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Seven Dirty Words: Difference between revisions
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Modern American network television is notoriously rife with violence, sexual situations, and other unpleasantness that would not be seen in most countries. But American TV is also notoriously priggish when it comes to language and social mores. American broadcasters avoided broadcasting mundanities like toilets, pregnancy, and two-person beds until the 1960s, or even later.
It is against this backdrop -- priggishness way beyond cultural norms, at a time where American society was openly questioning authority -- that Carlin's little list caused such a furor.
In 1972, Carlin was arrested merely for performing his [[Seven Dirty Words]] routine in public. At the time, many places had laws against public obscenity and indecency, which local [[Moral Guardians]] gladly enforced. But in the climate of the times, such arguments found their way to higher courts, who found the concept of obscenity notoriously difficult to define.
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With no real definition of what is or isn't obscene, pushing the envelope in American network television has mostly been a game of "[[Getting Crap Past the Radar|try it and see if you get away with it]]." The FCC has the right to grant and revoke broadcast licenses, so they wield considerable power. For this reason, American broadcasters err very heavily on the side of not pissing off the FCC. Especially after that whole Janet Jackson boob thing, which saw unprecedented complaints, litigation, fines, and stricter new rules.
So how do the [[Seven Dirty Words]] hold up against modern standards? (Especially since you can say shit and fuck [[Monty Python's Flying Circus|in a British eulogy!]])
The FCC has established a "safe harbor" of midnight to 6am. A broadcast station, if it could get the rights to do so, could run the unedited version of [[Scarface]] at 3 in the morning, up to and including Elvira's complaint, "Can't you stop saying 'fuck' all the time?" without being subject to penalties. During the rest of the time, whether they can run a particular vulgar word depends on why it is is happening, the context and the time of day that it is shown. A judge on a three-judge panel overhearing the Fox Network's appeal of an FCC ruling, sardonically questioned the government's lawyer, by saying, "So while a television station normally wouldn't be able to use this sort of word during the day time, it would be legal if one of them ran an unedited news report at 8 AM where a federal judge said 'fuck' from the bench to a lawyer?" and the government's lawyer more-or-less reluctantly agreed.
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* '''Piss''' - It's hard to tell when exactly it started, but this word is perfectly acceptable on TV now and has dropped all the way down to the PG tier, at least in a figure of speech ("piss[ed] off", meaning annoy[ed]).
** According to [[wikipedia:Shogun (TV miniseries)|the other wiki]], the 1980 miniseries Shogun was the first to allow the word (to mean "urinate").
** Oddly enough, it's in the King Jimmy Bible, multiple times. E.g., "him that pisseth against the wall" and "Are they not doomed with you to eat their own filth and drink their own piss?" Mark Twain had fun with this one.
*** Yeah, but -- FUN FACT! In the era in which the bible was translated, "piss" was the common way to say it. The rudeness comes apparently just from the dislike of the class of the person who would use it. So...if you look at it another way, it should be very odd that this word is disliked in today's society.
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* '''Twat''' - Like "cunt", but a little milder. In Britain, it can also mean to hit or strike something, as in ''"Twat him in the face, Steve!"'' or a person who is generally extremely stupid, as in "You are such a twat, Steve!"
Are there any words not on Carlin's 1972 list that can't be said on American television in 2008? Lots of them. So if you think about it for a moment, [[Dissimile|these aren't seven dirty words at all]]. "Goddamn", "dick" (at least when used to refer to a penis), and "asshole" are usually out and always have been (although "dick" has seen increased use on network comedies and dramas to refer to unpleasant persons, and "asshole" is also allowed, to an extremely limited extent, on a few network dramas).
A rather humorous incident occurred when a live program allowed a person to refer to the former Vice President as Dick Cheney, but then bleeped the speaker when they referred to someone else as a dick.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* In ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'', Chris hears his parents listen to the Carlin routine. He passes on the list at school to get laughs, but ends up in trouble for it. To [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|get the story onto network TV]], each word is replaced with its number in Carlin's list. The last line of the episode: "Number Threeeeeeeeee!"
* An episode of ''[[That '70s Show]]'' featured the gang listening to the record. Eric went through the rest of the episode using the numbers to insult people. Donna (on Eric's suggestion) later tricks a rival radio DJ into playing the record on the air to get the other woman fired.
* [[Have I Got News for You|Have I Got Unbroadcastable News For You]]: Despite being exclusively for home video the producer would like to point some words not to mention in the recording...
{{quote|'''Producer''': Wee-wee, piddle, nipples, farting, winkle, poo-poos, front bottom, semolina-
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