George Carlin, requiescat in pace ...

[Dave Monroe]

The New York Times
June 24, 2008
George Carlin, Irreverent Comedian, Dies at 71
By MEL WATKINS

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 like "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television," died in
Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff
Abraham. He was 71.

The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of
heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after
complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at
The Orleans in Las Vegas.

Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize
for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center
in November. "In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor,
George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think," said
Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. "His influence on
the next generation of comics has been far-reaching."

Mr. 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. At that time, he was primarily known for his clever wordplay and
reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.

But from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment
edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a
host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and
the 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."

Mr. Carlin released his first comedy album, "Take-Offs and Put-Ons,"
to rave reviews in 1967. He also dabbled in acting, winning a
recurring part as Marlo Thomas' theatrical agent in the sitcom "That
Girl" (1966-67) and a supporting role in the movie "With Six You Get
Egg-Roll," released in 1968.

By the end of the decade, he was one of America's best known
comedians. He made more than 80 major television appearances during
that time, including the Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson's Tonight
Show; he was also regularly featured at major nightclubs in New York
and Las Vegas.

That early success and celebrity, however, was as dinky and hollow as
a gratuitous pratfall to Mr. 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, Mr. Carlin discarded his suit, tie, and clean-cut image as
well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him
to the top. Mr. 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." There was an immediate backlash. The
Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas terminated his three-year contract, and,
months later, he was advised to leave town when an angry mob
threatened him at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. Afterward, he
temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at
coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges where he found a younger,
hipper audience that was more attuned to both his new image and his
material.

By 1972, when he 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 a routine euphemistically entitled "Shoot," in which Mr. Carlin
explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for
excrement. The bit was part of the comic's longer routine "Seven Words
You Can Never Say on Television," which appeared on his third album
"Class Clown," also released in 1972.

"There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time
'ass' is all right on television," Mr. Carlin noted in his
introduction to the then controversial monologue. "You can say, well,
'You've made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.' You can use ass in a
religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on
one — perfectly all right."

The material seems innocuous by today's standards, but it caused an
uproar when broadcast on the New York radio station WBAI in the early
'70s. The station was censured and fined by the FCC. And in 1978,
their ruling was supported by the Supreme Court, which Time magazine
reported, "upheld an FCC ban on 'offensive material' during hours when
children are in the audience." Mr. Carlin refused to drop the bit and
was arrested several times after reciting it on stage.

By the mid-'70s, like his comic predecessor Lenny Bruce and the
fast-rising Richard Pryor, Mr. Carlin had emerged as a cultural
renegade. In addition to his irreverent jests about religion and
politics, he openly talked about the use of drugs, including acid and
peyote, and said that he kicked cocaine not for moral or legal reasons
but after he found "far more pain in the deal than pleasure." But the
edgier, more biting comedy he developed during this period, along with
his candid admission of drug use, cemented his reputation as the
"comic voice of the counterculture."

Mr. Carlin released a half dozen comedy albums during the '70s,
including the million-record sellers "Class Clown," "Occupation:
Foole" (1973) and "An Evening With Wally Lando" (1975). He was chosen
to host the first episode of the late-night comedy show "Saturday
Night Live" in 1975. And two years later, he found the perfect
platform for his brand of acerbic, cerebral, sometimes off-color
standup humor in the fledgling, less restricted world of cable
television. 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. He also become a best-selling author of books
that expanded on his comedy routines, including "When Will Jesus Bring
the Pork Chops?," which was published by Hyperion in 2004.



Pursuing a Dream

Mr. Carlin was born in New York City in 1937. "I grew up in New York
wanting to be like those funny men in the movies and on the radio," he
said. "My grandfather, mother and father were gifted verbally, and my
mother passed that along to me. She always made sure I was conscious
of language and words."

He quit high school to join the Air Force in the mid-'50s and, while
stationed in Shreveport, La., worked as a radio disc jockey.
Discharged in 1957, he set out to pursue his boyhood dream of becoming
an actor and comic. He moved to Boston where he met and teamed up with
Jack Burns, a newscaster and comedian. The team worked on radio
stations in Boston, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles, and performed in
clubs throughout the country during the late '50s.

