Seven dirty words
Encyclopedia
The seven dirty words are seven English language
words that American comedian George Carlin
first listed in 1972 in his monologue
"Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television". The words include: 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 censor
ed in the rare cases in which they were used; broadcast standards differ in different parts of the world, then and now, although most of the words on Carlin's original list remain taboo
on American broadcast television
as of 2011. The list was not an official enumeration of forbidden words, but rather was compiled by Carlin. Nonetheless, a radio broadcast featuring these words led to a Supreme Court
decision
that helped establish the extent to which the federal government could regulate speech on broadcast television and radio in the United States.
's performances in 1966, he said he was arrested for saying nine words, and says them in alphabetical order: ass, balls, cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit, tits. The latter seven words are the same as George Carlin's.
In 1972, George Carlin released an album of stand-up comedy
entitled Class Clown
. One track on the album was "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", a monologue in which he identified these words, expressing amazement that these particular words could not be used, regardless of context. He was arrested for disturbing the peace when he performed the routine at a show at Summerfest
in Milwaukee.
On his next album, 1973's Occupation: Foole
, Carlin performed a similar routine titled "Filthy Words," dealing with the same list and many of the same themes. Pacifica
station WBAI-FM
broadcast this version of the routine uncensored on October 30 that year. John Douglas, an active member of Morality in Media, claimed that he heard the broadcast while driving with his then 15-year-old son and complained to the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) that the material was inappropriate for the time of day.
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." WBAI appealed this decision, which was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
. The FCC in turn appealed to the Supreme Court
, which in 1978 ruled in favor of the FCC in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
.
This decision formally established indecency regulation in American broadcasting. In follow-up rulings, the Supreme Court established the safe-harbor
provision that grants broadcasters the right to broadcast indecent
(but not obscene
) material between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am, when it is presumed many children will be asleep. The FCC has never maintained a specific list of words prohibited from the airwaves during the time period from 6 am to 10 pm, but it has alleged that its own internal guidelines are sufficient to determine what it considers obscene. 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 censor themselves with regard to many of the seven dirty words. The FCC regulations regarding "fleeting" use of expletives were ruled unconstitutionally vague by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on July 13, 2010, as they violated the First Amendment
due to their possible effects regarding free speech.
In his comedy special Carlin commented that at one point, a man asked him to remove motherfucker because, as a derivative of fuck, it constituted a duplication. He later added it back, claiming the bit's rhythm does not work without it. Carlin did not believe that tits should be on the list because it sounds like a nickname or a snack ("New Nabisco
Tits! ...corn tits, cheese tits, tater tits").
In his 1983 Carnegie Hall comedy special, Carlin expanded the list, reading over 200 dirty words from an over-sized scroll.
in 1990, sparking some controversy. It has been also uttered more recently in the popular Jimmy Kimmel
video "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck," in which Ben Affleck
utters "Hey, Sarah, he's got bigger tits", which originally aired on the After Oscar special of the ABC
show Jimmy Kimmel Live
after the 80th Annual Academy Awards, all without incident. The word "piss" (usually used in the context of the phrase "pissed off") has been commonplace since the 1980s. The word shit was heard on rare occasions in the 1990s, for the first time in an episode of Chicago Hope
spoken by Mark Harmon
, and later in the season eight episode of ER
in which Dr. Mark Greene dies. The word "shit" was also spoken in several episodes of NYPD Blue
. CBS recently aired the show "Shit My Dad Says" based on a Twitter feed but they spelled it "$#*!" and pronounced it as "bleep".
Producers have often implied the word fuck, although usually obscuring the word with a background sound effect or a beeping sound. One of Carlin's later additions to the list, fart, is also used frequently. Turd is regularly used on broadcast TV, though in performance Carlin explained that you can say it, "but who wants to?"
On March 10, 2002, CBS
aired "9/11", a prime-time special featuring first responders during the September 11, 2001 attacks
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It contained a number of utterances of the word "fuck." One notable early use of this word on American television occurred a few years after Carlin made his list, when the documentary Scared Straight!
, which included numerous utterances of the word and its derivatives, was broadcast uncensored.
