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108-593: The National Comedy Center is an American museum dedicated to comedy . Located in Lucille Ball ’s hometown of Jamestown, New York , the museum opened in August 2018 and reported 66,000 visitors in its first year of operation. The museum had been operating since 1996 as the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Museum , which is now located a few blocks away. The National Comedy Center documents the history of comedy and

216-576: A Catholic family, Carlin was outspoken in his rejection of religion in all forms, frequently criticizing and mocking it in his comedy routines. When asked if he believed in God, he responded, "No. No, there's no God—but there might be some sort of an organizing intelligence, and I think to understand it is way beyond our ability." Carlin had a history of heart problems spanning three decades, which included heart attacks in 1978, 1982, and 1991. He also had an arrhythmia requiring an ablation procedure in 2003,

324-733: A Netflix stand-up special released in May 2022, The Hall: Honoring the Greats of Stand-Up inducted Carlin into the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York . Many online quotes have been falsely attributed to Carlin, including various joke lists, rants, and other pieces. The website Snopes , which debunks urban legends and myths, has addressed these hoaxes. Many of them contain material that runs counter to Carlin's viewpoints; some are especially volatile toward racial groups, gay people, women,

432-770: A general discharge on July 29, 1957. During his time in the Air Force, he was court-martialed three times and received many nonjudicial punishments and reprimands. In 1959, Carlin met Jack Burns , a fellow DJ at radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas . They formed a comedy team and after successful performances at Fort Worth's beat coffeehouse called The Cellar, Burns and Carlin headed for California in February 1960. Within weeks of arriving in California, Burns and Carlin put together an audition tape and created The Wright Brothers ,

540-446: A 2008 interview, Carlin stated that using cannabis , LSD , and mescaline had helped him cope with events in his personal life. He also stated several times that he had battled addictions to alcohol, cocaine, and Vicodin , and spent some time in a rehab facility in late 2004. During the taping of his stand-up special Life Is Worth Losing on November 5, 2005, he mentioned that he had been sober for 341 days. Although born into

648-655: A beard and earrings, and typically dressed in T-shirts and blue jeans. He lost some TV bookings by dressing strangely for a comedian at a time when clean-cut, well-dressed comedians were the norm. He hired talent managers Jeff Wald and Ron De Blasio to help him change his image, making him look more " hip " for a younger audience. Wald put Carlin into much smaller clubs such as The Troubadour in West Hollywood and The Bitter End in New York City, and later said that Carlin's income

756-443: A bill (H.R. 3687) to outlaw the broadcast of Carlin's "seven dirty words", 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 omitted "tits", but included "asshole", which was not one of Carlin's original seven words. The bill

864-596: A difficult relationship and he often ran away from home. He grew up on West 121st Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, which he and his friends called "White Harlem " because it "sounded a lot tougher than its real name". He attended Corpus Christi School, a Catholic parish school of the Corpus Christi Church in Morningside Heights. One of Carlin's closest childhood friends

972-417: A film actor 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, he 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,

1080-574: A frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show , initially with Jack Paar as host, and 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. 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. Carlin

1188-613: A great time. I never laughed so much, so often, so hard as I did with cast members Alex Rocco , Chris Rich , Tony Starke . There was a very strange, very good sense of humor on that stage ... [but] I was incredibly happy when the show was canceled. I was frustrated that it had taken me away from my true work." Carlin was honored at the 1997 Aspen Comedy Festival with a retrospective, George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy , hosted by Jon Stewart . His first hardcover book, Brain Droppings (1997), sold nearly 900,000 copies and spent 40 weeks on

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1296-490: A marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain — a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons ." In early 19th century England, pantomime acquired its present form which includes slapstick comedy and featured the first mainstream clown Joseph Grimaldi , while comedy routines also featured heavily in British music hall theatre which became popular in

1404-694: A memorial marathon of Carlin recordings on the day after his death. Sirius XM Satellite Radio has since devoted an entire channel to Carlin, entitled Carlin's Corner , featuring all of his comedy albums, live concerts, and works from his private archives. Larry King devoted his entire show on June 23 to a Carlin tribute, featuring interviews with Jerry Seinfeld , Bill Maher , Roseanne Barr and Lewis Black , as well as Carlin's brother Patrick Jr. and daughter Kelly. On June 24, The New York Times printed an op-ed piece on Carlin by Jerry Seinfeld. Cartoonist Garry Trudeau paid tribute in his Doonesbury comic strip on July 27. Four days before Carlin's death,

1512-699: A morning show on KDAY in Hollywood. During their tenure at KDAY, they honed their material in beatnik coffeehouses at night. 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. Burns and Carlin recorded their only album, Burns and Carlin at the Playboy Club Tonight , in May 1960 at Cosmo Alley in Hollywood. After two years as

1620-565: A piece of paper. He then exclaimed "shit!" and proudly announced his win to the audience. Over his career, Carlin was arrested seven times for reciting the "Seven Dirty Words" routine. Carlin hosted the premiere broadcast of NBC 's Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975. Per his request, he did not appear in its sketches. The following season, 1976–1977, he 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

