From The Associated Press:
Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. Some People Are Stupid. Stuff. People I Can Do Without. George Carlin, who died of heart failure Sunday 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 asked, do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
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 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.
I think I first saw George on an HBO special that I was probably too young at the time to be watching. He instantly became one of my favorite comedians. I also loved him when he started appearing in Kevin Smith films as a hitch-hiker offering blow jobs in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and then as the father of Ben Affleck in Jersey Girl.
I worked at this seafood restaurant for my four years in high school and one of the cooks there, aptly named George, was like a carbon copy of Carlin. He looked like him and he talked like him and he was just as funny and profane as him. I loved going to work to hear what the guy would say next, it was like going to a comedy show instead of work.
George Carlin was scheduled to play a gig in my town sometime soon and I planned on sitting outside the tent to listen, because I couldn’t afford the tickets. I will always be glad that he was around and it is a sad day to see him go.
On that note, here’s George:
I propose a toast:
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cock sucker, mother fucker, tits, fart, turd and tuat. Thanks for the insight George, and goodbye.
