Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television

Artist: George Carlin

Album: Class Clown (1972)

I love words

I thank you for hearing my words

I want to tell you something about words that I think is important

As I say, they're my work

they're my play

they're my passion

Words are all we have, really

We have thoughts

but thoughts are fluid

y'know like, woo woo woo woo...

Then we assign a word to a thought

and we're stuck with that word for that thought

So be careful with words

I like to think that yeah

the same words that hurt

can heal

it's a matter of how you pick them

There are some people

that aren't into all the words

There are some that would have you not use certain words

Yeah, there are 400,000 words

in the English language

and there are 7 of them

that you can't say on television

What a ratio that is!

399,993...to 7

They must really be bad

They'd have to be outrageous

to be separated from a group that large

All of you, over here. But you 7, bad words!

That's what they told us they were, remember?

“That's a bad word!”

No bad words. Bad thoughts

Bad intentions, and words!

You know the 7, don't you

that you can't say on television?

Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits

Those are the heavy seven

Those are the ones that'll infect your soul

curve your spine

and keep the country from winning the war

Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Wow!

And “tits” doesn't even belong on the list!

That's such a friendly sounding word

It sounds like a nickname

“Hey, Tits, come here, man

Hey Tits, meet Toots

Toots, Tits. Tits, Toots”

It sounds like a snack, doesn't it?

Yes, I know, it is a snack

But I don't mean your sexist snack

I mean New Nabisco Tits!

and new Cheese Tits

Corn Tits, Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits, Onion Tits

Tater Tits. “Betcha Can't Eat Just One!”

But that word does not belong on the list

Actually none of the words belong on the list

but you can understand why

some of them are there

I'm not completely insensitive to people's feelings

I can dig why some of those words got on the list

like cocksucker and motherfucker

Those are heavyweight words!

There's a lot going on there

Besides the literal translation

and the emotional feeling

I mean, they're just busy words

There's a lot of syllables to contend with

And those Ks, those are aggressive sounds

They just jump out at you like

cocksucker motherfucker cocksucker motherfucker

It's like an assault on you

So I can dig that

We mentioned shit earlier

and two of the other four-letter Anglo-Saxon words are piss and cunt

which go together of course

A little accidental humor there

The reason that piss and cunt are on the list

is because a long time ago, there were certain ladies that said

“Those are the two I am not going to say

I don't mind fuck and shit

but ‘P’ and ‘C’ are out

‘P’ and ‘C’ are out”

Which led to such stupid sentences as

“Okay you fuckers, I'm going to tinkle now”

And of course, the word fuck

I don't really, well here's more accidental humor

I don't wanna get into that now

because I think it takes too long

But I do mean that

I think the word fuck is a very important word

It's the beginning of life

yet it is a word we use to hurt one another quite often

People much wiser than I have said

“I'd rather have my son watch a film with two people making love

than two people trying to kill one another”

and I, of course, can agree

It is a great sentiment. I wish I knew who said it first

I agree with that but I like to take it a step further

I'd like to substitute the word fuck

for the word kill

in all of those movie clichés we grew up with

“Okay, Sheriff, we're gonna fuck you now

but we're gonna fuck you slow

So maybe next year I'll have a whole fuckin' rap on the N-word

I hope so

Those are the 7 you can never say on television

under any circumstances

You just cannot say them

ever ever ever

Not even clinically

You cannot weave them in on the panel with Doc, and Ed, and Johnny

I mean, it is just impossible

Forget those 7. They're out

But there are some 2-way words

those double-meaning words

Remember the ones you giggled at in sixth grade?

“...And the cock crowed three times

Hey, the cock crowed 3 times

Ha ha ha ha

Hey, it's in the Bible. Ha ha ha ha”

There are some 2-way words

like it's okay for Curt Gowdy to say

Roberto Clemente has 2 balls on him” but he can't say

“I think he hurt his balls on that play, Tony. Don't you?

He's holding them. He must've hurt them, by God

And the other 2-way word that goes with that one is prick

It's okay if it happens to your finger

You can prick your finger but

don't finger your prick. No, no