1728-480: A radio host. Carlin and Hosbrook renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas in 1971. Their marriage was often marred by his cocaine use and her alcoholism, the latter of which worsened when Carlin's mother came to stay with them and would secretly pour Hosbrook drinks while speaking negatively about Carlin. When Hosbrook was hospitalized due to her drinking, she told Carlin that she would not return home if his mother

1836-473: A result, much of their art was intentionally amusing. A famous example is Marcel Duchamp 's Fountain (1917), an inverted urinal signed "R. Mutt". This became one of the most famous and influential pieces of art in history, and one of the earliest examples of the found object movement. It is also a joke, relying on the inversion of the item's function as expressed by its title as well as its incongruous presence in an art exhibition. The advent of cinema in

1944-411: A significant episode of heart failure in 2005, and two angioplasties on undisclosed dates. In the 2022 documentary George Carlin's American Dream , Jerry Hamza—Carlin's manager from 1980 until his death—said that Carlin underwent many heart surgeries in a short period towards the end of his life. Jeff Abraham, Carlin's publicist, said that he once lifted his shirt after coming to a gig straight from

2052-535: A subversion of audience's expectations, so that amusement is founded on unpredictability , separate from a logical analysis of the situation. The humour derived gets its appeal from the ridiculousness and unlikeliness of the situation. The genre has roots in Surrealism in the arts. Surreal humour is the effect of illogic and absurdity being used for humorous effect. Under such premises, people can identify precursors and early examples of surreal humour at least since

2160-464: A sympathetic character. Aristotle divides comedy into three categories or subgenres: farce , romantic comedy , and satire . On the other hand, Plato taught that comedy is a destruction to the self. He believed that it produces an emotion that overrides rational self-control and learning. In The Republic , he says that the guardians of the state should avoid laughter, "for ordinarily when one abandons himself to violent laughter, his condition provokes

2268-570: A team, they parted to pursue individual careers, but "remain[ed] the best of friends". In the 1960s, Carlin began appearing on television variety shows, where he played various characters, including a Native American sergeant, a stupid radio disc jockey, and a hippie weatherman. Variations on these routines appear on Carlin's 1967 debut album, Take-Offs and Put-Ons , which was recorded live in 1966 at The Roostertail in Detroit, Michigan and issued by RCA Victor in 1967. During this period, Carlin became

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2376-460: A violent reaction." Plato says comedy should be tightly controlled if one wants to achieve the ideal state. Also in Poetics , Aristotle defined comedy as one of the original four genres of literature . The other three genres are tragedy , epic poetry , and lyric poetry . Literature, in general, is defined by Aristotle as a mimesis , or imitation of life. Comedy is the third form of literature, being

2484-445: A ‘humor profile’ created on entry and stored on an RFID wristband called a ‘Laugh Band’. Content is then presented according to individual tastes, from broad slapstick to edgy satire . Along with educational games and competitions, guests can also create their own comedic content with interactive activities like performing stand-up, recreating iconic funny faces, and creating their own comic strip. The entertainment industry supports

2592-454: Is characterized by a form of humor that includes darker aspects of human behavior or human nature. Similarly scatological humor , sexual humor, and race humor create comedy by violating social conventions or taboos in comic ways, which can often be taken as offensive by the subjects of the joke. A comedy of manners typically takes as its subject a particular part of society (usually upper-class society) and uses humor to parody or satirize

2700-737: Is not only a genius, he is the man who originated slapstick comedy. We in Hollywood owe much to him." American vaudeville emerged in the 1880s and remained popular until the 1930s, and featured comedians such as W. C. Fields , Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers . Surreal humour (also known as 'absurdist humour'), or 'surreal comedy', is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical . Constructions of surreal humour tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, incongruity, non-sequiturs , irrational or absurd situations and expressions of nonsense . The humour arises from

2808-425: Is otherwise a serious commentary on the state of foreign relations serves to frame the segment comically, creating a serious tone underlying the comedic agenda presented by Stewart. Comedy may be divided into multiple genres based on the source of humor, the method of delivery, and the context in which it is delivered. The different forms of comedy often overlap, and most comedy can fit into multiple genres. Some of

2916-511: The Carlin at Carnegie TV special, which was filmed at Carnegie Hall and aired during the 1982–83 season. Carlin continued doing HBO specials every year or two over the following decade and a half. All of Carlin's albums from this time forward are from the HBO specials. He hosted SNL for the second time on November 10, 1984, this time appearing in several sketches. Carlin began to achieve prominence as

3024-595: The New York Times best-seller list. Carlin later explained that there were other, more pragmatic reasons for abandoning his acting career in favor of standup. In an interview for Esquire magazine in 2001, he said, "Because of my abuse of drugs, I neglected my business affairs and had large arrears with the IRS, and that took me eighteen to twenty years to dig out of. I did it honorably, and I don't begrudge them. I don't hate paying taxes, and I'm not angry at anyone, because I