The FCC
has often looked at the context of the use of a 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 intensifier
) in January 2003 at the live Golden Globe Awards broadcast by Bono
, the front man of the band U2
, 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. The full FCC, however, later reversed the decision in early 2004, though a fine against Bono has not been levied. In December 2003 Congressman Doug Ose
, citing the incident, introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives that would have explicitly deemed six of the words profane (tits was excluded but asshole added).
In a similar incident on October 31, 2008
, Philadelphia Phillies
second baseman Chase Utley
took the stage at Citizens Bank Park
during the team's World Series
celebration and said "World champions. World fucking champions!" Utley's epithet was aired live on almost every television station in the Philadelphia television market. The FCC took no action.
When Norm Macdonald
hosted Saturday Night Live
on October 23, 1999, during a Celebrity Jeopardy!
segment, Macdonald, portraying Burt Reynolds, read "A petit" as "ape tit". This was written in the script.
The FCC does not directly target the networks — only 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.
In 1998, the members of the Federal Communications Bar Association
, which included staff from the FCC, formed an Ultimate Frisbee team which they named "Seven Dirty Words" or 7DW. This team continues to play in the Washington Area Frisbee Club.
In the 2011 NASCAR
Coca-Cola 600
, crew chief Chad Knaus
screamed after his driver's engine blew up, "You've got to be fucking kidding me, you fucking cunt!" uncensored. The FOX Sports announcers immediately apologized for Knaus's language.
On November 19, 2011, during an episode of College Gameday
, sports commentator Lee Corso
said, "How can you pick against SMU? Look at that one there — red, white and blue. [Picks up SMU megaphone] U-S-A! … Ah, fuck it! [Tosses megaphone offscreen, dons Shasta head]"
obscenity guidelines have never been applied to non-broadcast media such as cable television
or satellite radio
. It is widely 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
television. Whether the FCC or the Department of Justice could be empowered by the 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 television must be subscribed to in order to receive it legally, it has long been thought that the ability of subscribers who object to the content being delivered to cancel their subscription creates an incentive for the cable operators to self-regulate (unlike broadcast television, cable television is not legally considered to be "pervasive
", nor does it depend on a scarce, government-allocated electromagnetic spectrum
; as such, neither of the arguments buttressing the case for broadcast
regulation particularly apply to cable television).
Self-regulation
by many basic cable networks is undertaken by Standards & Practices
(S&P) departments that self-censor
their programming because of the pressure put on them by advertisers — also meaning that any basic cable network willing to ignore such pressure could use any of the Seven Dirty Words.
In recent years, all of the words on Carlin's list have come into commonplace usage in many made-for-cable series and film productions, such as Deadwood
, The Wire
, The Shield, The Sopranos
, Weeds
, Nip/Tuck
, Rescue Me
, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Skins
, Dead Like Me
, South Park
and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
to name a few examples.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
words that American comedian George Carlin
George Carlin
George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
first listed in 1972 in his monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...
"Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television". The words include: 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
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, whether radio or television. As such, they were avoided in scripted material, and bleep censor
Bleep censor
A bleep censor is the replacement of profanity or classified information with a beep sound , in television or radio...
ed in the rare cases in which they were used; broadcast standards differ in different parts of the world, then and now, although most of the words on Carlin's original list remain taboo
Taboo
A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...
on American broadcast television
Terrestrial television
Terrestrial television is a mode of television broadcasting which does not involve satellite transmission or cables — typically using radio waves through transmitting and receiving antennas or television antenna aerials...
as of 2011. The list was not an official enumeration of forbidden words, but rather was compiled by Carlin. Nonetheless, a radio broadcast featuring these words led to a Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
decision
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission over indecent material as applied to broadcasting...
that helped establish the extent to which the federal government could regulate speech on broadcast television and radio in the United States.
Background
During one of Lenny BruceLenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...
's performances in 1966, he said he was arrested for saying nine words, and says them in alphabetical order: ass, balls, cocksucker, cunt, fuck, motherfucker, piss, shit, tits. The latter seven words are the same as George Carlin's.
In 1972, George Carlin released an album of stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...
entitled Class Clown
Class Clown
Class Clown is the third comedy album released by American comedian George Carlin. It was recorded May 27, 1972 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, and released in September....
