George Carlin

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic and author. Carlin was noted for his black comedy and his thoughts on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and various taboo subjects. Carlin and his "Seven dirty words" comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a 5–4 decision affirmed the government's power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians: One newspaper called Carlin "the dean of counterculture comedians." In 2004, Carlin was placed second on the Comedy Central list of "Top 10 Comedians of US Audiences" compiled for an April 2004 special. The first of his 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. From the late 1980s, Carlin's routines focused on sociocultural criticism of modern American society. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live. His final HBO special, It's Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy

George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy (1997) is comedian George Carlin's tenth HBO special. It was broadcast live from the Wheeler Theater in Aspen, Colorado, as part of the US Comedy Arts Festival. Unlike Carlin's other stand-up specials, this contains only 27 minutes of stand-up performance. The rest is a retrospective celebrating Carlin's 40th anniversary in entertainment with clips of his television appearances and an interview with the host Jon Stewart. Some of Carlin's material was repeated in his next special, You Are All Diseased.

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