George Carlin on Being Arrested for Performing "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television"

my next guest in the past few years has reached the Great Heights really he is very well respected among performers he has an album he writes and performs practically all of his own material and his album called that's Kenny Rankin's album but it's also doing well but that's not the one I wanted called uh well this is not the one I wanted is it is this am and FM yeah well it's doing well right string Sensational as a matter of fact uh I know that's got a gold record but it's doing real good which in a silver record or something isn't it let's get him out here let's find out uh would you welcome George Carlin [Music] [Applause] [Music] smoking the set again they John that's right right on cat can't give it up George thank you though for that uh showing the album on the show like this is you know oh does that really does that really help pardon me really helping you hold up the album and do that yeah this show in fact is known more so than any of the others that there have been and have gone away too it's I think it's because the way I hold the album some of the some of the fellows say you know here it is and other guys get to do this but I I hold an album nicely you do I think that probably has more to do with anything else the way I hold it directly on it is often good too so it's at home they're like that that's right you want to get the key light so they well thank you for that now George you must promise me something you won't get me in any trouble on the show tonight because I've been reading about your problems in Milwaukee and they they busted you there or tried to bust you or there's a court case pending right because and I don't want to jeopardize the case so I have to be careful the words I use I guess you allegedly let me put it that way use some words in your act which brought about a bust saying that you were what was the technical uh language in the oh it was uh disorderly conduct hyphen profanity as opposed I guess to disorderly conduct drunk disorderly conduct something else uh the state didn't want to have anything to do with it uh they didn't want to prosecute it because you're covered by the first amendment in freedom of speech uh the city did however follow there was one policeman at this Summer Fest they were about anywhere from 35 to 55 000 people present it's a piece of material quote unquote that I've done everywhere the good places at bad places at colleges at religious colleges and it's about the seven words you can't say on television which list I have amended since then folks have been reminding me of others their own little words that they have they're up they're up to about 11 now but the point is it was a it's a satirical look at language taboos right and I use the words of course basically the words are having to do with the various usually terms the euphemistic terms for sexual intercourse or certain objects or parts of the body and Etc that's basically what it is which everybody uses uh more or less I shouldn't say everybody then I'll probably get letters saying we never use that we're endorsing it I told the policeman that night our uh our fighting men have used these words for years and years and when they stop using them they ain't fighting uh you mentioned not a First Amendment I don't mean to jump in on you about you know which give you the right the first amendment though does not give you the right to yield fire in a crowded Theater which I do not yeah but I'm saying you know when you say the I'm not saying that you did I'm only saying that when people say freedom there are certain slander anyone and you can't reliable anyone and if I were to use those words at someone in the audience to arouse them that would be another story but uh there have been I'm told reversals by the Supreme Court recently on convictions where people were merely running in the streets yelling these words or wearing a shirt with the word on it in a courtroom now certainly if those things were reversed a performer should be protected by the First Amendment if he's in the pursuit of art or uh satire or whatever it is and I expect to be upheld I hope so what do you think it is that gets people so absolutely maniacal and that's almost the word in certain fringes when they hear these words which have been around long before we were around but what do you think it is do you think it's a puritanical upbringing do you think it's a habit I think we've just we've all agreed these will be the ones that are no good you Bunch over there 400 000 words in the language and there's about nine or ten that no good over there would say them sometimes certain guys can send to each other and say anything this no just yelling them out no saying them on the panel you know are there places where you wouldn't use those words absolutely because a word can be offensive in the context of a sentence or in the context of your mood if you're a little mad and you don't want to really hurt or scare you might choose milder words and show your Madness with your face if you're just kidding around and your face is relaxed and so forth you can say a word that won't have the same emotional impact same word yeah that's true it's a they've done surveys on it it's amazing what gets people uptight certain words bother certain people in other words they don't think those people say well that doesn't bother me but it's always the people who make the case saying they're out to protect somebody else's morals Never Their Own they seem to be all right they're at least the people who criticize that and say well I'm not worried for myself but it's these other poor slobs I'm going to make sure I see the movie to make sure that's right that it's a terrible picture we can follow up a little bit on that we'll be right back after this message George you think the time uh will ever come or you can walk out on a show like this show and do the routine that you do now private land Club strangely enough the same people who would come here come to Las Vegas or they would go to see a concert performance and I've seen them sit through material and they laugh and they have a good time and they don't seem to be offended um why is it what is is there about this medium the defense that they have no control I mean they do they can turn it off it's like a member of your family the television set really it's in the home almost anyone can pass by and hear it and as long as commercial television is paid for by private interests and regulated by the government there will be a problem with that kind of language Freedom although even at the edges there's a little opening up now with with milder words with milder attitudes with subject matter it's slowly expanding as the society relaxes a little bit with things and I just don't think it can ever come to that point until we eliminate the fear of words altogether you know right what would you like to go out and address the people on tonight would you like to try to avoid the big seven foreign nice to come over here and perform my unnatural act that is my job performing in a natural act before a whole bunch of people no fun without people