3132-671: The Australian comedian Paul Hogan , famous for Crocodile Dundee . Other centres of creative comic activity have been the cinema of Hong Kong , Bollywood , and French farce . American television has also been an influential force in world comedy: with American series like M*A*S*H , Seinfeld and The Simpsons achieving large followings around the world. British television comedy also remains influential, with quintessential works including Fawlty Towers , Monty Python , Dad's Army , Blackadder , and The Office . Australian satirist Barry Humphries , whose comic creations include

3240-1214: The Betty White estate, and Lily Tomlin . Entertainment companies have provided items from their archives, including Desilu Too , NBC Universal , Paramount Pictures , and Warner Brothers . Through a partnership with the Elkhorn Valley Museum in Norfolk, Nebraska , the center shares management of the Johnny Carson archive. Additionally, the center's advisory board includes members of the comedy industry, including Carl Reiner (2018-2020), Lewis Black , Paula Poundstone , W. Kamau Bell , George Schlatter , Laraine Newman , Jim Gaffigan , Pete Docter , Kelly Carlin , George Shapiro (succeeded by Amy Poehler after Shapiro's death), Rain Pryor , Paul Feig , Kitty Bruce, Robert Klein , David Steinberg , Violet Ramis Stiel, Mark Russell , Alan Zweibel , Robin Zweibel, Paul Provenza , Joan Dangerfield, Jeff Abraham , and Stephen J. Morrison. In June 2019,

3348-620: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts had named him its 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoree. He became its first posthumous recipient on November 10, 2008. Comedians honoring him at the ceremony included Jon Stewart , Bill Maher , Lily Tomlin (a past winner of the prize), Lewis Black , Denis Leary , Joan Rivers , and Margaret Cho . Louis C.K. dedicated his stand-up special Chewed Up to Carlin, while Lewis Black dedicated

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3456-541: The Middle Ages , the term expanded to include narrative poems with happy endings. It is in this sense that Dante used the term in the title of his poem, La Commedia . As time progressed, the word came more and more to be associated with any sort of performance intended to cause laughter. During the Middle Ages, the term "comedy" became synonymous with satire , and later with humour in general. Aristotle's Poetics

3564-509: The Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan was renamed "George Carlin Way". Moneyball screenwriter Stan Chervin announced in October 2018 that a biopic of Carlin was being written. George Carlin's American Dream , a documentary about Carlin's life, was released on HBO Max on May 20, 2022. It was directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio, and produced by Carlin's daughter Kelly. In

3672-571: The Three Stooges , Abbott and Costello , Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis , Bob Hope and Phyllis Diller during the mid-20th century, to performers like George Carlin , Bill Cosby , Joan Rivers , Robin Williams , and Eddie Murphy toward the end of the century. Hollywood attracted many international talents like the British comics Peter Sellers , Dudley Moore and Sacha Baron Cohen , Canadian comics Dan Aykroyd , Jim Carrey , and Mike Myers , and

3780-567: The "Best New Attraction" in the country, ranking #2 out of 20 new attractions and being chosen as the #1 museum and #1 ticketed attraction. In September 2018, Condé Nast Trav e ler called the National Comedy Center "one of the best museums in the country." The National Comedy Center has collaborated with dozens of artists and estates to preserve materials that represent comedy's significant artistic, social, and political contributions to American culture, including collections illustrating

3888-502: The "Carlin Warning" to remind performers of the words they could not say during a live performance. Upon Carlin's death in 2008, HBO broadcast 11 of his 14 HBO specials from June 25 to 28, including a 12-hour marathon block on their HBO Comedy channel. NBC scheduled a rerun of the first episode of Saturday Night Live , which Carlin hosted. Both Sirius Satellite Radio 's "Raw Dog Comedy" and XM Satellite Radio 's "XM Comedy" channels ran

3996-457: The "art of reprehension", and made no reference to light and cheerful events, or to the troubling beginnings and happy endings associated with classical Greek comedy. After the Latin translations of the 12th century , the term "comedy" gained a more general meaning in medieval literature . In the late 20th century, many scholars preferred to use the term laughter to refer to the whole gamut of

4104-568: The 1850s. British comedians who honed their skills in music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin , Stan Laurel and Dan Leno . English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno developed a form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the comedians who worked for his company. Karno was a pioneer of slapstick , and in his biography, Laurel stated, "Fred Karno didn't teach Charlie [Chaplin] and me all we know about comedy. He just taught us most of it". Film producer Hal Roach stated: "Fred Karno

4212-511: The 19th century, such as Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass , which both use illogic and absurdity ( hookah -smoking caterpillars , croquet matches using live flamingos as mallets, etc.) for humorous effect. Many of Edward Lear 's children stories and poems contain nonsense and are basically surreal in approach. For example, The Story of

4320-539: The American dubs of Thomas & Friends . Carlin was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2008. He placed second on Comedy Central 's list of top 10 American comedians in 2004, while Rolling Stone magazine ranked him second on its list of the 50 best stand-up comedians of all time in 2017, in both cases behind Richard Pryor and ahead of Lenny Bruce . George Denis Patrick Carlin

