George Carlin, 1937-2008
by SMQ on Jun 23, 2008 7:05 AM EDT
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I don't get off-topic here very often, and he was never a particular favorite of mine, but the fact is I was ripped right out of sleep when the radio I leave playing all night emitted the clause, "George Carlin was..."
Those shots were taken by Milwaukee Police not as a result of drugs, though they could have been, but because of certain words Carlin said on stage. I thought his later material was underwhelming –– a generational thing, I'm sure, on top of the natural effects of aging and iconoclasm –– but I also know that the arguments I have with my dad about certain words I can say on this blog would be a lot more lopsided if Carlin hadn't insisted on saying them 35 years ago.
Or maybe he was just an opportunist who hit on the inevitable in a rapidly changing culture, who took Lenny Bruce mainstream. Doesn't matter now –– not where he is. Or, he'd prefer, where he isn't. So, for what it's worth, RIP, motherfucker.
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Carlin matters
Well, that routine led to Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation case and the subsequent Supreme Court ruling on obscenity. While the case was specifically about the broadcast of material considered indecent, it certainly had a large impact on this newfangled medium of the interwebs. Certainly those events were somewhat ancillary to Carlin himself but the ball certainly wouldn’t have gotten rolling if he never said ‘cocksucker’ on stage.
And, I think, a certain amount of his over-the-top usage of ‘incecent’ language he later incorporated into his act is something that many bloggers have adopted as well. For example, this is a wonderful example of the technique.
by kleph on Jun 23, 2008 7:28 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs
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