Talk:Seven dirty words/Archive 1

message: I have deleted everything that have nothing to do with the original purpose of this article
user:Flewis, do NOT revert without checking if it is vandalism, this is in violation of Wikipedia:Assume_good_faith87.61.179.132 (talk) 10:55, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  purpose of the article 

message: Surely these two words are worse than "turd" and "fart"?
:They're British though, and I know at least the former is not widely understood in America.  The rountine is about American TV and what can't be said on it. Bombot (talk) 12:07, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wanker and Bollox 

message: 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)
thread_title:  South Park reference 

message: The list of the shows at the end of the article are mostly on "premium cable channels".  That means there is much less pressure from advertisers.  I don't have anything to back this up, but maybe someone could find something somewhere. I am very curious about this.  It seems like if its on the premium cable channels, you can swear but if its on the regular cable channels most likely self-censorship causes them to bleep most of the bad words.   —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.72.44.116 (talk) 02:48, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Premium Cable Channels

message: 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)
thread_title: The Actual List

message: 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)
thread_title:  FUCK & MotherFUCKer 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Other profanities 

message: "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.
Not entirely true. "Cunt" is not unacceptable at 8.59pm and suddenly acceptable at 9.00pm. Until 2005 I worked in British TV, and it was always made very plain that the watershed wasn't a solid barrier. While language could become considerably more adult after 9pm, there needed to be some sensitivity employed, with language allowed to get gradually more offensive between 9pm and 10pm. Ofcom would usually uphold any complaints about "cunt" being broadcast before 10pm, possibly even 11pm, regardless of dramatic justification.
Ofcom maintains, and periodically updates, a list of profanities ordered by level of offensiveness (determined by audience sampling). Its surveys consistently demonstrate that "cunt" and "motherfucker" are the two words most likely to cause the most offence to the largest number of people, which is why broadcasters wishing to use them need to have solid artistic justifications ready. Even if no audience member complains, if an Ofcom member happens to notice either "cunt" or "motherfucker" being broadcast before 10pm, they will usually instigate an investigation and require the broadcaster to justify it.213.132.48.105 (talk) 08:49, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Apparently, you've not heard of the Scunthorpe_problem. It's not only Microsoft, but anyone who produces filtering software. Do read the article, then read Regular expression to learn why that happens.Wzrd1 (talk) 18:20, 14 January 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Watershed 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Subarticles 

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

message: 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)
thread_title:  blink-182 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  A bit of cleanup. 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Dick? 

message: 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)
replies: text:  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)
thread_title:  Asshole 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Blink 182 (again) 

message: 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)
replies: text: 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)
thread_title:  Pop culture references 

message: 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)
thread_title:  Suggesting new article, called [[Banned words in broadcasting]]. 

message: Most of these words are used very frequently on UK TV - only exception being "Cunt" - which is still absolutely guaranteed to upset your new girlfriend's Mum.
As for 'Tits' - it's not really considered bad at all - slightly vulgar maybe.
American's should always be careful when referring to bottoms as "Fannies" however - as in the UK this is a slightly more acceptable term for "Cunt"
78.32.193.115 (talk) 14:25, 22 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The article is about a comedy routine by an American, and the American FCC regulations.  So what happens in the UK is irrelevant. --Escape Orbit (Talk) 14:36, 22 June 2008 (UTC)

text: It gains relevance though when it affects non-US societies. For example, music (videos and songs) by american artists or distributed by american labels, broadcast on european television and radio stations, frequently have these allegedly questionable words bleeped out or otherwise edited out (blanked), which is by and large perceived as anything from very silly to very annoying because they're much less of an issue in Europe, if any issue at all especially in non-English speaking countries. In the same vein, you could say the whole matter in general and its changing "severity" over the decades (i.e. words becoming "acceptable" over time) has an impact on how and how much the US is regarded as prude or censoring free speech, elsewhere in the world. So yeah, it's certainly relevant what happens in the UK and elsewhere. 91.33.247.250 (talk) 15:41, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text:  I’m no pundit for the rest of Europe, but in germany it's way different. Most US shows are dubbed, some programs (MTV and Discovery) are subtitled and there's no "bleeping" at all. In contrary some lowbrow but rather harmless statements are often turned into more profane and offending language by inappropriate translation (which in general lacks comprehension). As long as you don't utter racial slurs, anything goes in germany at any time.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.180.67.170 (talk) 11:32, 30 June 2008 (UTC)

text: Not so ('This is America')... This is the Internet. America is only one small piece of it.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.176.211.173 (talk) 18:56, 3 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Definitely Too US - Centric 

message: 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)
replies: text: Remember, this routine is from the 1970's; most of the words don't carry the same weight as they used to. -134.50.14.44 (talk) 01:37, 28 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Piss? 

