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As a tribute to the great George Carlin, who died Sunday, we link today to his famous, live, unexpurgated routine about the Seven Words You Can't Say on Television. The very fact that The Washington Post is letting me do this, 36 years after Carlin was ARRESTED for uttering these words onstage in Milwaukee, says something about the evolution of free speech, a process Carlin did much to advance.

Please be warned that THIS IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK. IN NO PART IS IT SAFE FOR WORK UNLESS YOU WORK IN THE PORN INDUSTRY. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE HEADPHONES OR AN OFFICE WITH A DOOR, DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS AT WORK. WAIT TILL YOU GET HOME. OR, IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY COARSE LANGUAGE, DO NOT LISTEN AT ALL. OKAY? GOOD.

Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTyzTJTNhNk

Remember, as you watch this, that it debuted onstage in 1972.


 
 
 
Do you think this worked as comedy at the time?
 
Yes, brilliantly, and for complex reasons.
 
Yes, but mostly because of the subversion and shock value.
 
No, not really.
 
 
 
Do you think it is still funny?
 
Absolutely. He could deliver it with just a few changes today. Network TV is still stodgy.
 
Yes, but it would really seem pretty tame.
 
It wasn't that funny then and it's not that funny now.
 
 
 
Which part was funniest?
 
The bit about taking out of the sequence the word "m----------r."
 
The bit about c--------r.
 
The bit about f--t.
 
The bit about t-ts.
 
The bit at the last minute, about t--t, and p---k.
 
 
 
Do you find this personally offensive?
 
Yes.
 
No.
 
Maybe a litte.
 
 
 
What was Carlin's main aim here?
 
To show, quite effectively, that we will laugh nervously at things that are forbidden to us. Humor is about the nexus of fear and surprise.
 
To appropriate all these words in a way that took all vulgarity out of them, making a point about the nature of language.
 
It is wrong to suggest some overarching theme here. This was shock humor; he wasn't the first, and he wasn't the best. It wasn't art then and it isn't art now.
 
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