George Carlin

George Carlin
Carlin in Trenton on April 4 2008
Birth name	George Denis Patrick Carlin
Born	(1937-05-12)May 12, 1937 Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Died	June 22, 2008(2008-06-22) (aged 71) Santa Monica, California, United States
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, books, radio
Nationality	American
Years active	1956 – 2008
Genres	Observational comedy, Wit/Word play, Satire/Political satire, Black comedy
Subject(s)	American culture, English language, everyday life, childhood, recreational drug use, death, human behavior, American politics, religion
Spouse	Brenda Hosbrook (August 5 1961 - May 11 1997) 1 child Sally Wade (June 24 1998 - June 22 2008)
Notable works and roles	Class Clown "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" Mr. Conductor in Shining Time Station Narrator in Thomas and Friends HBO television specials Rufus in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
Website	www.georgecarlin.com

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12 1937 – June 22 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author who won four Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.

Carlin was especially noted for his political and black humor and his observations on language, psychology, and religion along with many taboo subjects. Carlin and his "Seven Dirty Words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5-4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's right to regulate "indecent" material on the public airwaves.

In the 2000s, Carlin's stand-up routines focused on the flaws in modern-day America. He often took on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture.

He placed second on the Comedy Central cable television network list of the 10 greatest stand-up comedians, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live.

Early life and career

George Denis Patrick Carlin was born in New York City, the son of Mary (née Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick Carlin, a national advertising manager for the New York Sun. Carlin was of Irish descent and was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.

Carlin grew up on West 121st Street, in a neighborhood of Manhattan which he later said, in a stand-up routine, he and his friends called "White Harlem", because that sounded a lot tougher than its real name of Morningside Heights. He was raised by his mother, who left his father when Carlin was two years old. After 3 semesters, at the age of 14, Carlin involuntarily left Cardinal Hayes High School and briefly attended Bishop Dubois High School in Harlem. He later joined the United States Air Force, training as a radar technician. He was stationed at Barksdale AFB in Bossier City, Louisiana.

During this time he began working as a disc jockey on KJOE, a radio station based in the nearby city of Shreveport. He did not complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on July 29, 1957. In 1959, Carlin and Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas. After successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits.

1960s

In the 1960s, Carlin began appearing on television variety shows, notably The Ed Sullivan Show. His most famous routines were:

• The Indian Sergeant ("You wit' the beads... get outta line")
• Stupid disc jockeys ("Wonderful WINO...") — "The Beatles' latest record, when played backwards at slow speed, says 'Dummy! You're playing it backwards at slow speed!'"
• Al Sleet, the "hippie-dippie weatherman" — "Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely-scattered light towards morning."
• Jon Carson — the "world never known, and never to be known"

Variations on the first three of these routines appear on Carlin's 1967 debut album, Take Offs and Put Ons, recorded live in 1966 at The Roostertail in Detroit, Michigan.

During this period, Carlin became more popular as a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson era, becoming one of Carson's most frequent substitutes during the host's three-decade reign. Carlin was also cast on Away We Go, a 1967 comedy show. His material during his early career, which included impressions, and his appearance, which consisted of suits and short-cropped hair, has been seen as "conventional", particularly when contrasted with his later antiestablishment material.

Carlin was present at Lenny Bruce's arrest for obscenity. According to legend the police began attempting to detain members of the audience for questioning, and asked Carlin for his identification. Telling the police he did not believe in government issued IDs, he was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same vehicle.

1970s

File:Georgecarlinmugshot.jpg

George Carlin's 1972 arrest photograph.

Eventually, Carlin changed both his routines and his appearance. He lost some TV bookings by dressing strangely for a comedian of the time, wearing faded jeans and sporting a beard and earrings at a time when clean-cut, well-dressed comedians were the norm. Using his own persona as a springboard for his new comedy, he was presented by Ed Sullivan in a performance of "The Hair Piece," and quickly regained his popularity as the public caught on to his sense of style.

Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, Tits.

— George Carlin

In this period he also perfected what is perhaps his best-known routine, "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", recorded on Class Clown. Carlin was arrested on July 21 1972 at Milwaukee's Summerfest and charged with violating obscenity laws after performing this routine. The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as, "The Milwaukee Seven", was dismissed in December of that year; the judge declared the language indecent, stating that the language was indecent but cited free speech, as well as the lack of any disturbance. In 1973, a man complained to the FCC that his son had heard a later, similar routine, "Filthy Words", from Occupation: Foole, broadcast one afternoon over WBAI, a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in New York City. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC, which sought to fine Pacifica for allegedly violating FCC regulations which prohibited broadcasting "obscene" material. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC action, by a vote of 5 to 4, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene", and the FCC had authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience. F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978). The court documents contain a complete transcript of the routine.

The controversy only increased Carlin's fame (or notoriety). Carlin eventually expanded the dirty-words theme with a seemingly interminable end to a performance (ending with his voice fading out in one HBO version, and accompanying the credits in the Carlin at Carnegie special for the 1982-83 season), and a set of 49 web pages organized by subject and embracing his "Incomplete List Of Impolite Words".

Carlin was the first-ever host of NBC's Saturday Night Live, debuting on October 11, 1975. (He also hosted SNL on November 10, 1984, where he actually appeared in sketches. The first time he hosted, he only appeared to perform stand-up and introduce the guest acts.) The following season, 1976-77, Carlin also appeared regularly on CBS Television's Tony Orlando & Dawn variety series.

Carlin unexpectedly stopped performing regularly in 1976, when his career appeared to be at its height. For the next five years, he rarely appeared to perform stand-up, although it was at this time he began doing specials for HBO as part of its On Location series. His first two HBO specials aired in 1977 and 1978. It was later revealed that Carlin had suffered the first of his three non-fatal heart attacks during this layoff period.

1980s and 1990s

Whoever coined the term "Let the Buyer Beware" was probably bleeding from the asshole.

— George Carlin, "You Are All Diseased"

In 1981, Carlin returned to the stage, releasing A Place For My Stuff, and he returned to HBO and New York City with the Carlin at Carnegie TV special, videotaped at Carnegie Hall and airing during the 1982-83 season. Carlin continued doing HBO specials every year or every other year over the following decade-and-a-half. All of Carlin's albums from this time forward are the HBO specials.

In concert at Harrisburg, PA

Carlin's acting career was primed with a major supporting role in the 1987 comedy hit Outrageous Fortune, starring Bette Midler and Shelley Long; it was his first notable screen role after a handful of previous guest roles on television series. Playing drifter Frank Madras, the role poked fun at the lingering effect of the 1960s psychedelic counterculture. In 1989, he gained popularity with a new generation of teens when he was cast as Rufus, the time-traveling mentor of the titular characters in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and reprised his role in the film sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey as well as the first season of the cartoon series. In 1991, he provided the narrative voice for the American version of the children's show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, a role he continued until 1998. He played "Mr. Conductor" on the PBS children's show Shining Time Station which featured Thomas from 1991 to 1993 as well as Shining Time Station TV specials in 1995 and Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales in 1996. Also in 1991, Carlin had a major supporting role in the movie The Prince of Tides along with Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand.

Carlin began a weekly Fox Broadcasting sitcom, The George Carlin Show, in 1993, playing New York City cab driver "George O'Grady". He quickly included a variation of the "Seven Words" in the plot. The show ran 27 episodes through December 1995.

In 1997, his first hardcover book, Brain Droppings, was published, and sold over 750,000 copies as of 2001. Carlin was honored at the 1997 Aspen Comedy Festival with a retrospective George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy hosted by Jon Stewart.

