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Legendary Comedian George Carlin Dies

Frenzied Funnyman Mourned as Counterculture Hero
AP
Posted: 2008-07-25 10:12:15
Filed Under: Movie News, TV News
LOS ANGELES (June 23) - Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Some People Are Stupid. Stuff. People I Can Do Without.

George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday at 71, leaves behind not only a series of memorable routines, but a legal legacy: His most celebrated monologue, a frantic, informed riff on those infamous seven words, led to a Supreme Court decision on broadcasting offensive language.

The counterculture hero's jokes also targeted things such as misplaced shame, religious hypocrisy and linguistic quirks - why, he once asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press.

The actor Ben Stiller called Carlin "a hugely influential force in stand-up comedy. He had an amazing mind, and his humor was brave, and always challenging us to look at ourselves and question our belief systems, while being incredibly entertaining. He was one of the greats."

Carlin constantly breached the accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" - all of which are taboo on broadcast TV to this day.

Carlin's Greatest Hits (Warning: Explicit)


'Seven Dirty Words'

'Baseball and Football'



'Cats and Dogs'

'On Voting'


When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail and exonerated when a Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying it was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

When the words were later played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a 1978 Supreme Court ruling upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language during hours when children might be listening.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

Despite his reputation as unapologetically irreverent, Carlin was a television staple through the decades, serving as host of the "Saturday Night Live" debut in 1975 - noting on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long" - and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a few TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 - a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).

"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"

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Larry Harmon, July 3: The man who appeared as Bozo the Clown for decades and turned the character into a thriving business poses, shown above next to a man dressed as Bozo, dies at 83.

In one of his most famous routines, Carlin railed against euphemisms he said have become so widespread that no one can simply "die."

"'Older' sounds a little better than 'old,' doesn't it?," he said. "Sounds like it might even last a little longer. ... I'm getting old. And it's OK. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die - I'll 'pass away.' Or I'll 'expire,' like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a 'terminal episode.' The insurance company will refer to it as 'negative patient care outcome.' And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a 'therapeutic misadventure."'

Carlin won four Grammy Awards for best spoken comedy album and was nominated for five Emmys. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

"Nobody was funnier than George Carlin," said Judd Apatow, director of recent hit comedies such as "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." "I spent half my childhood in my room listening to his records experiencing pure joy. And he was as kind as he was funny."

Carlin started his career on the traditional nightclub circuit in a coat and tie, pairing with Burns to spoof TV game shows, news and movies. Perhaps in spite of the outlaw soul, "George was fairly conservative when I met him," said Burns, describing himself as the more left-leaning of the two. It was a degree of separation that would reverse when they came upon Lenny Bruce, the original shock comic, in the early '60s.

"We were working in Chicago, and we went to see Lenny, and we were both blown away," Burns said, recalling the moment as the beginning of the end for their collaboration (though not their close friendship). "It was an epiphany for George. The comedy we were doing at the time wasn't exactly groundbreaking, and George knew then that he wanted to go in a different direction."

That direction would make Carlin as much a social commentator and philosopher as comedian, a position he would relish through the years.

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things - bad language and whatever - it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body.

It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

Carlin was born on May 12, 1937, and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of school in the ninth grade, he joined the Air Force in 1954. He received three court-martials and numerous disciplinary punishments, according to his official Web site.

While in the Air Force he started working as an off-base disc jockey at a radio station in Shreveport, La., and after receiving a general discharge in 1957, took an announcing job at WEZE in Boston.

"Fired after three months for driving mobile news van to New York to buy pot," his Web site says.

From there he went on to a job on the night shift as a deejay at a radio station in Fort Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs, including carnival organist and marketing director for a peanut brittle.

In 1960, he left with $300 and Burns, a Texas radio buddy, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. His first break came just months later when the duo appeared on Jack Paar's "Tonight Show."

Carlin said he hoped to emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade Carlin grew up in - the 1950s - with a clever but gentle humor reflective of the times.

It didn't work for him, and the pair broke up by 1962.

"I was doing superficial comedy entertaining people who didn't really care: Businessmen, people in nightclubs, conservative people. And I had been doing that for the better part of 10 years when it finally dawned on me that I was in the wrong place doing the wrong things for the wrong people," Carlin reflected recently as he prepared for his 14th HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya."

Eventually Carlin ditched the buttoned-up look for his trademark beard, ponytail and all-black attire.

But even with his decidedly adult-comedy bent, Carlin never lost his childlike sense of mischief, even voicing kid-friendly projects like episodes of the TV show "Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends" and the spacey Volkswagen bus Fillmore in the 2006 Pixar hit "Cars."

Carlin's first wife, Brenda, died in 1997. He is survived by wife Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law Bob McCall; brother Patrick Carlin; and sister-in-law Marlene Carlin.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-06-23 02:16:06
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rockndave2006 09:22:15 PM Jan 07 2009

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you people suck! the man new what he was talkin about! some comments wasn't ment to be but alot were true! wake up!

