Talk:Seven dirty words

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[edit] Wanker and Bollox

Surely these two words are worse than "turd" and "fart"?

[edit] South Park reference

In the references in pop culture, it says South Park mentions 7 dirty words, but not identical because one is mentioned as Meekrob which it says is made up by Cartman. In fact, Mee krob is not made up, but a tai dish. Ubergenius 14:20, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

Most memorably, South Park also had an episode where it used the word "sh*t" 162 times, with a counter in the corner of the screen tallying it as the episode progressed. See separate Wikipedia entry for "It Hits the Fan." Boopsie 13:10, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Actual List

The general subject of the article is words not acceptable on television and radio, as well as grey areas and exceptions. The specific basis of this list is from George Carlin's routine on the subject. In every version of this routine which appears on his albums and HBO specials, the list has always been "shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits", with the expansion and discussion of "fart, turd, and twat". Some people keep editing the list at the top of the article, despite the fact that they leave the introduction "Carlin's original seven are (in his order of presentation)" intact. I've added a note to the HTML of the article, and I'm explaining it here as well, please leave the list at the top of the article alone for the sake of accuracy, and then discuss the grey areas and such elsewhere in the article, or here on the talk page. - Ugliness Man 10:53, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

I can remember NBC showing the film ON GOLDEN POND unedited, with ALL the harsh profanity intact; didn't that break the rules of "never saying" the words on TV? On another side-note, I remember an ABC special of "adam and eve" that had both characters naked AND they showed full nudity!? (or maybe it was PBS) Is there, or should there be an article for "special exceptions" to the FCC code?

[edit] Tits

Is "tits" really that dirty a word in the US. In the UK its certainly vulgar but hardly in the ilk of the other words here. Dainamo 12:45, 6 Sep 2004 (UTC)

In my opinion "tits" is probably considered to be the least vulgar of these words in the US. That said, I don't think I've ever heard it used on radio or broadcast television. Allen 20:22, Sep 29, 2004 (UTC)
I would say piss is the least vulgar, it's the only one of these words that my parents would ever let me say in front of them
I think the stuff about "tits" and "piss" being non-vulgar in the UK is POV and should probably be removed. Look at it this way: independent research conducted only four years ago ( http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/consumer_audience_research/tv/tv_audience_reports/delete_expletives.pdf ) shows that clear majorities of the public still believe that "sodding" and "crap" are both swearwords (see the appendix). Only 7% said that "piss off" wasn't swearing (though I am unclear whether, in asking about "piss off" specifically, the researchers intended a distinction between "piss" and "piss off"). "Tits" wasn't included but I think it is just as vulgar as crap. 81.154.56.73 01:10, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Given how often the semi-nude famale body is shown in the UK tabloid press and tv, it is hard to believe that 'tits' is taken as very offensive over here. I believe that more offence is taken in the USA, as in the example of their changing 'titbit' to 'tidbit'. The word 'titbit' carries no offence whatesoever in the UK and 'Titbits' was the name of a general interest UK magazine for many years.

'Tits' is only a very mild and slightly comical expletive in UK use. The word 'piss' is more vulgar but can be found in the Bible. It might be heard in the matey environment of a pub, such as "Joe has gone for a piss". It has more vehemence in "piss off" but with less weight than the good old Anglo-Saxon "fuck off".

As regards what the public take as swear words, even 'get stuffed' might be classed as such, yet there is 'stuff' in everything.

Keep in mind that the original point of the list, and of Carlin's various pieces regarding the list, isn't just what words are considered "swear words", or how offensive these words are, the issue is whether or not these words can be said on television. The climate has changed over the years, and it does vary from one country to the next, so it's more accurate to say that it's a list of words that couldn't be said on television in the USA, before HBO existed. Carlin even talked about how the word "tits" isn't offensive, that it's actually a "cute" word, but that doesn't change the fact that you're still not allowed to say it on basic cable in North America. You can say other words that mean the same thing without getting in trouble, and you can talk about them in various different contexts, but you still can't say that specific word.
Most of the rest of what you were talking about is phrases and context. Context, specifically, is very important, since words often have multiple meanings. As for "piss", these days you can say "pissed off" meaning "upset", but you generally can't use the word to literally refer to urinating. "Piss off" is very rare in North America, and so I'm not sure what the television status would be, but it was said in the latest Harry Potter movie, and that movie got a PG rating in Canada and PG-13 in USA. - Ugliness Man 10:41, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