watching this is an unusual job this is my job welcome to my job my job hi my job involves words we're talking about words mostly I really love them and uh and got uh well became fond of them very early in life they're they're they fool you there's they're fun uh one of my favorite words as I mentioned you before is uh you hear it in commercials semi-boneless ham there are certain words I can't understand how can something be semi-boneless it has a bone or it doesn't and it's boneless and then there's bone to chicken it's boned yes there are no bones in it what do you mean it's boned if you would bone something would no that's not right forward lateral football has a forward lateral explain that to me if you will a partially blocked kick why does back come before fourth shouldn't it be fourth and back why back and forth stop and go certainly you must go before you stop if you change your plans and you alter your plans you've done the same thing but if you change your pants and you alter your pants you've done two different things [Applause] why is there no word called near fetched there are some things for which there are no words when you're walking on a busy street and you walk almost into someone and you both decide to correct three times in a row the wrong way and you do this thing there's no name for that if you tell your friend you did that I just met a guy and we uh we went like this you know no name for that there's no name for those two little lines on the upper lip that come down from your nose really they don't what are they gee I hurt my uh and the value of words the emotional value that that changes as you grow up remember when you were a kid the word trouble what it meant oh I mean trouble rub you're in trouble I'm in trouble and right after that would come remember the word please when you really meant it not please pass this all but please oh please please no please no no please please oh please please let me go please please please please man please man please man please man maybe that's what that came from I Love The Coincidence of words too and just one more chance just give me one more chance words you used words they used to you when you were a kid that you never hear when you grow up remember like yeah you'll break your neck no one ever says you'll break your neck no one ever broke their neck than when you were a kid never heard of that kid broke his leg broke his arm and break your neck put down that stick you'll put somebody's eye out with that never heard of a guy but I want to say you'll catch pneumonia don't pick at it in or out in or out come on so anyway then you have oh by the way one thing if you're if you're a fan of your childhood when you go back to the house where you grew up after you've walked around a little in the house as an adult walk around at the height you used to walk around when you were a kid and all of those sense memories will come back to you then you wouldn't have seen you look at the windowsill and oh yeah and the paint was cracked and this was a river around here it's really great fun names are another kind of words I've often mentioned you that when I'm in a a bus depot or a train station I can never eat in the dining room because it's usually called Terminal Diner or terminal Lounge the name George is a hard name to grow up with everyone's always singing that dumb song to you Georgie Porgie no other guy's name no other person's name had a dumb song all the time 37 times a day George pudding pie kissed the girls and make them cry maybe he made him cry why would they cry man when the boys come out to play Georgie Porgie ran away whoa Whoa man George let George do it all those dopes in the commercials ring around George Bad Name you have to go away from it Melvin I feel sorry for Melvin's and Irvings people make fun of those names Percy Melvin Irving as our outgoing Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird it scared me during the amchika h-bomb countdown which they were covering on the radio out here with the big the big blast coming up about two hours and 15 minutes from now the big a the Big H mountains they kept mentioning Melvin Laird could call off the test and I thought the guy in charge of all the h-poms his name is Melvin hope he's not mad at us you know oh [Music] the name that was most used in history most has to have been Jesus name uh Jesus Christ we it wasn't really a first and last name situation we treat it that way Jesus Christ it sounds like that Harry Anderson Bill Willman Jesus Christ it just seems that way but I often wonder if he had had a different last name another Jewish name bloom if he had been Jesus Bloom how different things would have been first of all Christians would have been bloomers really and people wouldn't have taken them seriously you know one of the Bloomers are here get the Bloomers out of here you'd have a Texas Bloomer University and uh young men's Bloomer Association and in August people would say Bloom it's hot I'm a I'm just about out of words now for the moment I have only seven left you know them I can't say them but you all know what they are and at home you can think [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's funny sir every time you work it gets my mind clicking too that's why I like it when you're around it stimulates thank you you're talking about those terms you know that they use you know full court does that bother you which one full court full court yeah right you go to a grocery store it's a full court what like why not well a huge quarter pound how can a quarter pound be huge you know but they use those terms a full court yeah you got like I just try to save him Johnny yeah you know I'd like to do a whole book on them if I could just collect them my whole life they jump out of the newspaper at you really yeah that's crazy names are interesting we have an Edie came down believe it or not from upstairs but we are not to use the word name Bruce in connection with anything because if if we say a guy has a tendency uh that he well let us say he he Glides a little bit uh would say Bruce now all of a sudden you believe that uh I mean I know a lot of guys who Skip who are not named Bruce more than I do you know I don't understand that at all why that should become sure they've got a connotation for it they got truck drivers and longshoremen and uh you know guys hey let's go unload the truck yeah the first one was nothing wrong with it if that is the way you live anywhere it's probably nothing wrong with that but there's nothing ever intended in that you see when we did that it was a strange oh yeah oh but that is a standard comedian's name to use whatever you say as uh when you do that line I mean it just seems to me like I've heard that as the standard name that is used but you wonder why it started because the because the sea you can make the sibilance Bruth that's curious yeah that that's got to be the reason how about Sydney well I mean not do you think it's okay I probably will too pretty soon Arnold will be the only thing we can use and if we started that people would say oh we know what you're doing Arnold really means Bruce thinking upstairs we'll be returning shortly after this full minute