4428-476: 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. The controversy increased Carlin's fame. He eventually expanded the "dirty words" theme with a seemingly interminable end to a performance, finishing with his voice fading out in one HBO version and accompanying

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4536-553: The Four Little Children Who Went Round the World (1871) is filled with contradictory statements and odd images intended to provoke amusement, such as the following: After a time they saw some land at a distance; and when they came to it, they found it was an island made of water quite surrounded by earth. Besides that, it was bordered by evanescent isthmuses with a great Gulf-stream running about all over it, so that it

4644-489: The National Comedy Center was named one of the "100 Reasons to Love America" by People magazine. In August 2019, the National Comedy Center was named one of the "World's Greatest Places"—one of "100 new and newly noteworthy destinations to experience right now" and one of only nine attractions to visit in the United States—by TIME magazine. In January 2019, the National Comedy Center was named by USA Today 10Best as

4752-861: The National Comedy Center with donations of materials related to famous people in comedy. Individual donors include Dan Aykroyd , the Shelley Berman estate, the Smothers Brothers , The Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation, Carol Burnett , Kelly Carlin and the George Carlin estate, the Andy Kaufman Memorial Trust, the Harpo Marx Family, the Harold Ramis Family, Carl Reiner , the Garry Shandling Estate, Jerry Seinfeld ,

4860-659: The Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella . The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in 1662. Punch and Judy are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy — often provoking shocked laughter — and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. Appearing at a significant period in British history, professor Glyn Edwards states: "[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun-starved after years of Puritanism . We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from

4968-417: The aims. "Comedy", in its Elizabethan usage, had a very different meaning from modern comedy. A Shakespearean comedy is one that has a happy ending, usually involving marriages between the unmarried characters, and a tone and style that is more light-hearted than Shakespeare's other plays. The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte . The figure of Punch derives from

5076-588: The artists, producers, writers, cartoonists, and other notable figures who have influenced its development in the United States (US). It was designated as the US' official cultural institution and museum dedicated to comedy by the United States Congress on February 26, 2019. The museum includes more than 50 immersive experiences through comedy history, from early vaudeville acts to viral memes . Visitors have

5184-563: The behavior and mannerisms of its members. Romantic comedy is a popular genre that depicts burgeoning romance in humorous terms and focuses on the foibles of those who are falling in love. Dean Rubin says the word "comedy" is derived from the Classical Greek κωμῳδία kōmōidía , which is a compound of κῶμος kômos (revel) and ᾠδή ōidḗ (singing; ode). The adjective "comic" (Greek κωμικός kōmikós), which strictly means that which relates to comedy is, in modern usage, generally confined to

5292-511: The camp's drama award; upon his death, some of his ashes were scattered at Spofford Lake per his request. Carlin joined the U.S. Air Force and trained as a radar technician. He was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana , and began working as a DJ at radio station KJOE in nearby Shreveport in July 1956. Labeled an "unproductive airman" by his superiors, he received

5400-722: The careers of artists like George Carlin , Lucille Ball , Lenny Bruce , The Smothers Brothers and more. Within the Comedy Center's museum galleries, more than 50 interactive exhibits and immersive experiences present the history of the art form from its origins to the present day, using archival documents, artifacts, and media as their core. Its educational programming on the art form has featured Tiffany Haddish , George Lopez , Margaret Cho , Norman Lear , Rain Pryor (daughter of Richard Pryor ), Jay Leno , Kenan Thompson , Gabriel Iglesias , Jimmy Fallon , Lin-Manuel Miranda , "Weird Al" Yankovic , and many more. In April 2020,

5508-539: The case for his theory that humans are inferior to other animals. At the first tour stop in February at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California , he mentioned that the appearance was his "first show back" after a six-week hospitalization for heart failure and pneumonia . In the 2006 Pixar animated film Cars , Carlin voiced Fillmore, an anti-establishment hippie VW Microbus with a psychedelic paint job and

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5616-413: The center launched the "National Comedy Center Anywhere" online platform featuring content directly from its interactive comedy exhibits, including exclusive interviews and online programs with comedians, directors, writers, producers, and creators in the comedic craft. In March 2021, the museum's archives were renamed "The National Comedy Center’s Carl Reiner Department of Archives and Preservation." It

5724-462: The charitable attitude towards people that is required for purposes of persuasion and co-operation, but at the same time maintains our shrewdness concerning the simplicities of 'cashing in. ' " The purpose of the comic frame is to satirize a given circumstance and promote change by doing so. The comic frame makes fun of situations and people, while simultaneously provoking thought. The comic frame does not aim to vilify in its analysis, but rather, rebuke

5832-776: The circus clown also continued, with such as Bozo the Clown in the United States and Oleg Popov in Russia. Radio provided new possibilities — with Britain producing the influential surreal humour of the Goon Show after the Second World War. The Goons' influence spread to the American radio and recording troupe the Firesign Theatre . American cinema has produced a great number of globally renowned comedy artists, from Laurel and Hardy ,

