These words were considered highly inappropriate and unsuitable for broadcast on the public airwaves in the United States , whether radio or television. As such, they were avoided in scripted material and bleep censored in the rare cases in which they were used.
Broadcast standards differ in different parts of the world, then and now, although most of the words on Carlin's original list remain taboo on American broadcast television. The list was not an official enumeration of forbidden words, but rather were concocted by Carlin to flow better in a comedy routine. Nonetheless, a radio broadcast featuring these words led to a Supreme Court 5—4 decision in in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation that the FCC's declaratory ruling did not violate either the First or Fifth Amendments, thus helping define the extent to which the federal government could regulate speech on broadcast television and radio in the United States.
During a performance in , comedian Lenny Bruce said he had been arrested for saying nine words: " ass ", " balls ", " cocksucker ", " cunt ", " fuck ", " motherfucker ", " piss ", " shit ", and " tits ". One track on the album, "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", was a monologue in which he identified these words and expressed amazement that they could not be used regardless of context.
In a NPR interview, he said:. I don't know that there was a "Eureka! Where you really cannot pin down what these rules they want to enforce are. It's just impossible to say "this is a blanket rule". You'll see some newspapers print "f blank blank k". Some print "f asterisk asterisk k". Some put "f blank blank blank ". Some put the word " bleep ". Some put " expletive deleted ". So there's no real consistent standard.
It's not a science. It's a notion that they have and it's superstitious. These words have no power. We give them this power by refusing to be free and easy with them. We give them great power over us. They really, in themselves, have no power. It's the thrust of the sentence that makes them either good or bad. Carlin was arrested for disturbing the peace when he performed the routine at a show at Summerfest in Milwaukee in On his next album, 's Occupation: Foole , he performed a similar routine titled "Filthy Words", dealing with the same list and many of the same themes.
