George Carlin’s Death Spikes Searches For His Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV

I was saddened to hear one of my favorite comedians, George Carlin, passed away Sunday. Clearly he touched many people. A quick look at Google Trends shows searches related to him have spiked up as well as for his famous "seven words you can’t say on TV." Among the things people are seeking: george carlin […]

Chat with SearchBot


Google Trends & George Carlin

I was saddened to hear one of my favorite comedians, George Carlin,

passed away
Sunday. Clearly he touched many people. A quick look at
Google Trends shows searches
related to him have spiked up as well as for his famous "seven words you can’t
say on TV." Among the things people are seeking:


Google Trends & George Carlin

As for those words you can’t say on TV, they’ve long since passed as
being taboo for television. On the internet, people will say anything, of course. So of those
seven famous words, which were most popular according to Google Trends? I
checked them all, and only
two of them showed substantial search volume,

the F-word and tits
.

I’m not going to block out saying "tits" because as any Carlin fan knows,
it doesn’t belong on the list because it’s such a "friendly sounding word."
And of all those seven words, it’s also the only one showing a sudden spike
in news search traffic. But that’s not Carlin-related.

Zooming in
, something happened in mid-June to spike news searches for
that term.

Back to Carlin-related searches, it’s interesting the number of people
looking for YouTube videos
of him via Google itself and the site:youtube.com restriction, rather than
just at YouTube.

Enough words. Just enjoy Carlin. From Google Video, his first HBO
special:

As I’ve been going through my
big move from the UK to the US, moving all
my stuff, Carlin’s "stuff" routine has constantly been on my mind. It’s
another one well worth watching:

 

And featured on the Google Video home page, yes, his classic seven words you can’t say:


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Danny Sullivan
Contributor
Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land and MarTech, and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Get the must-read newsletter for search marketers.