5940-483: The civilization of a country ... I take to be the flourishing of the Comic idea and Comedy, and the test of true Comedy is that it shall awaken thoughtful laughter." Laughter is said to be the cure for being sick. Studies show that people who laugh more often get sick less. American literary theorist Kenneth Burke writes that the "comic frame" in rhetoric is "neither wholly euphemistic, nor wholly debunking—hence it provides

6048-486: The comic, in order to avoid the use of ambiguous and problematically defined genres such as the grotesque , irony , and satire . Starting from 425 BCE, Aristophanes , a comic play and satirical author of the Ancient Greek Theater , wrote 40 comedies, 11 of which survive. Aristophanes developed his type of comedy from the earlier satyr plays , which were often highly obscene . The only surviving examples of

6156-414: The credits in the Carlin at Carnegie special for the 1982–83 season, and a set of 49 web pages organized by subject and embracing his "Incomplete List of Impolite Words". On stage, during a rendition of this routine, Carlin learned that his previous comedy album FM & AM had won a Grammy. Midway through the performance on the album Occupation: Foole , he can be heard thanking someone for handing him

6264-578: The current evidency to incorporate all instances of the comic in the analysis, while the classification in genres and fields such as grotesque, humour and even irony or satire always poses problems. The terms humour and laughter are therefore pragmatically used in recent historiography to cover the entire spectrum. That Comedy sprang up and took shape in connection with Dionysiac or Phallic ritual has never been doubted. George Carlin George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008)

6372-460: The heavy seven. Those are the ones that'll infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war." On July 21, 1972, Carlin was arrested after performing the routine at Milwaukee 's Summerfest and charged with violating obscenity laws. The case, which prompted Carlin to refer to the words for a time as the "Milwaukee Seven", was dismissed in December when the judge declared that

6480-469: The homeless, and other targets. Carlin was aware of this and debunked the quotes by writing on his website, "Here's a rule of thumb, folks: nothing you see on the Internet is mine unless it comes from one of my albums, books, HBO specials, or appeared on my website. [...] It bothers me that some people might believe that I would be capable of writing some of this stuff." In 2011, "Weird Al" Yankovic referenced

6588-506: The hospital after his death. In 2008, Carlin's daughter Kelly announced plans to publish an "oral history", a collection of stories from Carlin's friends and family. She later indicated that the project had been shelved in favor of completion of her own project, an autobiographical one-woman show called A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George . On October 22, 2014, a portion of Carlin's childhood West 121st Street in

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6696-680: The hospital, to show Abraham his torso, prompting Abraham to remark that it looked like a science project. On June 22, 2008, at the age of 71, Carlin died of a heart attack at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California . His death occurred one week after his final performance at The Orleans Hotel and Casino . Per his wishes, his body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in front of various New York City nightclubs and over Spofford Lake in New Hampshire , where he had attended summer camp as an adolescent. His will stated that there

6804-418: The housewife and "gigastar" Dame Edna Everage , for his delivery of Dadaist and absurdist humour to millions, was described by biographer Anne Pender in 2010 as not only "the most significant theatrical figure of our time ... [but] the most significant comedian to emerge since Charlie Chaplin ". By 200 BC, in ancient Sanskrit drama , Bharata Muni 's Natya Shastra defined humour ( hāsyam ) as one of

6912-495: The language was indecent but that Carlin had the freedom to say it as long as he caused no disturbance. In 1973, a man complained to the FCC after listening with his son to a similar routine, "Filthy Words" from Carlin's Occupation: Foole , which was broadcast one afternoon over radio station WBAI . Pacifica received a citation from the FCC for violating regulations that prohibit broadcasting "obscene" material. The Supreme Court upheld

7020-413: The late 19th century, and later radio and television in the 20th century broadened the access of comedians to the general public. Charlie Chaplin , through silent film, became one of the best-known faces on Earth. The silent tradition lived on well into the late 20th century through mime artists like Marcel Marceau , and the slapstick comedy of artists like Rowan Atkinson (as Mr. Bean ). The tradition of

7128-806: The latter half of his career because he "never gave up on the Danny Kaye dream". Comedians who have claimed Carlin as an influence include Adam Ferrara , Bill Burr , Chris Rock , Jerry Seinfeld , Louis C.K. , Lewis Black , Jon Stewart , Stephen Colbert , Bill Maher , Liz Miele, Patrice O'Neal , Colin Quinn , Steven Wright , Mitch Hedberg , Russell Peters , Bo Burnham , Jay Leno , Ben Stiller , Kevin Smith , Chris Rush , Rob McElhenney , and Jim Jefferies . After Carlin's seven dirty words routine and subsequent FCC v. Pacifica Foundation Supreme Court ruling in 1978, broadcasters started to use

