By George (Carlin), The Internet Has Tourette's

WARNING: This is the Internet, not TV, where seven words people aren't allowed to say on TV are permitted. In honor of that, and of recently, well, dead "counter-culture" comedian George Carlin, the seven words you can't say on TV will be said because mincing words would be anathema to Carlin's life. Plus it gives us an excuse. If dirty words in general offend you, better click out now, because these seven are top shelf, man.

In the AP's profile of George Carlin, you'll not find the seven infamous words, not that you'd necessarily want to. In short, even though the article is on the Internet, where free speech reigns, the AP sort of wussed out on us. Mentioning them wouldn't have been out of line, off-target, unprofessional or gratuitousconsidering those exact seven words, in that order, appeared in front of the Supreme Court in 1978 for a landmark decision that affected broadcasting thereon out.

It was that case, the
A lot of thought went into whether we should mention the unmentionable words, whether they should be littered with asterisks or censored in some other way. But to do so would be mock other publications on Google News that had the guts to publish the words in honor of Carlin, in honor of free speech.

The authority set in place by Carlin's "filthy words" was tested again in 1997, eleven years ago this week, actually, when the Sullivan investigated, as you might expect, on a more specific keyword word level:

So of those seven famous words, which were most popular according to Google Trends? I checked them all, and only two of them showed substantial search volume, Of course, those two words are popular every day on the Internet. It's those seven words in that particular order that may give some insight. Google Trends, however, could not offer any on that sequence.

That doesn't mean the sequence isn't popular. In fact, that particular sequence of words has become a tribute, a chorus, a chant, a we-get-what-you-were-trying-to-say-George. Twitterers, too, because of the 140-character limit, are sending them up to Carlin as is, without explanation or (not much at least) shame, in honor of the man's impact on thought about free speech in a free society.

And isn't that funny?

Here's a link to some

  _{No links will be provided to an AP story because the AP isn't a big fan of linking these days. One of these days they may say you can't point at a story in print, either.}

  _{In short, relevancy would outweigh the embarrassment your grandmother might feel if one actually used them at her house.}

  _{The original routine included just those seven words, but after fan feedback, Carlin added three more, which were also broadcast in the 1973 radio incident.}

  _{Or down, or over, or across, or perhaps to where they'll get stuck on the roof.}