Donald and Douglas are two fictional steam locomotives from The Railway Series books by the Rev. W. Awdry. They also appear in Thomas and Friends, the television series based on the books. They are twin Scottish engines.

Introduction[link]

The Fat Controller originally only ordered one engine from Scotland, but was surprised when two arrived, neither with numbers or any distinguishing features – both engines were painted completely black. He could not tell which engine was which, and so decided to keep whichever one was the more useful. Unfortunately, Douglas accidentally shunted Thomas' Special Coach, full of Passengers, into a siding at Tidmouth, thus infuriating the Passengers. Things worsened when Donald managed to demolish a signal box. Douglas, meanwhile, made the decision harder by helping James up a hill, succeeding in spite of James losing steam, but destroying a spiteful brake van in the process.

However, the twins proved their worth to the railway in winter, when their experience and expertise with snow made them excellent snowplough engines. The other engines appealed to the Fat Controller in "The Deputation" and he decided to keep both of them. In the Railway Series, they were painted blue shortly afterwards and given nameplates.

The twins are almost identical, and some episodes of the television series have depicted them as being inseparable (notably the episode "Twin Trouble"). The reason for their both arriving on Sodor was that Donald was bought and saved from scrap, but Douglas was not and was due to be cut up (this fact is revealed in the story "The Missing Coach"). They could not bear the thought of one being saved and the other not so they decided to go to Sodor together and hope for the best. As their crews were also related, it was not difficult for them both to stay on the island. To allow the engines to be told apart, the Fat Controller ordered that numbers be painted on their tenders. Following an incident in which the engines swapped tenders, he decided that it would also be wise to give them nameplates on their boilers as well.

Donald and Douglas are popular among the other engines, not only for their versatility but also their practical and friendly demeanour. They enjoy a good joke, as exemplified when Duck's driver slipped a duck into Donald's tank, resulting in Donald gaining a new friend in Dilly the duck. They put their all into any job, no matter how difficult. And, because of their own brush with scrapping, they have the utmost sympathy for engines escaping the scrapyard. It was this sympathy that made Douglas a hero, when he rescued Oliver and Toad (and an autocoach named Isabel in the books) from scrap and brought them to Sodor. In the Railway Series, Toad became his brake van following this incident.

The Twins are mainly used for goods work, but can be used for all sorts of jobs all over the railway. They are very much the "odd job engines" of the line. They carry out track repair, collect engines from the Works, rescue engines that have broken down or crashed and, of course, clear snow in the winter. The railway would not be the same without them. They are, in the Fat Controller's words, "Really Useful Engines".

They first appeared in the book The Twin Engines, published in 1960. Their first appearance in the television series was in Season 2. They appeared at regular intervals until Season 7, then were not seen again until Season 11, although they did get a mention in the Season 8 episode "You Can Do It, Toby!" and also appeared in a deleted scene in Season 8's "Edward the Great". They also played a prominent role in Season 11's "Gordon and the Engineer" and Season 12's "Saved You!"

Scottish engines[link]

Donald and Douglas are unusual among characters in the Railway Series, in that they speak in a strong Scots dialect. This can be difficult to understand at times (and indeed, the Rev. W. Awdry received a number of letters complaining of this very problem). This is exemplified in their excuse for not carrying numbers: "They maun hae slyly slippit aff, sir!" (They must have slyly slipped off, sir).

Their accent has been identified by a number of readers as originating in Glasgow, although the writer Martin Clutterbuck notes a strong Robert Burns influence.

The engines' Scottish heritage has been referenced in a number of stories. In the book Stepney the "Bluebell" Engine, Douglas mentions the song 'The Bluebells of Scotland'. ^[1] While in Jock the New Engine, Douglas regards the unnamed engine's unusual colour (undercoat): "Some o' the engines up in the Highlands were yon [your] colour. Jocks, we used to call them." He goes on to suggest that "Jock" might be a good choice, and so the title character gets his typically Scottish name, and is painted in the distinctive pale green livery of the Highland Railway. ^[2]

In The Railway Series and in My Thomas Story Library, Donald and Douglas were painted NWR blue when Sir Topham Hatt (the Fat Controller) decided to keep them; however, in the television series they remained black.

Prototype[link]

Donald and Douglas are based on the Caledonian Railway 812 Class. In The Railway Series, it is stated that one of them is number 57646 (though it is only revealed to the reader that this is in fact Donald, when Douglas has the alarming thought "I hope the Fat Controller disnae realise I shouldna be here") . None of the original 812 class carried this number — the joke being that in real life, the highest numbered was 57645.