. One track on the album was "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", a monologue in which he identified these words, expressing amazement that these particular words could not be used, regardless of context. He was arrested for disturbing the peace when he performed the routine at a show at Summerfest
Summerfest
Summerfest is a yearly music festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park along the lakefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. The festival lasts for 11 days, is made up of 11 stages with performances from over 700 bands, and since the mid-1970s has run from late June through early July, usually...
in Milwaukee.
On his next album, 1973's Occupation: Foole
Occupation: Foole
Occupation: Foole is the fourth album released by United States comedian George Carlin. It was recorded on March 2 and 3, 1973 at the Circle Star Theater in San Carlos, California, and released in October of that year...
, Carlin performed a similar routine titled "Filthy Words," dealing with the same list and many of the same themes. Pacifica
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
station WBAI-FM
WBAI
WBAI, a part of the Pacifica Radio Network, is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station, broadcasting at 99.5 FM in New York City.Its programming is leftist/progressive, and a mixture of political news and opinion from a leftist perspective, tinged with aspects of its complex and varied...
broadcast this version of the routine uncensored on October 30 that year. John Douglas, an active member of Morality in Media, claimed that he heard the broadcast while driving with his then 15-year-old son and complained to the Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
(FCC) that the material was inappropriate for the time of day.
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." WBAI appealed this decision, which was overturned by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...
. The FCC in turn appealed to the Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
, which in 1978 ruled in favor of the FCC in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 is a landmark United States Supreme Court decision that defined the power of the Federal Communications Commission over indecent material as applied to broadcasting...
.
This decision formally established indecency regulation in American broadcasting. In follow-up rulings, the Supreme Court established the safe-harbor
Safe harbor
The term safe harbor has several special usages, in an analogy with its literal meaning, that of a harbor or haven which provides safety from weather or attack.-Legal definition:...
provision that grants broadcasters the right to broadcast indecent
Decency
Decency is the quality or state of conforming to social or moral standards of taste and propriety.-See also:*Taste *Communications Decency Act*Public indecency*Indecent exposure*Sodomy law*Norm *Grotesque body...
(but not obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
) material between the hours of 10 pm and 6 am, when it is presumed many children will be asleep. The FCC has never maintained a specific list of words prohibited from the airwaves during the time period from 6 am to 10 pm, but it has alleged that its own internal guidelines are sufficient to determine what it considers obscene. 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 censor themselves with regard to many of the seven dirty words. The FCC regulations regarding "fleeting" use of expletives were ruled unconstitutionally vague by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on July 13, 2010, as they violated the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
due to their possible effects regarding free speech.
The words
The original seven words are:- ShitShitShit is usually considered vulgar and profane in Modern English. As a noun it refers to fecal matter and as a verb it means to defecate or defecate in; in the plural it means diarrhea...
- Piss
- FuckFuck"Fuck" is an English word that is generally considered obscene which, in its most literal meaning, refers to the act of sexual intercourse. By extension it may be used to negatively characterize anything that can be dismissed, disdained, defiled, or destroyed."Fuck" can be used as a verb, adverb,...
- CuntCuntCunt is a vulgarism, primarily referring to the female genitalia, specifically the vulva, and including the cleft of Venus. The earliest citation of this usage in the 1972 Oxford English Dictionary, c 1230, refers to the London street known as Gropecunt Lane...
- Cocksucker
- MotherfuckerMotherfuckerMotherfucker is a vulgarism which, in its most literal sense, refers to one who participates in sexual intercourse with a mother, either someone else's mother, or his own.- Variants :...
- Tits
In his comedy special Carlin commented that at one point, a man asked him to remove motherfucker because, as a derivative of fuck, it constituted a duplication. He later added it back, claiming the bit's rhythm does not work without it. Carlin did not believe that tits should be on the list because it sounds like a nickname or a snack ("New Nabisco
Nabisco
Nabisco is an American brand of cookies and snacks. Headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey, the company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Kraft Foods. Nabisco's plant in Chicago, a production facility at 7300 S...
Tits! ...corn tits, cheese tits, tater tits").
In his 1983 Carnegie Hall comedy special, Carlin expanded the list, reading over 200 dirty words from an over-sized scroll.