After attracting the attention of the comedian Mort Sahl, who dubbed
them "a duo of hip wits," they appeared as guests on "The Tonight
Show" with Jack Paar. Still, the Carlin-Burns team was only moderately
successful, and, in 1960, Mr. Carlin struck out on his own.

During a career that spanned five decades, he emerged as one of the
most durable, productive and versatile comedians of his era. He
evolved from Jerry Seinfeld-like whimsy and a buttoned-down decorum in
the '60s to counterculture icon in the '70s. By the '80s, he was known
as a scathing social critic who could artfully wring laughs from a
list of oxymorons that ranged from "jumbo shrimp" to "military
intelligence." And in the 1990s and into the 21st century the balding
but still pony-tailed comic prowled the stage — eyes ablaze and
bristling with intensity — as the circuit's most splenetic curmudgeon.

During his live 1996 HBO special, "Back in Town," he raged over the
shallowness of the '90s "me first" culture — mocking the infatuation
with camcorders, hyphenated names, sneakers with lights on them, and
lambasting white guys over 10 years old who wear their baseball hats
backwards. Baby boomers, "who went from 'do your thing' to 'just say
no' ...from cocaine to Rogaine," and pro life advocates ("How come
when it's us it's an abortion, and when it's a chicken it's an
omelet?"), were some of his prime targets. In the years following his
1977 cable debut, Mr. Carlin was nominated for a half dozen Grammy
awards and received CableAces awards for best stand-up comedy special
for "George Carlin: Doin' It Again (1990) and "George Carlin: Jammin'
" (1992). He also won his second Grammy for the album "Jammin" in
1994.

Personal Struggles

During the course of his career, Mr. Carlin overcame numerous personal
trials. His early arrests for obscenity (all of which were dismissed)
and struggle to overcome his self-described "heavy drug use" were the
most publicized. But in the '80s he also weathered serious tax
problems, a heart attack and two open heart surgeries.

In December 2004 he entered a rehabilitation center to address his
addictions to Vicodin and red wine. Mr. Carlin had a well-chronicled
cocaine problem in his 30s, and though he was able to taper his
cocaine use on his own, he said, he continued to abuse alcohol and
also became addicted to Vicodin. He entered rehab at the end of that
year, then took two months off before continuing his comedy tours.

"Standup is the centerpiece of my life, my business, my art, my
survival and my way of being," Mr. Carlin once told an interviewer.
"This is my art, to interpret the world." But, while it always took
center stage in his career, Mr. Carlin did not restrict himself to the
comedy stage. He frequently indulged his childhood fantasy of becoming
a movie star. Among his later credits were supporting parts in "Car
Wash" (1976), "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (1989), "The Prince
of Tides" (1991), and "Dogma" (1999).

His 1997 book, "Brain Droppings," became an instant best seller. And
among several continuing TV roles, he starred in the Fox sitcom "The
George Carlin Show," which aired for one season. "That was an
experiment on my part to see if there might be a way I could fit into
the corporate entertainment structure," he said after the show was
canceled in 1994. "And I don't," he added.

Despite the longevity of his career and his problematic personal life,
Mr. Carlin remained one of the most original and productive comedians
in show business. "It's his lifelong affection for language and
passion for truth that continue to fuel his performances," a critic
observed of the comedian when he was in his mid-60s. And Chris
Albrecht, an HBO executive, said, "He is as prolific a comedian as I
have witnessed."

Mr. Carlin is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin
McCall; son-in-law, Bob McCall, brother, Patrick Carlin and
sister-in-law, Marlene Carlin. His first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, died
in 1997.

Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious,
Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always
been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and
society. "Scratch any cynic," he said, "and you'll find a disappointed
idealist."

Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had
crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his
lists of complaints and grievances. "I don't have pet peeves," he
said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his
eyes, he added, "I have major, psychotic hatreds."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/arts/24carlin.html