George Carlin released the 1972 comedy album Class Clown, featuring the routine later known as the seven dirty words.
Class Clown was an important turning point in Carlin’s career because it presented his developing countercultural style and his interest in language, censorship, and social conventions. The album includes the performance that became associated with the seven words that could not be said on broadcast television.
The routine later became central to a landmark legal dispute after Pacifica Foundation radio station WBAI broadcast an edited discussion of the words. The United States Supreme Court addressed the case in 1978, in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation.
Class Clown is not the same as Carlin’s later album Occupation: Foole, nor is the title of the routine itself the album title. The recording date and the later court case are often separated by several years, which can cause confusion about when the material first appeared.