The Seven Dirty Words You'd Never Hear Today
By Allison Kilkenny
Created Jun 23 2008 - 1:41pm
Now is the time when bloggers, pundits, and your immediate family will act
like they were personally invested in George Carlin's artistic acts of
bravery. Everyone will crow about the great man because he was great, and
they'll declare his "Seven Dirty Words" routine a pillar of modern
American
comedy and also a landmark case in censor****p.
Those barely old enough to remember Carlin's mugshot, (and those old
enough
to remember his arrest and simultaneously crotchety enough to dismiss the
opinions of anyone under 30) will masquerade as loyal Carlin soldiers.
They'll ***** and moan like they were standing beside the man at his
trial,
U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow
5-4
decision by the justices affirmed the government's right to regulate
Carlin's act on the public airwaves.
The internet will erupt into an orgy of suffering because that's what
happens when a great man dies. And a great man did die. So even if it's a
tad contrived, Carlin should be paid his due respects. Every flattering
statement, every overzealous compliment will still be too few for one of
the
greatest comedians ever to shout his fearlessness into a microphone.
Counter-cultural icons are always beloved and admired retrospectively. The
people that faint after reading an expletive on the internet are the same
people that buy t-****rts with Lenny Bruce's face airbrushed across the
chest. These are the same individuals that bemoan a great man like Carlin
dying because -- weirdly enough -- there seems to be a shortage of
independent artists fluttering around our cor****ately-owned media.
Thirty years ago, the FCC functioned much the same way it does today.
Let's
say there's an uptight asshole -- a real bible-thumping lunatic -- who has
a
little cherub offspring that overhears a grown-up comedian drop the
F-bomb.
Logically, the parent turns off the radio, explains the evils of the
English
language and Satan's constant onslaught of temptations, and calls it a
night, right?
Wrong. In 1973, a man complained to the FCC that his son had heard a
similar
routine to Carlin's Seven Dirty Words, which was broadcast one afternoon
over WBAI, a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in New York City.
Pacifica
received a citation from the FCC, and later the Supreme Court upheld the
FCC
action, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene", which is a
way of saying, "You're making us nervous as hell but we have this thing
called free speech, so we can't technically lock you up."
Though, Carlin would have gladly gone to jail. He'd been there before with
another great man: Lenny Bruce. When the cops arrested Bruce for
obscenity,
Carlin allegedly mouthed-off to the cops and joined Bruce in jail. It's
difficult to imagine a performer today exerting such willful defiance and
breathless indignation in the presence of a ridiculously corrupt world.
George Carlin hated censor****p, and that hatred steadily grew through his
life as he watched cor****ate mergers and an overbearing government sedate
its citizenry with dumbed-down entertainment and materialistic toys like
I-Pods and I-Phones.
Who would embrace a performer like George Carlin today? Clear Channel?
FOX?
What major network -- what radio station -- would broadcast his words?
When
would the admiration for his bravery stop and the fear of cor****ate
retribution begin? Today, many suits would have patted Carlin on the
shoulder and sincerely apologized, "Gee, kid, I love it. It's just...my
boss
is a real square! I mean, the guy is SO out-of-touch. I can't stick my
neck
out there."
The greatest tribute for Carlin isn't to wor****p him as the last brave
performer. The idea is to take the torch and run with it. Carlin famously
said that it's the duty of a comedian to find where the line is drawn and
cross it deliberately. He meant that oftentimes we only truthfully engage
with one another when we violate some unspoken social contract. The best
conversations, debates, and ideas spring from uncharted interactions.
Carlin
wanted us to surprise the hell out of each other, in our dull little lives
and in our government. Maybe it says something about our culture that he
needed to scream "****!!!" in order to get the message across.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues.
I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an op****tunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are
at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
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