Lately, cable television stations have eased up on their restrictions of swearing, adopting the word “bitch” as common vocabulary and allowing the occasional S-bomb to slip—but it wasn’t always this way. According to Vulture’s latest “Secret History of Television” episode, it wasn’t until South Park’s well-received “It Hits the Fan” episode in 2001—where the word “shit” is proclaimed a record 200 times—that the Federal Communications Commission decided to relax its laws on cursing. Now, many once-forbidden four-letter words are no big deal.
The History of Swearing on TV