7236-652: The license plate "51237" (Carlin's birthday in m/dd/yy format ). In 2007, he voiced the wizard in Happily N'Ever After , 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 . Themes included "American bullshit", rights, death, old age, and child rearing. He repeated the theme to his audience several times throughout

7344-400: The most divorced from a true mimesis. Tragedy is the truest mimesis, followed by epic poetry, comedy, and lyric poetry. The genre of comedy is defined by a certain pattern according to Aristotle's definition. Comedies begin with low or base characters seeking insignificant aims and end with some accomplishment of the aims which either lightens the initial baseness or reveals the insignificance of

7452-487: 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 did 14 specials, including 2008's It's Bad for Ya . He later revealed that he had suffered the first of three heart attacks during this layoff period. His first two HBO specials aired in 1977 and 1978. In 1981, Carlin returned to the stage, releasing A Place for My Stuff and returning to HBO and New York City with

7560-441: The nine nava rasas , or principle rasas (emotional responses), which can be inspired in the audience by bhavas , the imitations of emotions that the actors perform. Each rasa was associated with a specific bhavas portrayed on stage. In the case of humour, it was associated with mirth ( hasya ). The phenomena connected with laughter and that which provokes it have been carefully investigated by psychologists. They agree

7668-470: The one-man show, was published in 2009. The abridged audio edition is narrated by Carlin's brother Patrick Jr. In March 2011, Carlin's widow Sally Wade published The George Carlin Letters: The Permanent Courtship of Sally Wade , a collection of previously unpublished writings and artwork by Carlin interwoven with Wade's chronicle of their decade together. The subtitle is a phrase on a handwritten note that Wade found next to her computer upon returning home from

7776-418: The origins of comedy are obscure because it was not treated seriously from its inception. However, comedy had its own Muse : Thalia . Aristotle taught that comedy was generally positive for society, since it brings forth happiness, which for Aristotle was the ideal state, the final goal in any activity. For Aristotle, a comedy did not need to involve sexual humor. A comedy is about the fortunate rise of

7884-497: The predominant characteristics are incongruity or contrast in the object and shock or emotional seizure on the part of the subject. It has also been held that the feeling of superiority is an essential factor: thus Thomas Hobbes speaks of laughter as a "sudden glory". Modern investigators have paid much attention to the origin both of laughter and of smiling, as well as the development of the "play instinct" and its emotional expression. George Meredith said that "One excellent test of

7992-456: The producers put a stuffed teddy bear in the booth. In 1993, Carlin began a weekly Fox sitcom, The George Carlin Show , 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. In his final book, the posthumously published Last Words , Carlin said about The George Carlin Show , "I had

8100-472: The real people are". He continued: "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." When an audience member shouted, "Stop degrading us!" Carlin responded, "Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it

8208-497: The role of Mr. Conductor on the PBS show Shining Time Station , and also narrated the first four seasons of the United States, Canada, and New Zealand version of the children's television series Thomas & Friends from 1991 to 1996, replacing Ringo Starr on both programs. According to Britt Allcroft , who developed both shows, on the first day of the assignment, Carlin was nervous about recording his narration without an audience, so

8316-428: The same role. Self-deprecation is a technique of comedy used by many comedians who focus on their misfortunes and foibles in order to entertain. Stand-up comedy is a mode of comic performance in which the performer addresses the audience directly, usually speaking in their own person rather than as a dramatic character . The deliberate use by Menard of the term 'le rire' rather than 'l'humour' reflects accurately

8424-441: The satyr plays are by Euripides , which are much later examples and not representative of the genre. In ancient Greece, comedy originated in bawdy and ribald songs or recitations apropos of phallic processions and fertility festivals or gatherings. Around 335 BCE, Aristotle , in his work Poetics , stated that comedy originated in phallic processions and the light treatment of the otherwise base and ugly. He also adds that

8532-417: The 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 Boy . After his death, his collaborator on both projects Tony Hendra edited the autobiography for release as Last Words . The book, chronicling most of Carlin's life and future plans including

8640-449: The sense of "laughter-provoking". Of this, the word came into modern usage through the Latin comoedia and Italian commedia and has, over time, passed through various shades of meaning. The Greeks and Romans confined their use of the word "comedy" to descriptions of stage-plays with happy endings. Aristotle defined comedy as an imitation of men worse than the average (where tragedy

8748-754: The show: "It's all bullshit, and it's bad for ya". When asked on Inside the Actors Studio what turned him on, he responded, "Reading about language". When asked what made him proudest of his career, he cited the fact that his books had sold close to 1 million copies. In August 1960, while touring with comedy partner Jack Burns in Dayton, Ohio , Carlin stopped at a roadside diner, where he met waitress Brenda Hosbrook. They began dating and were married at her parents' home in Dayton on June 3, 1961. Their only child, daughter Kelly Marie Carlin (born June 15, 1963), later became

8856-659: The stupidity and foolery of those involved in the circumstances. For example, on The Daily Show , Jon Stewart uses the "comic frame" to intervene in political arguments, often offering crude humor in sudden contrast to serious news. In a segment on President Obama 's trip to China, Stewart remarks on America's debt to the Chinese government while also having a weak relationship with the country. After depicting this dismal situation, Stewart shifts to speak directly to President Obama, calling upon him to "shine that turd up." For Stewart and his audience, introducing coarse language into what