The blue they carry in the Railway Series is significant, as blue was the colour most associated with the Caledonian Railway. In the book James and the Diesel Engines, Donald explains that while on the Caledonian Railway they were never painted blue, they always carried the black goods livery. Interestingly, the black that they used to carry (and indeed still do in the television series) is British Railways black with red and white lining, making them the only engines to carry a BR livery

The engines have deep-toned whistles, which Gordon and Henry observed made them sound like buses or ships. Although unusual on Sodor, such whistles were typical of the Caledonian Railway.

One Caledonian '812' class survived into preservation: 828 is currently based on the Strathspey Railway, Aviemore, Scotland and is nearing the end of a long overhaul.

Douglas on the Mid Hants Railway[link]

In 2000, the Mid Hants Railway in Hampshire converted a Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST class engine into a tender engine, a move which was greeted by a negative reaction from rail fans.^[who?] This rebuilt locomotive poses as Douglas for special events.

Merchandising[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Martin Clutterbuck's 'Real Lives' page on Donald and Douglas.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

George Carlin
Carlin in Trenton, New Jersey on April 4, 2008
Birth name	George Denis Patrick Carlin
Born	(1937-05-12)May 12, 1937 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	June 22, 2008(2008-06-22) (aged 71) Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, television, film, books, radio
Nationality	American
Years active	1956–2008
Genres	Character comedy, observational comedy, wit/word play, satire/political satire, black comedy, surreal humor, sarcasm, blue comedy
Subject(s)	American culture, American English, everyday life, atheism, recreational drug use, death, philosophy, human behavior, American politics, parenting, children, religion, profanity, psychology, anarchism, race relations, old age, pop culture, self-deprecation, childhood, family
Influences	Danny Kaye,[1][2] Jonathan Winters,[2] Lenny Bruce,[3][4] Richard Pryor,[5] Jerry Lewis,[2][5] Marx Brothers,[2][5] Mort Sahl,[4] Spike Jones,[5] Ernie Kovacs,[5] Ritz Brothers[2] Monty Python[5]
Influenced	Chris Rock,[6] Jerry Seinfeld,[7] Bill Hicks, Jim Norton, Sam Kinison, Louis C.K.,[8] Lewis Black,[9] Jon Stewart,[10] Stephen Colbert,[11] Bill Maher,[12] Denis Leary, Patrice O'Neal,[13] Adam Carolla,[14] Colin Quinn,[15] Steven Wright,[16], Mitch Hedberg,[17] Russell Peters,[18] Jay Leno,[19] Ben Stiller,[19] Kevin Smith[20]
Spouse	Brenda Hosbrook (August 5, 1961 – May 11, 1997) (her death) 1 child Sally Wade (June 24, 1998 – June 22, 2008) (his death)[21]
Notable works and roles	Class Clown "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" Rufus in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey Narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and "Mr. Conductor" on Shining Time Station The George Carlin Show
Signature
Website	www.georgecarlin.com
Grammy Awards Best Comedy Recording 1972 FM & AM 2009 It's Bad For Ya (posthumous) Best Spoken Comedy Album 1993 Jammin' in New York 2001 Brain Droppings 2002 Napalm & Silly Putty American Comedy Awards Funniest Male Performer in a TV Special 1997 George Carlin: Back in Town 1998 George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award in Comedy 2001

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, actor and writer/author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.^[22]

Carlin was noted for his black humor as well as 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 narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

The first of his fourteen stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. In 1988, the 1990s and 2000s, Carlin's routines focused on socio-cultural criticism of modern American society. He often commented on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture. His final HBO special, It's Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death.

In 2004, Carlin placed second on the Comedy Central list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor.^[23] 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. In 2008, he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Early life[link]

Carlin was born in Manhattan,^[24][25] the second son of Mary (Beary), a secretary, and Patrick Carlin, a national advertising manager for the New York Sun.^[26] Carlin was of Irish descent and was raised a Roman Catholic.^[27][28][29]

Carlin grew up on West 121st Street, in a neighborhood of Manhattan which he later said, in a stand-up routine, he and his friends called "White Harlem", because that sounded a lot tougher than its real name of Morningside Heights. He was raised by his mother, who left his father when Carlin was two months old.^[30] He attended Corpus Christi School, a Roman Catholic parish school of the Corpus Christi Church, in Morningside Heights.^[31][32] After three semesters, at the age of 15, Carlin involuntarily left Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and briefly attended Bishop Dubois High School in Harlem.^[33] Carlin had a difficult relationship with his mother and often ran away from home.^[2] He later joined the United States Air Force and was trained as a radar technician. He was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana.

