LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
Comedian George Carlin, a
counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty
words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a
Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday. He was 71.
Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.
Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years, the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
I liked Carlin's mind. He always hit us where it hurt and made us laugh while he did it (wow, does that sound strange...kinda like a Carlinism). It was sometimes difficult, though, to parse the comedy from the anger and to get through his routines, which were laced with a lot of profanity. Maybe that was part of his genius: it's hard to listen to dark humor about US when it's done without the *)!!##&(.
Here's one of his best routines: The Ten Commandments
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