Seven dirty words
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The seven dirty words are seven English words comedian George Carlin listed in his monologue "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television", released in 1972 on his album Class Clown. At the time, the words were generally considered inappropriate for use on the public airwaves in the United States, particularly on over-the-air VHF Low/VHF Med/VHF High/UHF television and AM/FM/ACSSB(R)(LM(R)) radio stations. These words are replaced by a "bleep" sound because of this. Carlin's original seven are (in his order of presentation):
- shit
- piss Allowed on occasion for broadcast television in both senses (Anger and Urination).
- fuck
- cunt
- cocksucker
- motherfucker
- tits
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:
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 early 2004, Monty Python comic Eric Idle recorded the FCC Song, a deliberately controversial and explicit song, in reaction to being fined by the FCC for saying "fuck" on a Clear Channel radio station.
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.
In November 2005, the Family Guy episode PTV featured its own FCC song, in which Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, and Stewie Griffin complain about how paranoid they think the FCC is. The scene can be viewed [here].
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 [link]. 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. [link] 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 has widely been 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. Whether the FCC or the justice department 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 TV 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.
However, as of 2005, some living in the United States, particularly mature adults with families, 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 that for Americans in these areas, not having a cable or satellite subscription is tantamount to having no television at all. 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])
On an episode of South Park called "Raisins", Comedy Central's Standards & Practices department allowed the use of the word cunt (in a way although not directly) over the air, because Stan asked Jimmy, who has a speech problem, to tell Wendy she is the continuing source of his inspiration.
- Jimmy: "Hey W-W-Wendy. S-Stan says tha-th-that you're a c- a cu- a cunt- a cunt- a cun"
- Wendy: "Well tell Stan to fuck off!"
- :Wendy walks off
- Jimmy: "A continuing s-s-source of in-inspiration."
Another example of this kind of S&P evasion can be seen on the Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, in the episode "Video Ouija". In the episode, Frylock and Meatwad are attempting to bring their roommate Master Shake back from the dead and enlist the services of a witch doctor. The witch doctor instructs the team to quickly repeat the phrase "I am sofa king we todd ed", which pronounced quickly enough translates phonetically to "I am so fucking retarded."
Another example of S&P evasion occurs in an episode of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends called "Dinner is Swerved". In the key scene, Mac and Bloo are trapped on the roof of the home where Bloo stays. Mac comments how hard it is to figure out how to get down from the roof. Bloo responds with "No sheets," which implies the phrase "no shit". Mac reacts with disbelief saying "Bloo!". Bloo responds saying, "No (pause in between) sheets."
Both cable and network television networks have aired Burger King ads that feature jingles that repeat the phrases "Big Bucking Chicken" and "Big Hucking Chicken" to comedic effect. The thinly veiled attempt to say "Big Fucking Chicken" to promote their chicken sandwiches is aired during professional wrestling telecasts and often on Comedy Central, where the inside joke will be most appreciated.
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. 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!"
- 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"[link].
See also
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