An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
“Equal Opportunity Offender”
George Carlin mourned as a counterculture hero
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.
The Mr and I saw Mr Carlin a few years ago in Las Vegas. Oh, he was right, he WAS an equal opportunity offender. But totally hilarious. He turned many truths in comedy routines, and there aren’t too many who could do it so well.
He will surely be missed! Rest in peace.
Nice write-up… Carlin was a rarity…
@TexasFred:
Yup, he was definitely one of a kind.
To this day I have never laughed as hard as when I would watch a Carlin stand-up concert. A lot of today’s comedians seem to want to push the envelope to be like Carlin. Mencia suceeds most of the time, but their will never be another George Carlin