George Carlin mourned as a counterculture hero
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Artist:
LOS ANGELES (AP) - George Carlin, the frenzied performer whose 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.
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Comments (11)
As i said elsewhere in a comment to another post:
Well, dammit.
I remember, many years ago (twenty or more - i was stil married to my first wife, and that ended in 1990), when Carlin had heart surgery here in Atlanta, at Emory.
His first public appearance after, was on Tonight.
He came on stage, looking rather like death warmd over, thin and rather haggard, wearing a hospital gown. He stood there for a second or so, then gestured and they brought the boom mike down into shot.
And he brought his hand from behind his back, holding one of those silly little red plastic wind up hearts and held it to the mike, going "click-click ... click-click..."
Thanks again for that.
I have been listening to all the cd's I have of him today, he just never gets old
Rawkkiddoh : Gotta catch his special on HBO. I always tune in the middle of it.
do you know if it is on DVD? I can only imagine how good it must be. Today I have been listening to Back In Town, and it is almost like I am listening to it for the first time again.His bit on Mickey Mouses birthday gets me everytime
Here's some of his stuff they got on Amazon. Don't know if his last one "it's Bad For Ya" is on DVD yet. They premiered it not to long ago on HBO.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1?ie=UTF8&rs=163357&keywords=George%20Carlin&rh=n%3A130%2Cn%3A163357%2Ck%3AGeorge%20Carlin&page=1
sweet thanks!
Counterculture IS culture ! RIP George Denis Patrick Carlin.
http://mog.com/Universalis/blog_post/169186
Rawkkiddoh: Welcome.
Universalis : Thats a cool post. Never knew his middle name, thanks for the info, and linking my page.
My encyclo-side hit again :))