A Rundown of George Carlin’s Stand-Up Comedy Career
Born May 12, 1937, in New York City, George Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor whose career spanned over five decades. Nicknamed the dean of counterculture comedians, he is widely considered to be one of the most influential figures in the history of comedy and was mainly known for his takes on politics, religion, English language, American culture, popular culture, and psychology. His comedy revolved around the genres of observational, black, character, and surreal comedy, as well as sarcasm, wordplay, and irony.
Carlin’s career started in 1959 when he teamed up with radio disc jockey Jack Burns in Texas. Together, they worked on a morning radio show in Fort Worth and relocated to Hollywood, California, the following year.
At Hollywood, they recorded Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight, the only comedy album they made together. Soon, they caught the attention of Lenny Bruce, who at the time had attained legendary status in the comic space. Bruce would go on to help them book appearances on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar. The pair separated in 1961, after two years of working together to pursue their solo careers.
After the split, Carlin continued appearing on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar and later on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and The Merv Griffin Show. He eventually got his big break in stand-up comedy in the early 1960s and began performing for the Las Vegas circuit.
His success as a stand-up comedian was average throughout the 1960s; however, he reinvented himself in the mid-1970s and became more of an unconventional comedian, using more vulgar words and dressing more casually in T-shirts and blue jeans and wearing earrings. In his shows, he explored topical issues ranging from the war in Vietnam to religion, politics, free speech, American and popular culture, and drugs. This new approach saw Carlin become much more successful and elevated his status as a top comedian.
To consolidate his fame, Carlin perfected his controversial “seven dirty words you can never say on television” routine, which sparked nationwide reactions. He was arrested for the first time in 1972 in Milwaukee for violating obscenity laws. However, the judge dismissed the case on the grounds that Carlin’s seven dirty words didn’t cause any disturbance. He recited the words on several other shows resulting in him getting arrested a total of seven times.
In 1978, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision, upheld the power of the government to penalize stations that broadcast obscene content (as well as censor those contents) on public airwaves around the typical time of the day (6 am to 10 pm) that minors may be tuned in. The seven dirty words routine and the resulting arrests significantly spiraled Carlin’s fame.
Throughout his career, Carlin did 14 television specials for HBO, the first airing in 1977 and concluded with Its Bad for Ya in 2008. He also had to his credit 20 comedy albums, the first being the Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight he recorded with Burns.
He received many prominent awards and honors, including the American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2008. Carlin is also ranked second in Comedy Central’s 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of all Time, only behind Richard Pryor. In addition, he won a posthumous grammy award for best comedy in 2009 for his last HBO special, Its Bad for Ya.
After battling heart problems for over three decades, Carlin died of heart failure on June 22, 2008, in Santa Monica, California, a month after his last HBO special. He remains one of the most important figures in the history of comedy, with many prominent comic figures, including Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Maher, Bull Burr, and Stephen Colbert, claiming Carlin as an influence on their careers.
