Comedian
George Carlin's definitive monologue was delivered on 1972's
Class Clown album in the form of "Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say on Television." While the majority of routines on
Class Clown dealt with
Carlin's self examination surrounding his Irish Catholic upbringing, he saved his controversial tour de force as the album's grand finale. The record buying public embraced the album; however, the FCC and Supreme Court held the routine as the epitome of tastelessness, threatening to yank the license of any station that dare play it over public airwaves.
George Carlin ran with the torch
Lenny Bruce lit a decade earlier and much to
Carlin's credit, he put the dirty word issue together in a more concise and universal manner; something that, at times, escaped hipster
Bruce.
Class Clown was reissued on CD by Atlantic in 2000.
–
Al Campbell, Rovi