Tribute to George Carlin

Grammy award winning comedian George Carlin has died, he was 71 years old. George Carlin's comedy routine can best be described as being "dark" in nature. In addition to being a stand up comedian, Carlin was an actor who first appeared on the acting scene as Herbie Fleck in the 1968 film, With Six You Get Eggroll staring Doris Day and Brian Keith (IMDB). He made guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Carol Burnett Show, and The Flip Wilson Show before he exploded and made a huge name for himself. Eventually, Carlin went on to star in his own televised stand up shows and he became a frequent stand in host of The Johnny Carson Show (IMDB). A perfect example of the darkness of his humor came later in his career; Carlin created a mock religion called Frisbeetarianism. He described the religion as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and cannot be retrieved (Urban).

Perhaps Carlin's most famous comedy routine is Seven Dirty Words which was released in 1972 on his album Class Clown. This monologue was cut down from his Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television skit, and at the time, these seven words were highly controversial and could not be mentioned over network television or over the airwaves via AM/FM radio stations (TV Acres). In 2007, the skit was given new life when it was featured on the award winning CW network show, Everybody Hates Chris. In the now famous episode, Chris gets into serious trouble because he overhears his parents listening to Carlin's stand up routine, then goes to school and repeats the forbidden words for laughs (TV Squad). This episode was hilarious, and it also served to introduce younger audiences to Carlin's comedy as there is no doubt that people swarmed Internet search engines to find out exactly what the seven dirty words are (because they still cannot be uttered on television...for the most part).

On Sunday afternoon, June 22, 2008 at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, George Carlin died of heart failure (Yahoo). Carlin was Hollywood royalty who stood in the shadow of golden era giants. He was truly gifted, and he eventually matured into a celebrated comedic legend, second only to Richard Pryor. George Carlin will be missed, but his legacy will endure.

IMBD - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063821
Urban- www.urbandictionary.com/define.php
TV Acres - http://www.tvacres.com/censorship_seven.htm
TV Squad - tvsquad.com/2007/05/01/everybody-hates-chris-everybody-hates-dirty-jokes/
Yahoo - news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080623/people_nm/carlin_dc_5