During this time he began working as a disc jockey at radio station KJOE, in the nearby city of Shreveport. He did not complete his Air Force enlistment. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, Carlin was discharged on July 29, 1957. During his time in the Air Force he was court martialed three times, and also received many disciplinary punishments.^[34]

Career[link]

In 1959, Carlin and Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas.^[35] After successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse, The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960 and stayed together for two years as a team before moving on to individual pursuits.

1960s[link]

Within weeks of arriving in California in 1960, Burns and Carlin put together an audition tape and created The Wright Brothers, a morning show on KDAY in Hollywood. The comedy team worked there for three months, honing their material in beatnik coffeehouses at night.^[36] Years later when he was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Carlin requested that it be placed in front of the KDAY studios near the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street.^[37] Burns and Carlin recorded their only album, Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight, in May 1960 at Cosmo Alley in Hollywood.^[36]

In the 1960s, Carlin began appearing on television variety shows, notably The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. His most famous routines were:

• The Indian Sergeant ("You wit' the beads... get outta line")
• Stupid disc jockeys ("Wonderful WINO...")—"The Beatles' latest record, when played backwards at slow speed, says 'Dummy! You're playing it backwards at slow speed!'"
• Al Sleet, the "hippie-dippie weatherman"—"Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely scattered light towards morning."
• Jon Carson—the "world never known, and never to be known"

Variations on the first three of these routines appear on Carlin's 1967 debut album, Take Offs and Put Ons, recorded live in 1966 at The Roostertail in Detroit, Michigan.^[38]

Carlin with singer Buddy Greco in Away We Go. The summer replacement show also starred drummer Buddy Rich.

During this period, Carlin became more popular as a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show, initially with Jack Paar as host, then with Johnny Carson. Carlin became one of Carson's most frequent substitutes during the host's three-decade reign. Carlin was also cast in Away We Go, a 1967 comedy show that aired on CBS.^[39] His material during his early career and his appearance, which consisted of suits and short-cropped hair, had been seen as "conventional," particularly when contrasted with his later anti-establishment material.^[40]

Carlin was present at Lenny Bruce's arrest for obscenity. As the police began attempting to detain members of the audience for questioning, they asked Carlin for his identification. Telling the police he did not believe in government-issued IDs, he was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same vehicle.^[41]

1970s[link]

Eventually, Carlin changed both his routines and his appearance. He lost some TV bookings by dressing strangely for a comedian of the time, wearing faded jeans and sporting long hair, a beard, and earrings at a time when clean-cut, well-dressed comedians were the norm. Using his own persona as a springboard for his new comedy, he was presented by Ed Sullivan in a performance of "The Hair Piece" and quickly regained his popularity as the public caught on to his sense of style. In this period he also perfected what is perhaps his best-known routine, "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television", recorded on Class Clown. Carlin was arrested on July 21, 1972, at Milwaukee's Summerfest and charged with violating obscenity laws after performing this routine.^[42] The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as "the Milwaukee Seven," was dismissed in December of that year; the judge declared that the language was indecent but Carlin had the freedom to say it as long as he caused no disturbance. In 1973, a man complained to the Federal Communications Commission after listening with his son to a similar routine, "Filthy Words", from Occupation: Foole, broadcast one afternoon over WBAI, a Pacifica Foundation FM radio station in New York City. Pacifica received a citation from the FCC that sought to fine the company for violating FCC regulations that prohibited broadcasting "obscene" material. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the FCC action by a vote of 5 to 4, ruling that the routine was "indecent but not obscene" and that the FCC had authority to prohibit such broadcasts during hours when children were likely to be among the audience. (F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978). The court documents contain a complete transcript of the routine.)^[43]

The controversy only increased Carlin's fame. Carlin eventually expanded the dirty-words theme with a seemingly interminable end to a performance (ending with his voice fading out in one HBO version and accompanying the credits in the Carlin at Carnegie special for the 1982-83 season) and a set of 49 web pages^[44] organized by subject and embracing his "Incomplete List Of Impolite Words."