8964-524: The subgenres of comedy are farce , comedy of manners , burlesque , and satire . Some comedy apes certain cultural forms: for instance, parody and satire often imitate the conventions of the genre they are parodying or satirizing. For example, in the United States, parodies of newspapers and television news include The Onion , and The Colbert Report ; in Australia, shows such as Kath & Kim , Utopia , and Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell perform

9072-444: The three-decade Johnny Carson era and notably hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. The first of Carlin's 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977, broadcast as George Carlin at USC . From the late 1980s onwards, his routines focused on sociocultural criticism of American society. He often commented on American political issues and satirized American culture . His " seven dirty words " routine

9180-493: The time-traveling mentor of the title characters in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure , and reprised his role in the film sequel Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991) as well as the first season of the cartoon series . In 1991, Carlin had a major supporting role in the film The Prince of Tides , which starred Nick Nolte and Barbra Streisand , portraying the gay neighbor of the main character's suicidal sister. Carlin played

9288-463: The works of William Shakespeare by hand for fun. Carlin's parents separated when he was two months old due to the alcoholism of his father, who Carlin said was "never around". His mother raised him and his brother on her own. When Carlin was eight years old, his father died. Carlin said that he picked up an appreciation for the effective use of the English language from his mother, though they had

9396-879: Was Randy Jurgensen , who would later go on to become one of the most decorated homicide detectives in NYPD history. His mother owned a television, which was a new technology few people owned at the time, and Carlin became an avid fan of the pioneering late-night talk show Broadway Open House during its short run. He went to the Bronx for high school, but was expelled from Cardinal Hayes High School after three semesters at age 15. He briefly attended Bishop Dubois High School in Harlem and Salesian High School in Goshen . He spent many summers at Camp Notre Dame in Spofford, New Hampshire , where he regularly won

9504-471: Was Carlin's label mate on Little David Records, and Rankin served many times as Carlin's musical guest or opening act during the early 1970s. The two flew together in Carlin's private jet; Carlin says that Rankin relapsed into using cocaine while on tour since Carlin had so much of the drug available. FM & AM proved very popular, and marked Carlin's change from mainstream to counterculture comedy. The "AM" side

9612-479: Was a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 's Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2008. Carlin's influences included Danny Kaye , Jonathan Winters , Lenny Bruce , Richard Pryor , Nichols and May , Jerry Lewis , the Marx Brothers , Mort Sahl , Spike Jones , Ernie Kovacs , and the Ritz Brothers . His daughter Kelly said in 2022 that he took more acting roles in

9720-409: Was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author. Regarded as one of the most important and influential comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of counterculture comedians". He was known for his dark comedy and reflections on politics, the English language, psychology, religion and taboo subjects. Carlin was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during

9828-436: Was an Irish immigrant from Cloghan, County Donegal . In his posthumously published autobiography Last Words , he wrote about a fantasy of Ireland he would often have when his first wife Brenda was alive: "The southeastern parts so that it would be a little warmer, and the two of us there, close enough to Dublin that you could go buy things you needed." Carlin's maternal grandfather was an NYPD police officer who wrote out

9936-615: Was an extension of Carlin's previous style, with zany but relatively clean routines parodying aspects of American life. The "FM" side introduced Carlin's new style, with references to marijuana and birth control pills, and a playful examination of the word "shit". In this manner, Carlin renewed a style of radical social commentary comedy that Lenny Bruce had pioneered in the late 1950s. In this period, Carlin perfected his well-known " seven dirty words " routine, which most notably appears on Class Clown as follows: "'Shit', 'piss', 'fuck', 'cunt', 'cocksucker', 'motherfucker', and 'tits'. Those are

10044-455: Was an imitation of men better than the average). However, the characters portrayed in comedies were not worse than average in every way, only insofar as they are Ridiculous, which is a species of the Ugly. The Ridiculous may be defined as a mistake or deformity not productive of pain or harm to others; the mask, for instance, that excites laughter is something ugly and distorted without causing pain. In

10152-555: Was born at New York Hospital (now Weill Cornell Medical Center ) in the Manhattan borough of New York City on May 12, 1937, the son of Mary (née Bearey; 1896–1984) and Patrick John Carlin (1888–1945). He had an older brother named Patrick Jr. (1931–2022), who had a major influence on his comedy and was sometimes directly involved. Carlin described himself as "fully Irish" as his mother was born in New York to Irish immigrants and his father

10260-483: Was busy managing the fast-paced career of Freddie Prinze and was about to sign Richard Pryor , so he released Carlin to Little David general manager Jack Lewis, who, like Carlin, was somewhat wild and rebellious. 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. Starting in 1972, singer-songwriter Kenny Rankin