In 1999, Carlin played a supporting role as a satirically marketing-oriented Roman Catholic cardinal in filmmaker Kevin Smith's movie Dogma. He worked with Smith again with a cameo appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and later played an atypically serious role in Jersey Girl, as the blue collar father of Ben Affleck's character.

2000s

In 2001, Carlin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards.

In December 2003, California U.S. Representative Doug Ose introduced a bill (H.R. 3687) to outlaw the broadcast of Carlin's seven "dirty words", including "compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms)". (The bill omits "tits", but includes "ass" and "asshole", which were not part of Carlin's original routine.)

The following year, Carlin was fired from his headlining position at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas after an altercation with his audience. After a poorly received set filled with dark references to suicide bombings and beheadings, Carlin stated that he could not wait to get out of "this fucking hotel" and Las Vegas in general, claiming he wanted to go back East "where the real people are". He continued to insult his audience, stating

People who go to Las Vegas, you've got to question their fucking intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of fucking moronic. That's what I'm always getting here is these kind of fucking people with very limited intellects.

An audience member shouted back that Carlin should "stop degrading us", at which point Carlin responded "Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it was positive; if not, well blow me." He was immediately fired by MGM Grand and soon after announced he would enter rehab for drug and alcohol addiction.

For years, Carlin had performed regularly as a headliner in Las Vegas. He began a tour through the first half of 2006, and had a new HBO Special on November 5, 2005 entitled Life is Worth Losing, which was shown live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City. Topics covered included suicide, natural disasters (and the impulse to see them escalate in severity), cannibalism, genocide, human sacrifice, threats to civil liberties in America, and how an argument can be made that humans are inferior to animals.

On February 1, 2006, Carlin mentioned to the crowd, during his Life is Worth Losing set at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, that he had been discharged from the hospital only six weeks previously for "heart failure" and "pneumonia", citing the appearance as his "first show back".

Carlin provided the voice of Fillmore, a character in the Disney/Pixar animated feature Cars, which opened in theaters on June 9, 2006. The character Fillmore, who is presented as an antiestablishment hippie, is a VW Microbus with a psychedelic paint job, whose front license plate reads "51237" — Carlin's birthday.

Carlin's last HBO stand-up special, It's Bad for Ya, aired live on March 1, 2008 in Santa Rosa, CA at the Wells Fargo Center For The Arts. Many of the themes that appeared in this HBO special included "American Bullshit", "Rights", "Death", "Old Age", and "Child Rearing". Carlin had been working the new material for this HBO special for several months prior in concerts all over the country.

On June 18, 2008, four days before his death, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC announced that Carlin would be the 2008 honoree of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to be awarded in November of that year.

Personal life

In 1961, Carlin married Brenda Hosbrook (born August 5, 1936, died May 11, 1997), whom he had met while touring the previous year, in her parents' living room in Dayton, Ohio. The couple had a daughter, Kelly, in 1963. In 1971, George and Brenda renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas, Nevada. Brenda died of liver cancer a day before Carlin's 60th birthday, in 1997.

Carlin later married Sally Wade on June 24, 1998, and the marriage lasted until his death - two days before their tenth anniversary.

In December 2004, Carlin announced that he would be voluntarily entering a drug rehabilitation facility to receive treatment for his dependency on alcohol and painkillers.

Carlin did not vote and often criticized elections as an illusion of choice. He said he last voted for George McGovern, who ran for President in 1972 against Richard Nixon.

Religion

If God had intended us not to masturbate he would've made our arms shorter.

— George Carlin

Although raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Carlin often denounced the idea of God in interviews and performances, most notably with his "Invisible Man in the Sky" and "There Is No God" routines. In mockery, he invented the parody religion Frisbeetarianism for a newspaper contest. He defined it as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and cannot be retrieved.

Carlin also joked that he worshipped the Sun, because he could actually see it, but prayed to Joe Pesci (a good friend of his in real life) because "he's a good actor", and "looks like a guy who can get things done!"

