Opinion: George Carlin’s seven dirty words live on

‘Poor people’ used to live in ‘slums.’ Now the ‘economically disadvantaged’ occupy ‘substandard housing in the inner cities’. And they’re broke! They’re broke! They don’t have a ‘negative cash flow position,’ they’re [expletive] broke! ... Smug, greedy, well-fed white people have invented a language to conceal their sins. It’s as simple as that.

Carlin, who died last night in Los Angeles at 71, was at his least funny when he let his anger and natural anti-authority streak lapse into nihilism. Once, on a tour that came through Washington in the early 1990s, Carlin proposed that ‘anything could be funny,’ even rape. He then launched into a cringe-inducing monologue about female victimization. It could essentially be read as an attack on political correctness — a common theme for Carlin — but whatever it was, it wasn’t funny in the least.

But Carlin’s career, and his comedy, was anything but a downer. He was unique among stand-ups of his era in remaining a top-drawing comedian for more than 40 years, with virtually no help from movies or TV sitcoms. His influence can be seen everywhere from the political rants of Lewis Black to the ‘observational’ comedy of Jerry Seinfeld. He showed that nothing — not the most sensitive social issues or the most trivial annoyances of everyday life — was off-limits for smart comedy. And he helped bring stand-up comedy to the very center of American culture. It has never left.