When George Carlin created his ‘Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television’ bit, the FCC didn’t have the legal authority to ban dirty words from public airways. That bit, played uncensored by a NYC radio station, led to the getting that authority.

Seven dirty words

A poster in a WBAI broadcast booth which warns radio broadcasters against using the words

The seven dirty words are seven English-language curse words that American comedian George Carlin first listed in his 1972 “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” monologue. The words, in the order Carlin listed them, are “shit”, “piss”, “fuck”, “cunt”, “cocksucker”, “motherfucker”, and “tits”.

At the time, the words were considered highly inappropriate and unsuitable for broadcast on the public airwaves in the United States, whether radio or television. As such, they were avoided in scripted material and bleep censored in the rare cases in which they were used. Broadcast standards differ in different parts of the world, then and now, alt… Continue Reading (8 minute read)