Wttygl29 08:01:10 PM Aug 03 2008

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Thank you George for all the laughs!

gnlizabeth 05:08:51 PM Jul 18 2008

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jkentodlas Also this bible that you put so much stock in states in Matt 1:16 that Mary's husband Joseph's father's name was Jacob but in Luke 3:23-24 it says that Joseph's father was Heli. Why the conflicting stories in the "holy" bible. Shouldn't god know who was who when he wrote what he wrote or is god fallible and therefore makes mistakes and is not perfect?

GNLIZABETH 02:19:22 PM Jul 18 2008

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jkentodlas So god didn't say what he said in the bible, the book he supposedly wrote. Are you saying that god takes back what he said now? Why would god say something so heinous to begin with? Also, why would he kill all the innocent Egyptian first born children to prove a point to pharaoh when he could have just bitch slapped pharaoh to get him to release Moses' people? Is god justifying the killing of innocent children if we need to prove a point? If god created everything, god created the devil. Why would he create a being to tempt us. God likes to screw with us? I used to believe in all the god bullsh*t until I realized it was way too wacky. A pregnant virgin, come on.

jkentodlas 12:44:13 PM Jul 18 2008

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LET THE HOLY SPIRIT FIRST SET YOU ON A COURSE THAT WILL LEAD TO THE PATH OF SALVATION THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THEN ASK FOR HIS GUIDENCE AND WISEDOM IN UNDERSTANDING THE WORD OF GOD-IF YOU DONT THEN POSTS FILLED WITH IGNORANCE LIKE THE ONE YOU WROTE GNLIZABETH ARE GOING TO CONTINUE AND THIS GOES FOR ALL THE OTHERS GOD-HATERS WHO POSTED ON THIS MIS-GUIDED PRAISE OF GEORGE CARLIN BOARD.

jkentodlas 12:40:26 PM Jul 18 2008

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what a suprise-another child of darkness and satan who does not have a clue as to what the bible has too say or mean -no idea of bible prophecy-whats the purpose of the mosiac law. The purpose of God's judgements and his mercy and the list goes on and on due to the sad fact that a mere human being is tattempting to understand divine actions in the very limited area of human emotions and understanding and insights and experiences. no GMLIZABETH thats not how the lord works -by contraining himself to human subjective interps of the world. His thoughts are not our thoughts and his ways are not our ways... - read ISAIAH 55: 8-9 OR GO FURTHER AND READ 8-11

GNLIZABETH 09:34:20 AM Jul 18 2008

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I would like to have my own bible quote that I found rather interesting as the last quote instead of the one jkentodlas left. Exodus 21:20-21 "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property." Not such a peaceful loving god you worship there jkentodlas.

jkentodlas 07:07:15 PM Jul 16 2008

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I THINK THAT SOME BIBLE SCRIPTURE SHOULD BE IN THE LAST POST OF THIS NEWS BOARD FARCE- GALATIANS 5 :16-18-THIS I SAY THEN, WALK IN THE SPIRIT,AND YE SHALL NOT FURFILL THE LUSTS OF THE FLESH. FOR THE FLESH LUSTETH AGAINST THE SPIRITAND THE SPIRIT AGAINST THE FLESH: AND THESE ARE CONTRARY TO ONE ANOTHERSO THAT YA CAN NOT DO THE THINGS THAT YE WOULD. BUT IF YE BE LED BY THE SPIRIT, YE ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW. IN CARLIN'S CASE THE SPIRIT OF THE FLESH AND THE WORLD WAS GIVEN FREE DOMAIN WITHIN HIS DARKENED SOUL AND SIN ALLOWED TO ROAM FREE AND UN-CHECKED-END RESULT-ETERNAL DAMNATION!

jkentodlas 06:39:55 PM Jul 16 2008

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I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE AND I WILL SAY IT AGAIN-THANK GOD AND PRAISE THE LORD THIS WASTE OF TIME SILLY MIS-GUIDED PRAISE TO THE LOST AND DAMNED CAN BE LAID TOO REST FINALLY. TOO BAD THAT THE LOST SOULS DESTINED TO JOIN GEORGE IN HELL SPENT SO MUCH TIME AND EFFORT TRYING TO FIGHT A LOSING BATTLE AGAINST THE LORD WHEN THEY COULD HAVE BEEN ASKING THE LORD TO COME INTO THEIR HEARTS AND ASKING FOR HIS FORGIVENESS. HOW FOOLISH THE CARNAL AND WORLDLY ARE -IGNORING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE AND PURSEING PATHS THAT WILL END UP AT THE LAKE OF FIRE-FOOLISH CHILDREN OF SATAN-OH WELL -I AND MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS MADE THE ATTEMPT -SHAKE THE SAND FROM OUR SHOES AS A TESTIMONY AGAINST THEM . PRAISE THE LORD GEORGE CARLIN!!!

jkentodlas 08:56:51 AM Jul 15 2008

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gerrihan65-on the other point about me playing God. how am I PLAYING GOD??? I read the Bible and understand the Bible as well. I know about the many ,any things that can and will send a soul to Hell. George was guilty of quite afew-there was no lacking in quailifications on his behalf. I would have loved to have seen him become a born-again Christian living his life for the kingdom and of course this would have cancelced his show biz career but that wasnt serving any worthy spiritual purpose anyway unbless one wants to include the spirituality of darkness and evil. I know george wishs he could take back everything he did and accept Jesus now but its too late for him.

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