What were those seven words?RIP, George Carlin

When I heard George Carlin had died, I wracked my brain trying to remember the list. I knew them once, but after all, those of us who remember George Carlin are getting old too.

Do you remember them? Do you remember him?

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits
Ah, yes. I had most of them but not in the right order. And I completely forgot Tits.

What I didn't remember was the rest of the piece, which is a fine meditation on the power of words and the folly of man.

I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I think is important. They're my work, they're my play, they're my passion. Words are all we have, really. We have thoughts but thoughts are fluid. Then we assign a word to a thought and we're stuck with that word for that thought, so be careful with words. I like to think that the same words that hurt can heal, it is a matter of how you pick them.

There are some people that are not into all the words. There are some that would have you not use certain words. There are 400,000 words in the English language and there are 7 of them you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to 7. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you 7, Bad Words. That's what they told us they were, remember? "That's a bad word!" No bad words, bad thoughts, bad intentions, and words. You know the 7, don't you, that you can't say on television? "Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits" Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that'll infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.

I don't think anyone ever wins a war any more, but if we could stop having them, I'd clean up my language. In the meantime, I love me a bad word. They're words, and I can use them if I want to.

Thanks, George.