George Carlin dead at 71

[E.M. Bell]

One of my all time favorites......



LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Comedian-actor George Carlin, known for
his raunchy, but insightful humor, died Sunday in Los Angeles, his
publicist said. He was 71.

Jeff Abraham says Carlin went into St. John's Health Center on Sunday
afternoon, complaining of chest pain. Carlin died at 5:55 p.m. PDT, the
Associated Press reported.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, performed as recently as
last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the
other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The
Associated Press.

Carlin was best known for his routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On
Television," which appeared 1972's "Class Clown" album.

When Carlin uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was
arrested for disturbing the peace, the AP reported. The comedy sketch
prompted a landmark indecency case after WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973.

The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where the justices ruled
on a 5-to-4 vote that the sketch was "indecent but not obscene," giving
the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the
airwaves.

"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm
perversely kind of proud of," Carlin said. "In the context of that era,
it was daring."

"It just sounds like a very self-serving kind of word. I don't want to
go around describing myself as a 'groundbreaker' or a 'difference-maker'
because I'm not and I wasn't," he said. "But I contributed to people who
were saying things that weren't supposed to be said."

Carlin, who was also an author, was slated to receive the 2008 Mark
Twain Prize for American Humor in November.

"In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin
has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think," Stephen Schwarzman,
Kennedy Center chairman, said in a statement. "His influence on the next
generation of comics has been far-reaching."

In a typical wry response, Carlin said: "Thank you Mr. Twain. Have your
people call my people."

Carlin hosted the first broadcast of "Saturday Night Live" in October
1975.

He played the character of Mr. Conductor on the PBS series "Shining Time
Station" and starred in more than a dozen HBO specials. Carlin was also
a regular on The Tonight Show.

He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of
TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to
"Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 -- a testament to his range
from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and
sometimes hitting all points in one stroke), the AP reported.

"Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they
afraid someone will clean them?"

He won four Grammy Awards, each for best spoken comedy album, and was
nominated for five Emmy awards, according to the Associated Press

[Backyard]

Did you see George Carlin, on the first "NBC Saturday Night Live," directed by Lorne Michaels?

The Performing Artist, was Kate Bush.

Featuring the "Not Yet Ready for Prime Time actors..."

And back in those days, George Carlin was ....what.....

...maybe it was a late 1977 fad...

...when I say what I mean, people run me off,

and another adventure happens!