Class Clown

Class Clown is the fourth album released by American comedian George Carlin. It was recorded on May 27, 1972 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in Santa Monica, California, and released in September.

At the time Carlin was relatively well known for tame satirical routines about the entertainment industry. His previous album FM & AM released the same year, showed that he was already drifting towards counter-culture icon, but Class Clown proved a landmark. Besides musings about his youth, the album featured strongly directed remarks against the Vietnam War and his attachment to taboo topics. The album contains "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", which became the focus of government harassment in the year that followed, and, perhaps not coincidentally, Carlin's most famous calling card. Carlin would continue to explore the use of profanity for the rest of his career. Ironically, while this skit prevents the album from being Carlin's only profanity-free one since 1971, it also marks the first time Carlin has used the word "fuck" in any of his recordings.