Later use of the words
Some of the words on Carlin's original list have since been used to some degree on broadcast television in the United States. The word tits was uttered on the first episode of The Trials of Rosie O'NeillThe Trials of Rosie O'Neill
The Trials of Rosie O'Neill is an American television drama series, which aired on CBS from 1990 to 1992. The show starred Sharon Gless as Fiona Rose "Rosie" O'Neill, a lawyer working in the public defender's office for the City of Los Angeles...
in 1990, sparking some controversy. It has been also uttered more recently in the popular Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian "Jimmy" Kimmel is an American television host and comedian. He is the host of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a late-night talk show that airs on ABC. Prior to that, Kimmel was best known as the co-host of Comedy Central's The Man Show and Win Ben Stein's Money...
video "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck," in which Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck
Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt , better known as Ben Affleck, is an American actor, film director, writer, and producer. He became known with his performances in Kevin Smith's films such as Mallrats and Chasing Amy...
utters "Hey, Sarah, he's got bigger tits", which originally aired on the After Oscar special of the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
show Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
after the 80th Annual Academy Awards, all without incident. The word "piss" (usually used in the context of the phrase "pissed off") has been commonplace since the 1980s. The word shit was heard on rare occasions in the 1990s, for the first time in an episode of Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama series created by David E. Kelley that ran from September 18, 1994, to May 5, 2000. It takes place in a fictional private charity hospital.-Premise:The show stars Mandy Patinkin as Dr...
spoken by Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon
Mark Harmon is an American actor who has been starring in American television programs and films since the mid-1970s, after a career as a collegiate football player with the UCLA Bruins. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the CBS series NCIS.-Early life:Harmon was born Thomas...
, and later in the season eight episode of ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
in which Dr. Mark Greene dies. The word "shit" was also spoken in several episodes of NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
. CBS recently aired the show "Shit My Dad Says" based on a Twitter feed but they spelled it "$#*!" and pronounced it as "bleep".
Producers have often implied the word fuck, although usually obscuring the word with a background sound effect or a beeping sound. One of Carlin's later additions to the list, fart, is also used frequently. Turd is regularly used on broadcast TV, though in performance Carlin explained that you can say it, "but who wants to?"
On March 10, 2002, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
aired "9/11", a prime-time special featuring first responders during the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It contained a number of utterances of the word "fuck." One notable early use of this word on American television occurred a few years after Carlin made his list, when the documentary Scared Straight!
Scared Straight!
Scared Straight! is a 1978 documentary directed by Arnold Shapiro. Narrated by Peter Falk, the subject of the documentary is a group of juvenile delinquents and their three-hour session with actual convicts...
, which included numerous utterances of the word and its derivatives, was broadcast uncensored.
The FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
has often looked at the context of the use of a 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 intensifier
Intensifier
Intensifier is a linguistic term for a modifier that amplifies the meaning of the word it modifies. Examples are "very," "quite," "extremely," "highly," and "greatly." An intensifier is the opposite of a qualifier, a modifier that weakens the word modified: "fairly," "somewhat," "rather," "a...
) in January 2003 at the live Golden Globe Awards broadcast by Bono
Bono
Paul David Hewson , most commonly known by his stage name Bono , is an Irish singer, musician, and humanitarian best known for being the main vocalist of the Dublin-based rock band U2. Bono was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and attended Mount Temple Comprehensive School where he met his...
, the front man of the band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
, 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. The full FCC, however, later reversed the decision in early 2004, though a fine against Bono has not been levied. In December 2003 Congressman Doug Ose
Doug Ose
Douglas Arlo "Doug" Ose is a former California congressman who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1999 to 2005, representing California's 3rd Congressional District...
, citing the incident, introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives that would have explicitly deemed six of the words profane (tits was excluded but asshole added).
In a similar incident on October 31, 2008
2008 in baseball
-Major League Baseball:* Regular Season Champions* World Series Champions – Philadelphia Phillies** American League Champions – Tampa Bay Rays** National League Champions – Philadelphia Phillies* Postseason – October 1 to October 29...