Carlin also introduced the "Two Commandments", a revised "pocket-sized" list of the Ten Commandments in his HBO special Complaints and Grievances, ending with the additional commandment of "Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself."

Themes

The very existence of flame throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.

— George Carlin

Carlin's themes have been known for causing considerable controversy in the American media. His most usual topic was (in his words) humanity's "bullshit", which might include murder, genocide, war, rape, corruption, religion and other aspects of human civilization. His delivery frequently treated these subjects in a misanthropic and nihilistic fashion, such as in his statement during the Life is Worth Losing show: "I look at it this way... For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse."

George Carlin in Trenton, New Jersey April 4, 2008

Language was a frequent focus of Carlin's work. Euphemisms that in his view, seek to distort and lie, and the use of language he felt was pompous, presumptuous or silly, were often the target of Carlin's routines.

Carlin also gave special attention to prominent topics in American and Western Culture, such as obsession with fame and celebrity, consumerism, Christianity, political alienation, corporate control, hypocrisy, child raising, fast food diet, news stations, self-help publications, patriotism, sexual taboos, certain uses of technology and surveillance, and the pro-life position, among many others.

Carlin openly communicated in his shows and in his interviews that his purpose for existence was entertainment, that he was "here for the show". He professed a hearty schadenfreude in watching the rich spectrum of humanity slowly self-destruct, in his estimation, of its own design; saying, "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front-row seat." He acknowledged that this is a very selfish thing, especially since he included large human catastrophes as entertainment.

In a late-1990s interview with radio talk show host Art Bell, he remarked about his view of human life: "I think we're already 'circling the drain' as a species, and I'd love to see the circles get a little faster and a little shorter."

In the same interview, he recounted his experience of a California earthquake in the early-1970s as: "...an amusement park ride. Really, I mean it's such a wonderful thing to realize that you have absolutely no control... and to see the dresser move across the bedroom floor unassisted... is just exciting." Later he summarized: "I really think there's great human drama in destruction and nature unleashed and I don't get enough of it."

A routine in Carlin's 1999 HBO special You Are All Diseased focusing on airport security leads up to the statement: "Take a fucking chance! Put a little fun in your life! ... most Americans are soft and frightened and unimaginative and they don't realize there's such a thing as dangerous fun, and they certainly don't recognize a good show when they see one."

Carlin had always included politics as part of his material (along with the wordplay and sex jokes), but by the mid-1980s had become a strident social critic, in both his HBO specials and the book compilations of his material. His HBO viewers got an especially sharp taste of this in his take on the Ronald Reagan administration during the 1988 special What Am I Doing In New Jersey? broadcast live from the Park Theatre in Union City, New Jersey.

Death

On June 22, 2008, Carlin was admitted to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California after complaining of chest pain. He died later that day at 5:55 p.m. PDT of heart failure at the age of 71.

Collection of works

Discography

Date of release	Title	Record Label
1963	Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight	ERA Records
1966	Take-Offs and Put-Ons	One Way Records
January 27, 1972	FM & AM	Eardrum Records
September 29, 1972	Class Clown	Little David/Atlantic
October 1973	Occupation: Foole	Little David
November 1974	Toledo Window Box	Little David
October 1975	An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo	Little David
April 1977	On the Road	Little David/Atlantic
November 1981	A Place for My Stuff	Atlantic
1984	Carlin on Campus	Atlantic
July 30, 1986	Playin' with Your Head	Atlantic
August 15, 1988	What Am I Doing In New Jersey?	Atlantic
November 20, 1990	Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics	Atlantic
November 10, 1992	Jammin' in New York	Atlantic
October 27, 1992	Classic Gold	Atlantic
April 10, 1995	Killer Carlin	Uproar Entertainment
September 17, 1996	Back in Town	Atlantic
May 14, 1999	You Are All Diseased	Eardrum
October 19, 1999	The Little David Years (1971-1977)	Atlantic
December 11, 2001	Complaints and Grievances	Eardrum/Atlantic
March 12, 2002	George Carlin on Comedy	Laugh.com
January 10, 2006	Life Is Worth Losing	Eardrum/Atlantic
2008	It's Bad for Ya	Eardrum/Atlantic

