George Carlin; Five Years Later He’s Still Dead

Five years ago we lost comedian George Carlin and after an intense search on the Internet, that lasted a little over three minutes, it is safe to say George Carlin is still dead. Seriously, on the fifth anniversary of his passing I thought we should take a moment and remember one of the great comic voices of all time George Carlin.

In the early 1970’s George Carlin reinvented himself, dropping the clean cut look of the times and changing his routines to focus on the American social and human condition. This was a big risk for Carlin; he was a known comedian and a regular on the Tonight Show. A comedian looking like a hippie and talking about social issues was a tough sell in 1970’sAmerica. In the beginning it did cost him some TV bookings but it didn’t take long for Carlin to make a splash.

In July of 1972 George Carlin was arrested atMilwaukee’s Summer-fest for performing “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” maybe Carlin’s best known work from his Class Clown release. He was charged with violating obscenity laws. The case was dismissed in December of that year: the judge declared that the language was indecent but Carlin had the freedom to say it as long as he caused no disturbance.

George Carlin went on to become a huge star. He was in 18 films, recorded over 21 comedy albums, was regularly on television, wrote seven books and had 14 HBO comedy specials. Comedy Central put Carlin at number two behind Richard Pryor on their list of the top 100 comics of all time.This is not the resume of failure, enjoy a little George Carlin.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbZhpf3sQxQ