, Philadelphia Phillies
Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883. The Phillies are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League...
second baseman Chase Utley
Chase Utley
Chase Cameron Utley is a second baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball. A native of the Greater Los Angeles area, he was raised in the city of Long Beach. He was a star baseball player at Long Beach Polytechnic High School, before moving on to UCLA...
took the stage at Citizens Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park
Citizens Bank Park is a 43,647-seat baseball park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, and home of the Philadelphia Phillies. Citizens Bank Park opened on April 3, 2004, and hosted its first regular season baseball game on April 12 of the same year, with the...
during the team's World Series
2008 World Series
The 2008 World Series was the 104th World Series between the American and National Leagues for the championship of Major League Baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies as champions of the National League and the Tampa Bay Rays, as American League champions, competed to win four games out of a possible...
celebration and said "World champions. World fucking champions!" Utley's epithet was aired live on almost every television station in the Philadelphia television market. The FCC took no action.
When Norm Macdonald
Norm MacDonald
Norman Gene "Norm" Macdonald is a Canadian stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He is best known for his five seasons as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, which included anchoring Weekend Update for three years...
hosted Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
on October 23, 1999, during a Celebrity Jeopardy!
Celebrity Jeopardy! (Saturday Night Live)
Celebrity Jeopardy! was a recurring sketch on the television comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live that regularly aired between 1996 and 2002, the years when Will Ferrell was a cast member...
segment, Macdonald, portraying Burt Reynolds, read "A petit" as "ape tit". This was written in the script.
The FCC does not directly target the networks — only 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.
In 1998, the members of the Federal Communications Bar Association
Federal Communications Bar Association
The Federal Communications Bar Association is the voluntary bar association for communications attorneys in the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., the FCBA focuses primarily on the regulatory agencies of the Federal Communications Commission and the state public utility...
, which included staff from the FCC, formed an Ultimate Frisbee team which they named "Seven Dirty Words" or 7DW. This team continues to play in the Washington Area Frisbee Club.
In the 2011 NASCAR
NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing is a family-owned and -operated business venture that sanctions and governs multiple auto racing sports events. It was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1947–48. As of 2009, the CEO for the company is Brian France, grandson of the late Bill France Sr...
Coca-Cola 600
Coca-Cola 600
The Coca-Cola 600, formerly known as the World 600, is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held each year at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina on Memorial Day weekend...
, crew chief Chad Knaus
Chad Knaus
Chad Anthony Knaus is the current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series crew chief for Jimmie Johnson. He is currently employed at Hendrick Motorsports. Knaus has 52 victories as Jimmie Johnson's crew chief and is the only NASCAR crew chief to win five consecutive championships. He has been a crew chief in...
screamed after his driver's engine blew up, "You've got to be fucking kidding me, you fucking cunt!" uncensored. The FOX Sports announcers immediately apologized for Knaus's language.
On November 19, 2011, during an episode of College Gameday
College GameDay
College GameDay is an ESPN entertainment show previewing college football games. It first aired in 1987 with Tim Brando as host and Lee Corso and Beano Cook as commentators. Beginning more-or-less as a report on college football games, the show would undergo a radical transformation beginning in...
, sports commentator Lee Corso
Lee Corso
Leland "Lee" Corso is a sports broadcaster and football analyst for ESPN. He has been featured on ESPN's College GameDay program since its inception and he appeared annually as a commentator in EA Sports' NCAA Football through NCAA Football 11...
said, "How can you pick against SMU? Look at that one there — red, white and blue. [Picks up SMU megaphone] U-S-A! … Ah, fuck it! [Tosses megaphone offscreen, dons Shasta head]"
Pay television
The FCCFederal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
obscenity guidelines have never been applied to non-broadcast media such as cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
or satellite radio
Satellite radio
Satellite radio is an analogue or digital radio signal that is relayed through one or more satellites and thus can be received in a much wider geographical area than terrestrial FM radio stations...
. It is widely held that the FCC's authorizing legislation (particularly the Communications Act of 1934
Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law, enacted as Public Law Number 416, Act of June 19, 1934, ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064, by the 73rd Congress, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the...
and the Telecommunications Act of 1996
Telecommunications Act of 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934. This Act, signed by President Bill Clinton, was a major stepping stone towards the future of telecommunications, since this was the...
) does not enable the FCC to regulate content on subscription-based services, which include cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
, satellite television
Satellite television
Satellite television is television programming delivered by the means of communications satellite and received by an outdoor antenna, usually a parabolic mirror generally referred to as a satellite dish, and as far as household usage is concerned, a satellite receiver either in the form of an...
