The Artful Jurist

Just recently, I was watching a television program about comedy through the ages. Among the comedians featured on the retrospective show was the late George Carlin, who was known to spice up his act with some—shall we say—salty language. Among his most notable routines was the one about the seven words you'll never hear on TV. Not being on TV while he was doing that bit, Carlin went ahead and said all seven out loud.

A radio statio got itself into hot water in the 1970s when it played an uncensored recording of the "seven words" bit on the air. (I guess the station figured Carlin cautioned that you couldn't say those words on TV, but he never said anything about radio.) The resulting litigation went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court where the high Court ruled that the comedy routine was indecent but not obscene and basically gave the Federal Communications Commission the right to prohibit such things on the public airwaves. (After all, there are young children out there, and we know kids never, ever hear language like that on the streets or schoolyards, right?...Yeah, maybe when Miss Jean Brodie was teaching school, but not the public schools where I learned my A-B-Cs.)

Anyway, the point I'm coming to—and I know I can't be the only one who's noticed this—is that over the past decade or so at least three of Carlin's seven forbidden words have found their way into prime time television shows. I've heard them. The shows just run a disclaimer at the beginning telling everyone it has some "language" issues, and they let it go at that...apparently without having to get the Supreme Court involved.

So, for those of you scoring at home, it seems we're now down to only four words that will never be heard on TV. But, based on precedent, I'd be a little reluctant to attempt to define the word "never."