It was on-stage during a rendition of his "Dirty Words" routine that Carlin learned that his previous comedy album FM & AM had won the Grammy. Midway through the performance on the album Occupation: Foole, he can be heard thanking someone for handing him a piece of paper. He then exclaims "Shit!" and proudly announces his win to the audience.

Carlin hosted the premiere broadcast of NBC's Saturday Night Live, on October 11, 1975, the only episode as of at least 2007 in which the host had no involvement (at his request) in sketches.^[45] The following season, 1976–77, Carlin also appeared regularly on CBS Television's Tony Orlando & Dawn variety series.

Carlin unexpectedly stopped performing regularly in 1976, when his career appeared to be at its height. For the next five years, he rarely performed stand-up, although it was at this time that he began doing specials for HBO as part of its On Location series. He later revealed that he had suffered the first of three heart attacks during this layoff period.^[5] His first two HBO specials aired in 1977 and 1978.

1980s and 1990s[link]

In 1981, Carlin returned to the stage, releasing A Place For My Stuff and returning to HBO and New York City with the Carlin at Carnegie TV special, videotaped at Carnegie Hall and airing during the 1982-83 season. Carlin continued doing HBO specials every year or every other year over the following decade and a half. All of Carlin's albums from this time forward are from the HBO specials.

In concert at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

He hosted SNL for the second time on November 10, 1984, this time appearing in several sketches. Carlin's acting career was primed with a major supporting role in the 1987 comedy hit Outrageous Fortune, starring Bette Midler and Shelley Long; it was his first notable screen role after a handful of previous guest roles on television series. Playing drifter Frank Madras, the role poked fun at the lingering effect of the 1960s counterculture. In 1989, he gained popularity with a new generation of teens when he was cast as Rufus, the time-traveling mentor of the titular characters in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and reprised his role in the film sequel Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey as well as the first season of the cartoon series. From 1991 to 1995, he narrated the American version of the children's show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends, and played "Mr. Conductor" on Shining Time Station from 1991 to 1993. Also in 1991, Carlin had a major supporting role in the movie The Prince of Tides, which starred Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand.

Carlin began a weekly Fox sitcom, The George Carlin Show, in 1993, playing New York City taxicab driver George O'Grady. The show, created and written by The Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon, ran 27 episodes through December 1995.^[46]

In his final book, the posthumously published Last Words, Carlin said about The George Carlin Show, "I was incredibly happy when the show was canceled. I was frustrated that it had taken me away from my true work."^[47]

In 1997, his first hardcover book, Brain Droppings, was published. The book sold nearly 900,000 copies and spent 40 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. ^[48] Carlin was honored at the 1997 Aspen Comedy Festival with a retrospective, George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy, hosted by Jon Stewart.

In 1999, Carlin played a supporting role as a satirical Roman Catholic cardinal in filmmaker Kevin Smith's movie Dogma. He worked with Smith again with a cameo appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and later played an atypically serious role in Jersey Girl as the blue-collar father of Ben Affleck's character.

2000s[link]

In 2001, Carlin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards. In December 2003, California U.S. Representative Doug Ose (Republican), introduced a bill (H.R. 3687) to outlaw the broadcast of Carlin's "seven dirty words,"^[49] including "compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms)." (The bill omits "tits," but includes "asshole," which was not part of Carlin's original routine.) This bill was never voted on. The last action on this bill was its referral to the House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution on January 15, 2004.^[49]

For years, Carlin had performed regularly as a headliner in Las Vegas, but in 2005 he was fired from his headlining position at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, after an altercation with his audience. After a poorly received set filled with dark references to suicide bombings and beheadings, Carlin stated that he could not wait to get out of "this fucking hotel" and Las Vegas, claiming he wanted to go back east, "where the real people are." He continued to insult his audience, stating:

People who go to Las Vegas, you've got to question their fucking intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of fucking moronic. That's what I'm always getting here is these kind of fucking people with very limited intellects.

An audience member shouted back that Carlin should "stop degrading us," at which point Carlin responded, "Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it was positive; if not, well, blow me." He was immediately fired by MGM Grand and soon after announced he would enter rehab for alcohol and prescription painkiller addiction.^[50][51]

He began a tour through the first half of 2006 following the airing of his thirteenth HBO Special on November 5, 2005, entitled Life is Worth Losing,^[52] which was shown live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City and in which he stated early on: "I've got 341 days of sobriety," referring to the rehab he entered after being fired from MGM. Topics covered included suicide, natural disasters (and the desire to see them escalate in severity), cannibalism, genocide, human sacrifice, threats to civil liberties in America, and how an argument can be made that humans are inferior to other animals.