, and pay-per-view
Pay-per-view
Pay-per-view provides a service by which a television audience can purchase events to view via private telecast. The broadcaster shows the event at the same time to everyone ordering it...
television. Whether the FCC or the Department of Justice could be empowered by the 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 television must be subscribed to in order to receive it legally, it has long been thought that the ability of subscribers who object to the content being delivered to cancel their subscription creates an incentive for the cable operators to self-regulate (unlike broadcast television, cable television is not legally considered to be "pervasive
Pervasiveness doctrine
In broadcast law , the pervasiveness doctrine is the doctrine that because broadcast radio waves are available to anyone and therefore "uniquely pervasive", their content is subject to regulation...
", nor does it depend on a scarce, government-allocated electromagnetic spectrum
Electromagnetic spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. The "electromagnetic spectrum" of an object is the characteristic distribution of electromagnetic radiation emitted or absorbed by that particular object....
; as such, neither of the arguments buttressing the case for broadcast
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
regulation particularly apply to cable television).
Self-regulation
Self-policing
Self-policing, a form of self-regulation, is the process whereby an organization is asked, or volunteers, to monitor its own adherence to legal, ethical, or safety standards, rather than have an outside, independent agency such as a governmental entity monitor and enforce those standards.-To the...
by many basic cable networks is undertaken by Standards & Practices
Standards & Practices
In the United States, Standards and Practices is the name traditionally given to the department at a television network which is responsible for the moral, ethical, and legal implications of the program that network airs...
(S&P) departments that self-censor
Self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own work , out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities of others, without overt pressure from any specific party or institution of authority...
their programming because of the pressure put on them by advertisers — also meaning that any basic cable network willing to ignore such pressure could use any of the Seven Dirty Words.
In recent years, all of the words on Carlin's list have come into commonplace usage in many made-for-cable series and film productions, such as Deadwood
Deadwood (TV series)
Deadwood is an American Western drama television series created, produced and largely written by David Milch. The series aired on the premium cable network HBO from March 21, 2004, to August 27, 2006, spanning three 12-episode seasons. The show is set in the 1870s in Deadwood, South Dakota, before...
, The Wire
The Wire (TV series)
The Wire is an American television drama series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States...
, The Shield, The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
, Weeds
Weeds (TV series)
Weeds is an American television comedy created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television. The central character is Nancy Botwin , a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family after her husband dies suddenly of a...
, Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck is an American drama series created by Ryan Murphy, which aired on FX in the United States. The series focuses on McNamara/Troy, a plastic surgery practice, and follows its founders, Sean McNamara and Christian Troy...
, Rescue Me
Rescue Me (TV series)
Rescue Me is an American television drama series that premiered on the FX Network on July 21, 2004, and concluded on September 7, 2011. The series focuses on the professional and personal lives of a group of New York City firefighters in the fictitious Ladder 62 / Engine 99 firehouse.The show...
, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, Skins
Skins (TV series)
Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...
, Dead Like Me
Dead Like Me
Dead Like Me was an American-Canadian comedy-drama television series starring Ellen Muth and Mandy Patinkin as grim reapers who reside and work in Seattle, Washington. Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, the show was created by Bryan Fuller for the Showtime network, where it ran for two seasons...
, South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
and It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is an American television sitcom that premiered on FX on August 4, 2005. New episodes continue to air on FX, with reruns playing on Comedy Central, general broadcast syndication, and WGN America—the first-ever cable-to-cable syndication deal for a sitcom...
to name a few examples.
See also
- Communications Decency ActCommunications Decency ActThe Communications Decency Act of 1996 was the first notable attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet. In 1997, in the landmark cyberlaw case of Reno v. ACLU, the United States Supreme Court struck the anti-indecency provisions of the Act.The Act was...
- Morality in MediaMorality in MediaMorality in Media, Inc. is an American non-profit organization that was established in New York in 1962. MIM seeks to raise awareness about the harms of pornography and other forms of obscenity on individuals, families and society. MIM also works through constitutional means to curb traffic in...
- ProfanityProfanityProfanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
- Watershed (television)Watershed (television)In television, the term watershed denotes the time period in a television schedule during which programs with adult content can air....