The word 'Tits' at the bottom of the page links to 'Oral Sex'. I can't see how to correct this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.145.0.194 (talk) 08:10, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] FUCK & MotherFUCKer

The word fuck is so bad the FCC put it on the list twice. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.134.176.68 (talk • contribs)


The list wasn't created by the FCC. It was created by George Carlin, who later admitted that it wasn't fair for "fuck" to take up two spots on the list. Feeeshboy 06:31, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Other profanities

What is the FCC stance on racial swear words and profanities that are not obscene in themselves but are used in a racial context?

Also duel use words (EG Bitch, niger, faggot), gibberish swear words from television (Smeg, short for smegma, meaning penis fungus) or words imported into the US language from Spanish.

I don't think there's an official policy, but since this is a page about a comedy routine, check out South Park's It Hits the Fan, in which Mr. Garrison states that only gay people can say "fag" without getting bleeped. Feeeshboy 06:34, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

There is an official policy. The FCC stated last year that although racial and religious epithets can be extremely offensive, they won't be considered "indecent" because of First Amendment concerns. But in any case, I think this article has gotten somewhat unwieldy, and this kind of discussion is better suited to a full article about Indecency on the airwaves. Ztrawhcs 04:53, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Watershed

"Cunt is the only word not allowed on British television after the 9pm watershed"... surely this should be BEFORE the watershed, right?

Answer: no, that's definitely after -- and actually, it's not true. After 9pm on British television, you can use any words you want provided they're justified in context; Ofcom will get complaints if someone just yells fucking cunts apropos of nothing, but if it's appropriate (and there's a warning before the program), it's absolutely fine.

Yes for example in the UK films can use the word 'cunt' after 9pm and won't be censored, for example 'Shaun of the Dead' was on itv3 the other day at 9pm which uses the word repeatedly throughout.

[edit] Subarticles

This article is relatively small, so none of the seven words really merit a subarticle, unless they are notable and non-dictionary defintion enough alone. Six of them are either that or fine as disambigs. But cocksucker was a dicdef which was transwikied to Wiktionary and it was decided to just merge the considerably smaller text here. Unfortunately, Shoaler just reversed that without discussion, making cocksucker still just a small dicdef. The "Individual words" section is designed so we can give a quick definition of each word here, and that's already the entire text of cocksucker. So, I'm reverting the change. --Dmcdevit 18:05, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

These "seven words" have little or no distinction as a group. They happen to have been allegedly banned from broadcasting at one time but I certainly wouldn't go to this article if I was looking for more information on the words. So they are certainly not subarticles to this one. And why is cocksucker less notable than any of the others? And isn't a dicdef a good place to start a stub? If you want to delete the article, I think you should go through the VfD process. Shoaler 19:02, 7 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Special Interest Group

Could someone find out which special interest group in particular is active here, and name it? Fieari 22:41, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] blink-182

Would it be inappropriate to add that blink-182 released a song consisting of nothing but these words? It goes "Shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfucker tits fart turd and twat" and is repeated a few times. -- Rediahs 20:22, 19 January 2006 (UTC)

They didn't realease this song... They only play it live, and it's called "Family Reunion" -- Atreyu1075

It was on their live album though...

[edit] A bit of cleanup.

I edited the opening section of the article, because it was inaccurate and incomplete as it previously appeared. It is important to note that "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" from Class Clown and "Filthy Words" from Occupation: Foole are two different routines, although they deal with the same subject matter. The paragraph as it was suggested that there was only one routine, which gets referred to by each of these titles. It was the second of these two which was broadcast on WBAI. Unfortunately, in attempting to tidy up the accuracy of the article, it is now a bit redundant, as much of the information in the opening is basically repeated in the subsections of the article. It would be nice if a more experienced Wikipedian could perhaps eliminate the redundancies while making sure the information remains accurate and complete. - Ugliness Man 13:10, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

Further notes, in case anyone questions the accuracy of my corrections. I owned both of the albums in question on vinyl before I had a house fire which consumed all my records, and I now legally own mp3s of Carlin's "The Little David Years" boxed set, which contains both albums, thanks to an eMusic.com promotion. This boxed set, in addition the George Carlin article, is the source I double checked for the release dates and track titles. To determine which of the two tracks was the one that WBAI broadcast, I referred to the text of the court decision as linked to in the F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation article. - Ugliness Man 13:15, 17 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dick?

