LOS ANGELES (AP) — Acerbic standup comedian and satirist George Carlin, whose staunch defense of free speech in his most famous routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.
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 71.
"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.
Carlin's jokes 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 and radio to this day.
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 couple of 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 (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke).
"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"
Article HERE
SEVEN WORDS:
My Favorite - "STUFF"
6 comments:
So sad .. a great loss .. he and Husband are almost the same age and I cant tell you how many times people have told Husband how much he looks like Carlin .. may he rest in peace.
:-Daryl
I am not usually "awed" by famous people... but George Carlin was one that I was in awe of...
Seeing George in person is one more thing on my "bucket list" that won't be fulfilled, right up there with seeing the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia. I haven't been as effected by the death of a 'star" since Jerry's death, August 9, 1995.
My favorite Carlin bit was the one about the only word in the English language that can be used as every part of speech.
I saw his last HBO special a couple months ago and he talked a lot about death and the dumb things people say to each other at that time. I hope he's resting in peace.
Bill and I loved this fella...he was so dang funny and his "Stuff" routine still makes us laugh.
I will miss him.
bj
It was the way his comedy was intelligent.
The STUFF routine is and will remain one of the best routines ever. It's funny because it's true!
Alice - I saw that too, and thought when he was talking that after he was gone we'd all remember it...
BJ - He was brilliant, and the world is a lesser place without him...
Heidi - Exactly! And you know how I am about "stuff" anyway - that routine is my favorite comedy routine in modern history, and always will be...
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