George Carlin's seven dirty words live on
George Carlin passed away yesterday, just days after receiving the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. While best known for his sketch on the seven dirty words that could not be said on television, the comedian loved to poke fun at Americans by examining linguistic hypocrisy. Check out his routine on "soft language, the language that takes the life out of life":
"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.
The accolades have only grown with his passing. AP called Carlin a counterculture hero — but that doesn't mean everything he did was humorous or well received. The Washington Post points out:
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.
Time takes the longer view:
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.
Check back tomorrow for The Times' editorial on George Carlin.
George Carlin helped show all of us the hypocrisy and pomposity of our leaders and self appointed guardians of the the public morals and he did with knee slapping, rolling on the floor, side splitting humor.
He is irreplaceable and he will be missed
Posted by: Tom Stuetzer | June 24, 2008 at 04:09 PM
George Carlin, the truth-teller, should not have been relegated to the entertainment sphere. He recently said that what this country needs is a good 5-6 year depression. Carlin probably didn't wish for the suffering an economic depression would bring, just the opportunity for us to start over and correct the mess we're in. Maybe he'll get his wish.
Posted by: sandra m | June 24, 2008 at 11:48 AM
carlin did a lot of things in his life, but one thing he never did was wear business casual...
Posted by: diddy | June 23, 2008 at 09:52 PM
I don't fully trust Johnsoniana that comes from sources other than Boswell, but even if it's not strictly accurate, this anecdote is a good goof on the censorship instinct :
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | June 23, 2008 at 07:59 PM
FWIW, we've searched the archives and the L.A. Times has printed all but one of the seven words.
Interestingly, the paper seems to have become more, not less, conservative in its language in this decade: Nearly all the citations come from articles written before 2000, and the only one of the seven the Times uses with any regularity now is "piss."
I'd love to tell you which of the seven we haven't printed, but apparently we're a family newspaper.
Posted by: Tim Cavanaugh | June 23, 2008 at 04:15 PM