On February 1, 2006, during his Life Is Worth Losing set at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, Carlin mentioned to the crowd that he had been discharged from the hospital only six weeks previously for "heart failure" and "pneumonia", citing the appearance as his "first show back."

Carlin provided the voice of Fillmore, a character in the Disney/Pixar animated feature Cars, which opened in theaters on June 9, 2006. The character Fillmore, who is presented as an anti-establishment hippie, is a VW Microbus with a psychedelic paint job whose front license plate reads "51237," Carlin's birthday and also the Zip Code for George, Iowa. In 2007, Carlin provided the voice of the wizard in Happily N'Ever After, along with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Andy Dick, and Wallace Shawn, his last film.

Carlin's last HBO stand-up special, It's Bad for Ya, aired live on March 1, 2008, from the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa, California.^[53] The themes that appeared in this HBO special included "American Bullshit," "Rights," "Death," "Old Age," and "Child Rearing." In his routine, he brought to light many of the problems facing America, and he told his audience to cut through the "bullshit" of the world and "enjoy the carnival." Carlin had been working on the new material for this HBO special for several months prior in concerts all over the country.

Personal life[link]

In 1961, Carlin married Brenda Hosbrook (August 5, 1936 - May 11, 1997), whom he had met while touring the previous year. The couple's only child, a daughter named Kelly, was born on June 15, 1963.^[54] In 1971, George and Brenda renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas. Brenda died of liver cancer a day before Carlin's 60th birthday, in 1997.

Carlin later married Sally Wade on June 24, 1998, and the marriage lasted until his death, two days before their tenth anniversary.^[55]

Carlin often criticized elections as an illusion of choice.^[56] He said the last time he voted was 1972, for George McGovern who ran for President against Richard Nixon.^[57]

Religion[link]

Although raised in the Roman Catholic faith, which he describes anecdotally on the albums FM & AM and Class Clown, religion, God, and particularly religious adherents were frequent subjects of criticism in Carlin's routines. He described his opinion of the flaws of organized religion in interviews and performances, notably with his "Religion" and "There Is No God" routines as heard in You Are All Diseased. His views on religion are also mentioned in his last HBO stand up show It's Bad for Ya where he mocked the traditional swearing on the Bible as "bullshit,"^[58] "make believe," and "kids' stuff." In It's Bad for Ya, Carlin noted differences in the types of hats religions ban or require as part of their practices. He mentions that he would never want to be a part of a group that requires or bans the wearing of hats. Carlin also joked in his second book, Brain Droppings, that he worshipped the Sun, one reason being that he could see it.

Themes[link]

Carlin's material falls under one of three self-described categories: "the little world" (observational humor), "the big world" (social commentary), and the peculiarities of the English language (euphemisms, doublespeak, business jargon), all sharing the overall theme of (in his words) "humanity's bullshit," which might include murder, genocide, war, rape, corruption, religion and other aspects of human civilization. He was known for mixing observational humour with larger social commentary. His delivery frequently treated these subjects in a misanthropic and nihilistic fashion, such as in his statement during the Life is Worth Losing show:

I look at it this way... For centuries now, man has done everything he can to destroy, defile, and interfere with nature: clear-cutting forests, strip-mining mountains, poisoning the atmosphere, over-fishing the oceans, polluting the rivers and lakes, destroying wetlands and aquifers... so when nature strikes back, and smacks him on the head and kicks him in the nuts, I enjoy that. I have absolutely no sympathy for human beings whatsoever. None. And no matter what kind of problem humans are facing, whether it's natural or man-made, I always hope it gets worse.

Language was a frequent focus of Carlin's work. Euphemisms that, in his view, seek to distort and lie and the use of language he felt was pompous, presumptuous, or silly were often the target of Carlin's routines. When asked on Inside the Actors Studio what turned him on, he responded, "Reading about language." When asked what made him most proud about his career, he said the number of his books that have been sold, close to a million copies.

Carlin also gave special attention to prominent topics in American and Western Culture, such as obsession with fame and celebrity, consumerism, conservative Christianity, political alienation, corporate control, hypocrisy, child raising, fast food diet, news stations, self-help publications, blind patriotism, sexual taboos, certain uses of technology and surveillance, and the pro-life position,^[59] among many others.

