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Comic Infamous For '7 Words' Act

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The New York Times

Published: June 24, 2008

George Carlin, the Grammy Award-winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines such as "Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television," died in Los Angeles on Sunday, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham.

Carlin, who died of heart failure at 71, leaves behind not only a series of memorable routines, but a legal legacy: His most celebrated monologue, a frantic, informed riff on those infamous seven words, led to a Supreme Court decision on broadcasting offensive language.

The counterculture hero's jokes also targeted things such as misplaced shame, religious hypocrisy and linguistic quirks: Why, he once asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?

Carlin 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 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.

Carlin began his standup comedy act in the late 1950s and made his first television solo guest appearance on "The Merv Griffin Show" in 1965. He was primarily known for clever wordplay and reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.

Anti-Establishment Edge

From the outset, there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of offbeat characters like wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet: "The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight's forecast ... dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning."

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 and appearing some 130 times on "The Tonight Show."

But that early success and celebrity was as dinky and hollow as a gratuitous pratfall to Carlin. "I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and, in some cases, associated with, and whose point of view I shared," he recalled later, as quoted in the book "Going Too Far" by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. "I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie."

In 1970, Carlin discarded his suit, tie and clean-cut image, as well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him to the top. Carlin reinvented himself, emerging with a beard, long hair, jeans and a routine that, according to one critic, was steeped in "drugs and bawdy language."

He temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges, where he found a younger, hipper audience more attuned to his new image and his material.

Star Again On Rise

By 1972, when Carlin released his second album, "FM & AM," his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the "AM" side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the "FM" side. Among the more controversial cuts was "Shoot," in which Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement.

The bit was part of the longer routine "Seven Words That Can Never Be Said on Television," which appeared on his third album, "Class Clown," also released in 1972.

Carlin released a half-dozen comedy albums in the 1970s, including the million-record sellers "Class Clown," "Occupation: Foole" (1973) and "An Evening With Wally Lando" (1975).

By 1977, when his first HBO comedy special, "George Carlin at USC" was aired, he was recognized as one of the era's most influential comedians.

In the years after the special, he was nominated for a half-dozen Grammy awards, winning for "George Carlin: Jammin'" in 1994.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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