episode in which Michael gets his condo and the office has fun with games in his absence.
In the scene when Michael is in the car with Dwight and they bicker over putting the roof down, Steve Carell definitely says “Fuck it.” We rewound and played it again and he is so definitely saying it! Did anyone else catch this??
I just watched it tonight and didn’t catch that. Was it the first time or the second time in the car?
Didn’t catch the suspected f-bomb… wish I’d taped it. Anyone have an mpeg?
It was the first time in the car, and I believe it was after the top was put all the way down.
I thought he said “Forget it”.
Okay, I rewatched it. First they discuss the shocks on the car(definately no swearing here), then they start to argue about the top.
Michael says: It’s fifty degrees outside.
Dwight: But then no one can see us.
Michael: Fine…just…would you put it up? [beat] Okay…fine…just leave it down. Whiner.
Dwight puts on sunglasses
Dwight: Check it out. Terminator.
Michael: I do not understand what you spend your money on.
That’s it. Definately no swearing. He does say “fine”, but it doesn’t sound at all like “fuck”.
Once again I’m reminded of how different US culture can be… Is there no swearing at all on US TV or something?
Yes, there’s swearing. You can say ‘Damn’ and ‘Bitch’ and ‘Ass’ and ‘Jackass’ (but not ‘Asshole’) and a few others.
Not ‘shit’ or ‘fuck’ though.
This is network TV I’m talking about - shows on pay-TV like HBO can swear all they want. Case in point: Deadwood. More goddamm fucking swear words than you can shake a stick at, asshole. 
There was an episode (last spring) of the late Law & Order: Trial By Jury where Bebe Neuwirth’s character definitely mouthed the word ‘fuck’ after being handed some sort of trial summons or something. We even mentioned it in the thread about it here, but I can’t remember which episode it was. It was quick, and I bet some people didn’t catch it, but once you saw it, it was very obvious.
Well, you’ll hear “damn, hell, piss” on network TV, but that’s about it. Occasionally, after 10:00pm (which the FCC [Federal Communications Commission)] considers “safe harbor”, since the children are in bed and can’t be damaged by the bad, bad words), they’ll let something a little harsher through, but it has to go through a barrage of meetings to approve the use of “shit”. On cable tv, you’ll get a little more graphic, since you have to pay to receive these stations. The FCC only regulates what goes over the airwaves free, although they’d love to command everything that meets the ears of every American. However, most basic cable channels police themselves, to varying degrees, to appease their sponsers, which accounts for the varying degrees of language on those stations. The premium channels, like HBO, are completely wide open, and anything goes.
Sorry about that, BiblioCat - I didn’t preview before I posted. When I started babbling, there weren’t any replies. :o
No problem - you cited the FCC, so that’s a better answer anyway.
You ever heard Carlin’s “7 words” routine? One of the most famous comedy bits in modern history, without a doubt. . .
There are some people who would have you not use certain words. Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can’t say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad. They’d have to be outrageous, to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you seven. Bad words. That’s what they told us they were, remember? ‘That’s a bad word.’ ‘Awwww.’ There are no bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad Intentions.
And words, you know the seven don’t you? Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, huh? Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that will infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war.
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, wow. Tits doesn’t even belong on the list, you know. It’s such a friendly sounding word. It sounds like a nickname. ‘Hey, Tits, come here. Tits, meet Toots, Toots, Tits, Tits, Toots.’ It sounds like a snack doesn’t it? Yes, I know, it is, right. But I don’t mean the sexist snack, I mean, New Nabisco Tits. The new Cheese Tits, and Corn Tits and Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits Onion Tits, Tater Tits, Yeah. Betcha can’t eat just one. That’s true I usually switch off . But I mean that word does not belong on the list.
Actually, none of the words belong on the list, but you can understand why some of them are there. I am not completely insensitive to people’s feelings. You know, I can dig why some of those words got on the list…like cocksucker and motherfucker. Those are…those are heavy-weight words. There’s a lot going on there, man. Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling. They’re just busy words. There’s a lot of syllables to contend with. And those K’s. Those are aggressive sounds, they jump out at you. CocksuckerMotherfuckerCocksucker. It’s like an assault, on you. So I can dig that.
And we mentioned shit earlier, of course. Two of the other 4-letter Anglo-Saxon words are Piss and Cunt, which go together of course. But forget about that. A little accidental humor there. Piss and Cunt. The reason Piss and Cunt are on the list is that a long time ago certain ladies said ‘Those are the two I am not going to say. I don’t mind Fuck and Shit, but P and C are out. P and C are out.’ Which led to such stupid sentences as ‘OK, you fuckers, I am going to tinkle now.’
And of course the word Fuck. The word Fuck, I don’t really…well, this is some more accidental humor, but I don’t really want to get into that now. Because I think it takes too long. But I do mean that. I mean, I think the word fuck is an important word. It’s the beginning of life, and, yet it’s a word we use to hurt one other, quite often. And uh, people much wiser than I have said, I’d rather have my son watch a film with two people making love than two people trying to kill one other. And I of course agree. I wish I know who said it first, and I agree with that. But I would like to take it a step further. I would like to substitute the word fuck, for the word kill in all those movie cliches we grew up with. ‘Okay Sheriff, we’re gonna fuck ya now. But we’re gonna fuck ya slow.’ So maybe next year I’ll have a whole fuckin’ rap on that word. I hope so.
Uh, there are two-way words, but those are the seven you can never say on television. Under any circumstances you just can not say them ever, ever ever, not even clinically. You can not weave them in the panel with Doc and Ed and Johnny, I mean it’s just impossible, forget those seven, they’re out.
But, there are some two-way words. There are double-meaning words. Remember the ones your giggled at in sixth grade? ‘And the cock crowed three times.’‘Hey, the cock the cock crowed three times. It’s in the bible.’ There are some Two-way words, like it’s okay for Curt Gowdy to say ‘Roberto Clemente has two balls on him.’ But he can’t say, ‘I think he hurt his balls on that play Tony, don’t you? He’s holding them. He must have hurt them by God.’ And the other two-way word that goes with that one is prick. It’s okay if it happens to your finger. Yes, you can prick your finger, but don’t finger your prick. No, no."