George Carlin in Trenton, New Jersey April 4, 2008

Carlin openly communicated in his shows and in his interviews that his purpose for existence was entertainment, that he was "here for the show." He professed a hearty schadenfreude in watching the rich spectrum of humanity slowly self-destruct, in his estimation, of its own design, saying, "When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front-row seat." He acknowledged that this is a very selfish thing, especially since he included large human catastrophes as entertainment. In his You Are All Diseased concert, he elaborated somewhat on this, telling the audience, "I have always been willing to put myself at great personal risk for the sake of entertainment. And I've always been willing to put you at great personal risk, for the same reason!"

In the same interview, he recounted his experience of a California earthquake in the early 1970s, as "[a]n amusement park ride. Really, I mean it's such a wonderful thing to realize that you have absolutely no control, and to see the dresser move across the bedroom floor unassisted is just exciting."

A routine in Carlin's 1999 HBO special You Are All Diseased focusing on airport security leads up to the statement: "Take a fucking chance! Put a little fun in your life! Most Americans are soft and frightened and unimaginative and they don't realize there's such a thing as dangerous fun, and they certainly don't recognize a good show when they see one."

Along with wordplay and sex jokes, Carlin had always included politics as part of his material, but by the mid 1980s he had become a strident social critic in both his HBO specials and the book compilations of his material, bashing both conservatives and liberals alike. His HBO viewers got an especially sharp taste of this in his take on the Ronald Reagan administration during the 1988 special What Am I Doing In New Jersey?, broadcast live from the Park Theatre in Union City, New Jersey.

Death and legacy[link]

Carlin had a history of cardiac problems spanning several decades, including three heart attacks (in 1978 at age 41, 1982 and 1991), an arrhythmia requiring an ablation procedure in 2003, and a significant episode of heart failure in late 2005. He twice underwent angioplasty to reopen narrowed arteries.^[60] In early 2005 he entered a drug rehabilitation facility for treatment of addictions to alcohol and Vicodin.^[61]

On June 22, 2008, Carlin was admitted to Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica after experiencing chest pain, and he died later that day of heart failure. He was 71 years old.^[62] His death occurred one week after his last performance at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. There were further shows on his itinerary.^[21][63][64] In accordance with his wishes, he was cremated, his ashes scattered, and no public or religious services of any kind were held.^[65][66]

In tribute, HBO broadcast eleven of his fourteen HBO specials from June 25–28, including a twelve-hour marathon block on their HBO Comedy channel. NBC scheduled a rerun of the premiere episode of Saturday Night Live, which Carlin hosted.^[67][68][69] Both Sirius Satellite Radio's "Raw Dog Comedy" and XM Satellite Radio's "XM Comedy" channels ran a memorial marathon of George Carlin recordings the day following his death. Larry King devoted his entire June 23 show to a tribute to Carlin, featuring interviews with Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Roseanne Barr and Lewis Black, as well as Carlin's daughter Kelly and his brother, Patrick.

On June 24, The New York Times published an op-ed piece on Carlin by Seinfeld.^[70] Cartoonist Garry Trudeau paid tribute in his Doonesbury comic strip on July 27.^[71]

Four days before his death, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had named Carlin its 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoree.^[72] The prize was awarded in Washington, D.C. on November 10, making Carlin the first posthumous recipient.^[73] Comedians honoring him at the ceremony included Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Lily Tomlin (a past Twain Humor Prize winner), Lewis Black, Denis Leary, Joan Rivers, and Margaret Cho.

Louis C.K. dedicated his stand-up special Chewed Up to Carlin, and Lewis Black dedicated his entire second season of Root of All Evil to him.