message: It seems that several posters on this talk page have confused the fact that this article refers to the seven words on George Carlin's list and not the actual list of words banned by the FCC.  Do you think it would be worth it to put a text box at the top of the talk page distinguishing that fact?  Also, how would you word such a box? Walkerb4 17:39, 23 June 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, the article itself goes very deeply into the law and practice of not only the United States but also other countries concerning these and many other words. Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 04:33, 25 June 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Clarification on top of this talk page 

message: To me, this looks a lot like original research or just plain made-up. For example, Australia's Classic FM, being a classical music station, has no reason to broadcast any of these words. Please check these statements for accuracy. This, that and the other [talk] 10:33, 7 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Disputed content in Other countries section 

message: Just thought readers might appreciate a link directly to the lists of words. Dr. Bob (talk) 06:07, 15 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Subheadings 

message: Would it be possible to put a disclaimer at the top of this talk page that makes it clear that this is an article about Carlin's comedy routine, and not an official list of any sort, nor is it a list of all offensive words? A great deal of the postings on this page deal with words that people think are "more offensive" than those on the list, or citing official FCC guidelines that aren't actually directly relevant to this article. Rwiggum (Talk/Contrib) 23:12, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think an early on link to Profanity or such like would help to steer unwanted edits away? LeeVJ (talk) 23:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Talk Page Disclaimer? 

message: In George Carlin's 1972 album "Class Clown," he uses "Cock" instead of "fuck." I believe Penn and Teller's "Bullshit!" episode used it as well. Should someone add this to the article? 128.122.90.183 (talk) 07:00, 15 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cock 

message: -----------------------------------PROPOSED CHANGES----------------------------------------
# Shit
# Piss
# F**k
# C**t
# Co*ks*cker
# Motherf***er
# Tits
Some words not so bad anymore. Hell, even my grammer schooler says it. Because it's too prevalant in society. C'mon Wiki, show some good sense restraint and censor at least someof your entries. Remember,- this is read by a lot of children.--LarryOLarry (talk) 20:03, 27 December 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Wikipedia is not censored. period. OhNoitsJamie Talk 20:11, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

text: "I highly doubt young children make any effort to purposely visit Wikipedia and try to find naughty words" Ha ha! You clearly don't have children, Sneighke! :-) It's the FIRST thing they'd do! ...but I fully agree with your point. Wikipedia cannot censor words, however offensive. And, let's face it, if someone's going to be offended by reading dirty words they really shouldn't be looking at an article entitled "Seven Dirty Words"! Butcherscross (talk) 11:11, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  My suggestions for flagged part of article 

message: The sections Later use of the words and Pay television are not technically on the topic and are quite tangential.  "Later use" is looking quite "coatrackish" too.  The discouraged and unencyclopedic Pop-culture references is actually significantly more topical than the two aforementioned sections!  This article is about Carlin's "skit" and "dirty words" which have become famous as a pop-culture reference, not about every time any of the words contained in the list been broadcast since!  Comments?
::Peace and Passion ☮  ("I'm listening....") 19:03, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sections not on topic (tangential) 

message: I'm not sure but i think its:
# fuck
# shit
# bitch
# cunt
# Cocksucker
# piss
# ass
# dick
# tits
# prick
# pussy
# arse
# bastard
This list consists entirely of original research, speculation, and was put in a discussion page, which you shouldn't have done because on Wikipedia, discussion pages are only used for discussion on improving the corresponding article. You didn't even sign your post. --69.248.1.200 (talk) 18:38, 30 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  13 bad words in Spongebob 

message: Why were the pop culture references removed? I see that in the revision as of 21 September 2009 it had been removed and WP:TRIVIA was listed as a reason. However, list of pop culture references is not a list of miscellaneous information. The list has a very specific purpose of illustration of where these seven words were mentioned, and I consider it a very important part of the article. If it is better to break the information into, say, spearate sections on radio, music and video and represent information in a better way, then let's do it, but why delete the whole section? I suggest bringing it back. HotXRock (talk) 23:57, 26 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggestion to bring back culture references 

message: I read the article and made a quick fix regaring POVs but the talkheader at the top of this page says the article is about what's-his-name's comedy show. However, IMO, I think the article is beginning to sway on that. Any thoughts? 173.34.34.100 (talk) 14:06, 26 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is this still about the comedy show? 

message: Do you think it's that word?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.92.153.203 (talk) 21:29, 15 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is it the "c" word that I mostly hear in school? It starts with "cr". 

message: Am I misunderstanding this line:
:During one of Lenny Bruce's performances, he said he was arrested for saying nine words: ass, fart, balls, cock, cunt, fuck, whore, piss, shit, tits. The latter seven became Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words".
...? According the the intro, "The words are: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits." Could someone who knows the subject fix this? Denbosch (talk) 15:26, 6 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  "The latter seven" 

message: I've added Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties to the Further reading section. — Cirt (talk) 07:44, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Further reading