Sunday, November 15, 2009
George Carlin, ahead of his time
It’s getting to the point where perhaps even the “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” might start making regular appearances someday on network TV. Back when comedian George Carlin first performed his famous bit about the Federal Communications Commission ban on certain vulgar words, the airwaves were pretty much a swear-word free zone. But these days, according to the Parents Television Council (PTC), foul words are becoming more common and acceptable on non-cable TV.
For example, “douche” seems to be all the rage recently. The PTC counted the word’s utterance 76 times so far in 2009 on 26 prime-time network shows. Only two years ago douche was used only 30 times on 15 shows, and in 2005, only six times on four programs. This year, douche has made appearances on shows airing during what once was considered the “family hour” (8-9 pm), such as “The New Adventures of Old Christine,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Cleveland Show,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and others.
Harsh expletives, defined by the PTC as “hell, damn, ass, piss, screw, bitch, bastard, suck, crap, shit, and fuck,” were aired 11,000 times on primetime broadcast television in 2007—almost twice as many times as in 1998. The use of “bitch” increased from 431 uses in 1998 to 1,277 in 2007. “Shit” was up from two uses in 1998 to 364 in 2007, while “fuck” was up from once in 1998 (on UPN) to 1,147 times on primetime broadcast TV in 2007.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
More Than Ever, You Can Say That on Television (by Edward Wyatt, New York Times)
PTC Finds Increase in Harsh Profanity on TV (Parents Television Council)
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