Channel: Johnny Carson

Views: 96,740

Keywords: episode, best, funny, youtube, funny videos, comedy, laugh, funniest, stand up, comedian, hilarious, stand up comedy, johnny carson, tonight show, humor, sketch, johnny carson bloopers, johnny carson show, johnny carson animals, johnny carson monologue, johnny, carson, tonight, show, funny video, best of johnny carson, funniest moments johnny carson

Id: Ohnb2yaUggk

Length: 15min 43sec (943 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 25 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/g1immer0fh0pe]

u/Urisk, thanks for sharing. Had not seen this. 👍

What a great interview/performance. Loved what Johnny said about liking having George around because it made him think. 🤔 He had that effect on many of us, Mr. Carson.

✌🙂

[u/pastaMac]

Carlin’s 1972 obscenity case became a cause célèbre for free speech; he began referring to the taboo words as “the Milwaukee Seven.” In December of 1972 the court case was eventually decided – and dismissed. The judge ruled that, while Carlin’s language was definitely indecent, Carlin had the freedom to say it, as long as he caused no disturbance. The ruling opened the floodgates for comedians of all ilk to expand their routines into once forbidden territory. [Mark Walston]

[u/diMario]

Those were different times.

And yet while the faces change, the names remain the same.

Progress is like herding a flock of cats through a field of molasses.

[u/Murkus]

Regarding the use of words..... I cnnot believe we still haven't gotten there...

[u/parabostonian]

For reference, if anyone cares, the area of the lines above the lip is the philtrum. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philtrum