I don't think "Dick" would be on Carlin's list of words you can never say on TV. After all, the word is inoffensive when referring to a detective, or as a shortened form of Richard. It's an example of what Carlin called "two-way" words--words which may or may not be offensive, depending on context. (Other examples include pussy, ass, bitch, cock, fag--each which has usages which are not vulgar).

Did Carlin ever mention "dick" as a banned word in any of his routines? --EngineerScotty 06:42, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

You're right. I don't know who added the word to Carlin's original "extra three", but in the many different versions of the routine that I've heard (and read and watched), he's never mentioned "dick" as part of that sub-list. His main point of those extra words is that they're included because they don't mean anything else besides the "dirty" connotation, and, as you said, "dick" is a two-way word. I don't recall him mentioning it while talking about two-way words, although he did mention "prick" ("you can prick your finger, but don't finger your prick"). Anyway, I removed it. - Ugliness Man 23:52, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Asshole

There is no mentioning of the word asshole in this article that i saw anyway, but i know it is a censored word.

It's not in the article because it's not part of the list. It should be on the list, but it's not, so it's not in the article. - Ugliness Man 11:20, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't think asshole is a bad word tbh, you hear it on tv a lot before the 9pm watershed, especially on american programmes!Thatguy69 23:16, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Blink 182 (again)

Just to clarify, when the mention of the Blink 182 track talks about "the ten-word version of the list", we need to keep in mind that it's part of the overall article, not a mini-article that stands on its own. There's no need to be redundant and explain what the ten-word version is. - Ugliness Man 15:00, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pop culture references

I don't see how the "Arthur" link (which is broken, anyway) is actually a reference to George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words. This should be on the Profanity page, not here. Feeeshboy 04:29, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

That's a damn good point. When I first saw that someone had added the reference, I thought it was a little vague (for example, were they saying words that the show bleeped out, were they using "mild swear words, or were they saying fake swear words?)... but now that you mention it, it doesn't belong here at all. I removed it. - Ugliness Man 11:27, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] change sentence, pov?

I have some remarks on the sentence "This version was broadcast by Pacifica radio station WBAI, which eventually led to a Supreme Court case, F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), that helped define acceptable free speech limits on broadcast television and radio in the United States". First of all, I think it is too long. Second, i have some problems with the word 'acceptable', which sounds strange to me. To me, this appears as 'the new limits are acceptable, whereas the old ones were not'. This would be a hidden opinion/pov. I am not a native speaker, so maybe I am missing the subtleties of English, but I would break the sentence in two and change it into '... This helped define/clarify the limits on what is acceptable on ...'

/archive1

[edit] Suggesting new article, called Banned words in broadcasting.

Broadcasting regulators banns inappropriate words more than those 7 words, depending on countries. In Australia, the word Fuck and Shit can be heard without bleeping in the M-rated programmes.

We need a main article on the banned words more than those 7 words, called Banned words in broadcasting, focusing not just on the US, also the UK, Australia and more.

Currently, the Japanese interwiki for the article called Seven dirty words is 放送禁止用語, which focuses on the banned words in the Japanese broadcasters, not 7 words banned by FCC.--JSH-alive (talk)(cntrbtns)(mail me) 01:06, 24 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Too US centric

Seems fto me the article is overly centered on the USA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.118.143.160 (talk) 21:24, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'm not sure what you mean by that, since it is about "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," a comedy routine by George Carlin, an American comedian. Sunray (talk) 23:43, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Piss?

I've heard that word several times on Charmed, both on television and DVD, so why is it listed? TheBlazikenMaster (talk) 19:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)