George Carlin: “There are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them you can’t say on television. What a ratio that is: 399,993-to-seven. They must really be bad.”

In 1973, Pacifica Radio station WBAI aired an unedited version of Carlin’s “Filthy Words” monologue. The broadcast would become the genesis for one of the most important recent Supreme Court decisions on free speech. The legal controversy brought about the FCC rule permitting a ban on certain material when children are most likely to be in the audience. George Carlin was selected last week by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to receive this year’s Mark Twain Prize, a lifetime achievement award presented to an outstanding comedian.