Comedian George Carlin dies at age 71

[VaBeachGuy 12]

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080623/ap_on_...t_george_carlin

 

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

 

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Carlin went into a Santa Monica hospital Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham.

 

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. It was announced Tuesday that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

 

Carlin constantly pushed the envelop with his jokes, particularly with the "Seven Words" a routine called "The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV."

 

When Carlin uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested for disturbing the peace. And when they were played on a New York radio station, they resulted in a Supreme Court ruling in 1978 upholding the government's authority to sanction stations for broadcasting offensive language.

 

"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.

 

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies. Carlin hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" and noted on his Web site that he was "loaded on cocaine all week long."

 

When asked about the fallout from the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction," Carlin told the AP, "What are we, surprised?"

 

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

 

Carlin was born May 12, 1937 and grew up in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, raised by a single mother. After dropping out of high 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 Forth Worth, Texas. Carlin also worked variety of temporary jobs including a carnival organist and a marketing director for a peanut brittle.

 

In 1960, he left with a Texas radio buddy, Jack Burns, for Hollywood to pursue a nightclub career as comedy team Burns & Carlin. He left with $300, but his first break came just months later when the duo appeared on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. r Carlin said he hoped to would emulate his childhood hero, Danny Kaye, the kindly, rubber-faced comedian who ruled over the decade that Carlin grew up in — the 1950s — with a clever but gentle humor reflective of its times.

 

Only problem was, it didn't work for him.

 

"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."

 

 

One of my favorite movies that he was in was Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.

 

[BakulaBabe 2]

He's my favorite comedian. My husband and I (and my brother) are big fans of his. We're all going to miss him.

[Mike 5]

Oh wow.. such a funny guy..I'm a big fan of his too..Liked his 'The Hippy Dippy Weatherman'...

[TJ Phaserman 2]

i didn't know about this until my mom told me. i was a big fan of the "prison network" he did a few years back.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

He wasn't that funny recently, but in earlier decades he was hilarious.

 

He will be missed.

[Kor37 9]

I saw George Carlin perform at a midnight show in Las Vegas back in the 1970s. He was hilarious. He was supposed to play here this summer too. A real shame.

[trekz 7]

Carlin was a real character and certainly pushed the limits of comedy We nearly went to see him last time we were in Vegas and regret that we didn"t He will be missed

[Gummy 0]

His last HBO Special was very funny.

The few before that were more Social Commentary than humor.

 

But he was brilliant and will be missed.

[Stephen of Borg 2]

As a child, to me he was Rufus on Bill and Ted. As a teen, to me he was one of the hippies on an episode of the Simpsons. As an adult, to me he was the Catholic Priest on Dogma. He always evolved and there was always something about him that I liked in each stage of my life. I didn't agree with everything he said in his comedy act, but he had the guts to say those things. Gotta have respect for someone that speaks his mind, even though a lot don't agree with everything he says. I don't think he believed ever single thing he said, it just brilliant comedy.

[ddillard 2]

He will definitely be missed. He was a very funny man.