RIP George Carlin

[chefmike]

One of the greats.

[chefmike]

"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"

[chefmike]

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was nominated for five Emmy awards. On Tuesday, it was announced that Carlin was being awarded the 11th annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, which will be presented Nov. 10 in Washington and broadcast on PBS.

[chefmike]

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.

"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.

[chefmike]

I just noticed there was already a thread on this.

[Herkyalert]

There's nearly no great comedians left.

Ode to a dead guy indeed.

I liked Carlin a lot.

[jgud051]

RIP to one of the greats

[chefmike]

Rolling Stone circa 1972 on Carlin's early days in comedy...

How George Carlin Showed His Hair
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/sto...wed_his_hair/2