Filmography

Year	Movie
1968	With Six You Get Eggroll
1976	Car Wash
1979	Americathon
1987	Outrageous Fortune
1989	Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
1990	Working Trash
1991	Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
	The Prince of Tides
1999	Dogma
2001	Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
2003	Scary Movie 3
2004	Jersey Girl
2005	Tarzan II
	The Aristocrats
2006	Cars
2007	Happily N'Ever After

HBO specials

Special	Year
George Carlin at USC	1977
George Carlin: Again!	1978
Carlin at Carnegie Hall	1982
Carlin on Campus	1984
Playin' with Your Head	1986
What Am I Doing in New Jersey?	1988
Doin' It Again	1990
Jammin' in New York	1992
Back in Town	1996
George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy	1997
You Are All Diseased	1999
Complaints and Grievances	2001
Life Is Worth Losing	2005
It's Bad for Ya	2008

• "All My Stuff", a boxset of Carlin's first 12 stand-up specials (excluding George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy) with bonus material was released in September 2007

Bibliography

Book	Year	Notes
Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help	1984	ISBN 0-89471-271-3
Brain Droppings	1997	ISBN 0-7868-8321-9
Napalm and Silly Putty	2001	ISBN 0-7868-8758-3
When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?	2004	ISBN 1-4013-0134-7
Three Times Carlin: An Orgy of George	2006	ISBN 978-1-4013-0243-6

Television

• The Kraft Summer Music Hall (1966)
• That Girl (Guest appearance) (1966)
• The Flip Wilson Show (writer, performer) (1971-1973)
• Justin Case (as "Justin Case") (1988) TV movie directed Blake Edwards
• The George Carlin Show (as "George O'Grady") (1994) Fox
• Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends (as American Narrator) (1991-1998)
• Shining Time Station (as "Mr. Conductor") (1991-1993)
• Streets of Laredo (as "Billy Williams")

AudioBooks

• Brain Droppings
• Napalm & Silly Putty
• More Napalm & Silly Putty
• George Carlin Reads To You
• When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

In popular culture

• In the early to mid-1960's George Carlin appeared in advertising as a spokesman for Ozark Airlines.

• George Carlin appeared in the Simpsons episode "D'oh-in In the Wind" as a former hippie.

• In "Homie the Clown," Krusty the Clown is told he's being sued by Carlin for plagiarizing the Seven Words You Cannot Say On TV. Krusty tries to defend himself by claiming that his seven dirty words were "entirely different" from Carlin's.

• In the second season episode of Everybody Hates Chris, titled "Everybody Hates Dirty Jokes", Chris gets suspended from school for telling jokes based on Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" routine.

• In an episode of That '70s Show, the disc jockey, Donna, is fired from her job and replaced by a girl who is willing to show more skin in advertisements. In order to get them back, her boyfriend, Eric, convinces Donna to trick the new girl into playing George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words" routine on the air to get her fired. Also, Eric says that after listening to it, he can say a number which is the number of the dirty word Carlin uses. When swearing, Eric only uses numbers.

• Rick Moranis portrayed Carlin in several sketches on the late-night television comedy Second City Television (SCTV) in the early 1980s.

• In CKY3, a clip is shown where Carlin says, "I know things you never see. Like you never see someone take a shit while running at full speed." Immediately after this clip is shown, there is a clip of Raab Himself disproving Carlin's statement by taking 18 ex-lax tablets and then defecating while running.

See also

• Seven dirty words
• Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation
• On Location

External links

• Official Website
• George Carlin at IMDb
• Rotten Library - George Carlin
• 1999 interview originally on CDNOW.com by Steve Holtje
• George Carlin center at CNN

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