George Carlin
A restless critic of language, religion and American politics who remade himself from a clean-cut television comic into a counterculture icon. He died on June 22, 2008, aged 71.
Personality
Carlin was a writer at heart, fascinated by language and the ways people bend it; he credited his mother with his feel for words. He was rebellious from youth, leaving high school early and receiving a general discharge from the Air Force after being called an unproductive airman. He was also disciplined about his craft. He built each HBO special from material tested on the road, kept up about 150 live dates a year, and later said that being forced to stay on tour made him a far better comedian and writer than a film career would have.
Under pressure
Carlin repeatedly chose trouble over comfort. In 1962 he was arrested alongside Lenny Bruce after refusing to show identification, and in 1972 he was arrested in Milwaukee after performing his 'seven dirty words' routine; that case was dismissed. Around 1970 he deliberately gave up lucrative television bookings for small clubs, accepting a steep fall in income to pursue edgier material. He also spent close to two decades paying off a large tax debt, which he said he did honourably and without resentment, and which kept him performing stand-up rather than chasing movie roles.
The arc
Born in Manhattan and raised by his mother in Morningside Heights, Carlin started as a radio DJ while in the Air Force and formed a comedy team with Jack Burns in 1959. Through the 1960s he was a conventional, suit-wearing regular on The Tonight Show. Around 1970 he grew his hair, changed his material and found a younger audience with albums such as FM & AM and Class Clown. He hosted the first Saturday Night Live in 1975, made 14 HBO specials between 1977 and 2008, and turned to darker social criticism in his later decades.
Legacy
Carlin's routine reached the Supreme Court in FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978), which upheld the government's power to regulate indecent material on public airwaves, and broadcasters afterwards began using a 'Carlin warning' with live performers. He won five Grammy Awards for comedy albums and ranked second only to Richard Pryor on Comedy Central's 2004 and Rolling Stone's 2017 lists of the greatest stand-up comedians. Comedians including Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, Bill Burr, Stephen Colbert and Jerry Seinfeld have named him as an influence.
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