For a number of years, Carlin had been compiling and writing his autobiography, to be released in conjunction with a one-man Broadway show tentatively titled New York City Boy. After his death Tony Hendra, his collaborator on both projects, edited the autobiography for release as Last Words (ISBN 1-4391-7295-1). The book, chronicling most of Carlin's life and future plans (including the one-man show) was published in 2009. The audio edition is narrated by Carlin's brother, Patrick.^[74]

The text of the one-man show is scheduled for publication under the title New York Boy.^[75]

The George Carlin Letters: The Permanent Courtship of Sally Wade,^[76] by Carlin's widow, a collection of previously-unpublished writings and artwork by Carlin interwoven with Wade’s chronicle of the last ten years of their life together, was published in March 2011. (The subtitle is the phrase on a handwritten note Wade found next to her computer upon returning home from the hospital after her husband's death.)^[77]

In 2008 Carlin's daughter Kelly Carlin-McCall announced plans to publish an "oral history", a collection of stories from Carlin's friends and family,^[78] but she later indicated that the project had been shelved in favor of completion of her own memoir.^[79]

Works[link]

Discography[link]

Main

• 1963: Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight
• 1967: Take-Offs and Put-Ons
• 1972: FM & AM
• 1972: Class Clown
• 1973: Occupation: Foole
• 1974: Toledo Window Box
• 1975: An Evening with Wally Londo Featuring Bill Slaszo
• 1977: On the Road
• 1981: A Place for My Stuff
• 1984: Carlin on Campus
• 1986: Playin' with Your Head
• 1988: What Am I Doing in New Jersey?
• 1990: Doin' It Again / Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics
• 1992: Jammin' in New York
• 1996: Back in Town
• 1999: You Are All Diseased
• 2001: Complaints and Grievances
• 2006: Life Is Worth Losing
• 2008: It's Bad for Ya

Compilations

• 1978: Indecent Exposure: Some of the Best of George Carlin
• 1984: The George Carlin Collection
• 1992: Classic Gold
• 1999: The Little David Years (1971-1977)
• 2002: George Carlin on Comedy

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

• The Kraft Summer Music Hall (1966)
• That Girl (Guest appearance) (1966)
• The Ed Sullivan Show (multiple appearances)
• The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (season 3 guest appearance) (1968)
• What's My Line? (Guest Appearance) (1969)
• The Flip Wilson Show (writer, performer) (1971–1973)
• The Mike Douglas Show (Guest) (February 18, 1972)
• Saturday Night Live (Host, episodes 1 and 183) (1975 & 1984)
• Justin Case (as Justin Case) (1988) TV movie directed Blake Edwards
• Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends (as American Narrator: Series 3-4\redubbed Series 1-2) (1991–1995)
• Shining Time Station (as Mr. Conductor) (1991–1993)
• Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales (1996-1997)
• Storytime with Thomas (1998)
• The George Carlin Show (as George O'Grady) (1994-1995) Fox
• Streets of Laredo (as Billy Williams) (1995)
• The Simpsons (as Munchie, episode "D'oh-in in the Wind") (1998)
• Caillou (Caillou's Grandpa) (1998-2008)
• The Daily Show (guest on February 1, 1999; December 16, 1999; and March 10, 2004)
• MADtv (Guest appearance in episodes 518 & 524) (2000)
• Inside the Actors Studio (2004)
• Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales (as Fillmore) (archive footage) (2008)

• In 1998, Carlin had a cameo playing one of the funeral-attending comedians in Jerry Seinfeld's HBO special I'm Telling You For The Last Time. In the funeral intro (the only thing being buried is Jerry Seinfeld's material) Carlin learns that neither friend Robert Klein nor Ed McMahon ever saw Jerry's act. Carlin did, and enjoyed it, but admits "I was full of drugs."

HBO specials[link]

Bibliography[link]

Audiobooks[link]

• Brain Droppings
• Napalm and Silly Putty
• More Napalm & Silly Putty
• George Carlin Reads to You
• When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

Internet hoaxes[link]

Since the birth of spam email on the internet, many chain-forwards, usually rantlike and with blunt statements of belief on political and social issues and attributed to being written (or stated) by George Carlin himself, have made continuous rounds on the junk email circuit. The website Snopes, an online resource that debunks historic and present urban legends and myths, has extensively covered these forgeries. Many of the falsely attributed email attachments have contained material that runs directly opposite to Carlin's viewpoints, with some being especially volatile toward racial groups, gays, women, the homeless, etc. Carlin himself, when he was made aware of each of these bogus emails, would debunk them on his own website, writing: "Nothing you see on the Internet is mine unless it comes from one of my albums, books, HBO specials, or appeared on my website," and that "it bothers me that some people might believe that I would be capable of writing some of this stuff."^{[88][89][90][91][92][93]}

See also[link]

biography portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: George Carlin

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: George Carlin

• Official website
• George Carlin at the Internet Movie Database
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• George Carlin on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about George Carlin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• George Carlin collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• George Carlin at the Rotten Library
• Interview at Archive of American Television