10368-518: Was central to the 1978 United States Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation , in which a 5–4 decision affirmed the government's power to censor indecent material on public airwaves. Carlin released his first solo album, Take-Offs and Put-Ons , in 1966. He went on to receive five Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album , winning for FM & AM (1972), Jammin' in New York (1992), Brain Droppings (2001), Napalm & Silly Putty (2002), and It's Bad for Ya (2008). The latter

10476-423: Was complicit in it. But I'll tell you what it did for me: it made me a way better comedian. Because I had to stay out on the road and I couldn't pursue that movie career, which would have gone nowhere, and I became a really good comic and a really good writer." In 2001, Carlin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards . In December 2003, Representative Doug Ose introduced

10584-434: Was hesitant to act on his feelings so soon after being widowed. He told her that he needed to be alone, potentially for up to a year, before feeling ready to date again. They then had no contact with each other and she assumed he had moved on, but he called her eight months later to ask her out on a date. They wed in a private and unregistered ceremony on June 24, 1998, and remained married until Carlin's death in 2008. In

10692-877: Was his final comedy special, which was filmed less than four months before his death from cardiac failure. Carlin co-created and starred in the Fox sitcom The George Carlin Show (1994–1995). He is also known for his film performances in Car Wash (1976), Outrageous Fortune (1987), Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), The Prince of Tides (1991), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Scary Movie 3 (2003), and Jersey Girl (2004). He also had voice roles as Zugor in Tarzan II , Fillmore in Cars (2006), and as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station , as well as narrating

10800-441: Was perfectly beautiful, and contained only a single tree, 503 feet high. In the early 20th century, several avant-garde movements, including the dadaists , surrealists , and futurists , began to argue for an art that was random, jarring and illogical. The goals of these movements were in some sense serious, and they were committed to undermining the solemnity and self-satisfaction of the contemporary artistic establishment . As

10908-548: Was positive; if not, well, blow me." He was immediately fired, and soon thereafter his representative announced that he would begin treatment for alcohol and prescription painkiller addiction on his own initiative. Following his 13th HBO special on November 5, 2005, Life Is Worth Losing , Carlin toured his new material through the first half of 2006. Topics included suicide, natural disasters , cannibalism , genocide , human sacrifice , threats to civil liberties in America, and

11016-621: Was present at Lenny Bruce 's arrest for obscenity at the Gate of Horn club in Chicago, Illinois on December 5, 1962. As the police began detaining members of the audience for questioning, they asked Carlin for his identification. After responding that he did not believe in government-issued IDs, Carlin was arrested and taken to jail with Bruce in the same vehicle. In the late 1960s, Carlin was making about $ 250,000 annually. Over time, Carlin changed his routines and his appearance; he grew his hair long, sported

11124-736: Was referred to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution in January 2004, where it was tabled. Carlin performed regularly as a headliner in Las Vegas , but in 2004 his run at the MGM Grand Las Vegas was terminated after an altercation with his audience. After a poorly received set, filled with dark references to suicide bombings and beheadings, Carlin complained that he could not wait to get out of "this fucking hotel" and Las Vegas; he wanted to go back east, he said, "where

11232-617: Was simultaneously announced that this would be the official repository of Carl Reiner 's archives. Reiner was an early supporter of the center. Comedy Satire and political satire use comedy to portray people or social institutions as ridiculous or corrupt, thus alienating their audience from the object of their humor. Parody subverts popular genres and forms, critiquing those forms without necessarily condemning them. Other forms of comedy include screwball comedy , which derives its humor largely from bizarre, surprising (and improbable) situations or characters, and black comedy , which

11340-503: Was still there; he immediately went home, booked his mother on a flight back to New York, and took her to the airport. The couple soon addressed their addiction issues, with the marriage improving so much that Kelly later said it felt like it had been rebooted. Hosbrook died of liver cancer on May 11, 1997, the day before Carlin's 60th birthday. Carlin met comedy writer Sally Wade six months after his first wife's death and described it as "love at first sight", but admitted to her that he

11448-491: Was thus reduced by 90% but his later career arc was greatly improved. In 1970, record producer Monte Kay formed the Little David Records subsidiary of Atlantic Records, with comedian Flip Wilson as co-owner. Kay and Wilson signed Carlin away from RCA Records and recorded a Carlin performance at Washington, D.C.'s Cellar Door in May 1971, which was released as the album FM & AM in January 1972. De Blasio

11556-458: Was to be no funeral, religious or otherwise and that he wished only for his widow and daughter to host a small gathering at his home for loved ones to share their fun stories of him. Along with numerous other accolades , Carlin won five Grammy Awards and was nominated for six Primetime Emmy Awards and two Daytime Emmy Awards . He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1980 and

11664-409: Was translated into Arabic in the medieval Islamic world , where it was elaborated upon by Arabic writers and Islamic philosophers , such as Abu Bishr , and his pupils Al-Farabi , Avicenna , and Averroes . They disassociated comedy from Greek dramatic representation and instead identified it with Arabic poetic themes and forms, such as hija (satirical poetry). They viewed comedy as simply

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