What are the “seven dirty words” people refer to?
Aren’t there a lot of dirty words? Maybe 10 or more.
shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits
perhaps the names of the seven great sins??? just a guess. your’e right, too many dirty words to be limited to just seven…
lawyer, taxes, work… just to name some more…
The “Seven Words” are specifically the Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television. Waterj2 has provided the list above. The list of course was created by George Carlin as part one of his comedy routines which can be found on one of his early albums. Carlin would later make amendments to his list noting Cocksucker and Motherfucker were compound words and did not necessarily belong on the list. Later he expanded the list to include several hundred words, compound words and phrases inappropriate for TV. This expanded list was read at the of a performance Carlin gave at Carnegie Hall. I believe you can still rent the video if you’re truly curious. Carlin was way ahead of his time and (in my opinion) one funny motherfucker.
This is great! Thanks. I found the skit on a Napster mp3 download. I wonder why I’ve never seen him do it on his Conan gigs? I guess they still bleep “bitch” unless it refers to a dog.
Er, no. “Bitch” has made the move into primetime, following “ass,” as anyone who’s spent any time watching the current batch of sitcoms can tell you.
So when he makes them cut away from
Tony Randall and put up the rubber dog, he’s just making a joke! The nerve of that guy. No wonder he’s still on after 3am in Houston.
The great part about George Carlin’s seven dirty words skit is that a dispute over its being broadcast on the radio during the afternoon went to the United States Supreme Court.
In an Appendix to the Supreme Court Opinion in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978), the Court reprints a transcript of the skit in full. (To find it, click on the link and look for “APPENDIX TO OPINION OF THE COURT” a little less than half way down the page.)
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION v. PACIFICA FOUNDATION
fuck, shit, piss, motherfucker, cocksucker, cunt, tit
Hell, George Carlin is still funnier than most comics today. Every time I hear a joke that begins, “Didja ever notice…?”, I wince. What a crock of shit. Anyway, back on topic, George Carlin’s website also lists several thousand “foul” words, mostly compound words stemming from the original seven. However, “shit,” “piss,” and “tit,” of the original seven, have all found their way onto television. Oh, and by the way, Carlin started his routine by saying that these were the seven that you can never, not at any time of the night or early morning, on any channel, say. So I guess, with the advent of HBO and pay per view, they’re all invalid now.