George Carlin

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. 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 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government's power to regulate indecent material on the public airwaves.

The first of his 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. From the late 1980s, 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. 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. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live. His final HBO special, It's Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

Early life

Carlin was born in Manhattan, the second son of Mary (Beary), a secretary, and Patrick Carlin, a national advertising manager for the New York Sun. Carlin was of Irish descent and was raised a Roman Catholic; he called himself Irish Catholic.

He 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 and his brother, Patrick was five. He attended Corpus Christi School, a Roman Catholic parish school of the Corpus Christi Church, in Morningside Heights. 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. He spent many summers at Camp Notre Dame on Spofford Lake in Spofford, New Hampshire. He regularly won the camp's drama award, and specified that after his death a portion of his ashes be spread at the lake. Carlin had a difficult relationship with his mother and often ran away from home.

Carlin 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.

Career

In 1959, Carlin and Jack Burns began as a comedy team when both were working for radio station KXOL in Fort Worth, Texas. 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

 

Carlin (right) with singer Buddy Greco in Away We Go (1967). The summer replacement show also starred drummer Buddy Rich.

 

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. 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.

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.

 

George Carlin in 1969

 

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. 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 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.

1970s

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. On July 21, 1972 Carlin was arrested after performing this 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 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 for violating regulations that prohibit 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).

“ Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that'll infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war. ”

—George Carlin, Class Clown, "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television"

The controversy increased Carlin's fame. He 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 organized by subject and embracing his "Incomplete List Of Impolite Words".

On stage, during a rendition of his "Dirty Words" routine, 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 exclaimed "Shit!" and proudly announced his win to the audience.

Carlin hosted the premiere broadcast of NBC's Saturday Night Live, on October 11, 1975, the only episode to date in which the host did not appear (at his request) in sketches. The following season, 1976–77, 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 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. His first two HBO specials aired in 1977 and 1978.

1980s and 1990s

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 and again in Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales and Storytime with Thomas. 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. In his final book, the posthumously published Last Words, Carlin said about The George Carlin Show, "I had 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 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 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."

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 the New York Times best-seller list.

In 1999 Carlin played a supporting role as a satirical Roman Catholic cardinal in 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

In 2001 Carlin was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards. In December 2003 Representative Doug Ose (R-California) introduced 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 was referred to the House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution in January 2004, where it was tabled.

Carlin performed regularly as a headliner in Las Vegas, but in 2005 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 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.

An audience member shouted, "Stop degrading us!" Carlin responded, "Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it 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 addictions.

Following his thirteenth HBO Special on November 5, 2005, entitled Life Is Worth Losing and aired live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City — during which he mentioned, "I've got 341 days of sobriety" — Carlin toured his new material through the first half of 2006. Topics included suicide, natural disasters (and the desire to see them escalate in severity), cannibalism, genocide, human sacrifice, threats to civil liberties in America, and the case for his theory that humans are inferior to other animals. At the first tour stop at the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California in February, Carlin mentioned that the appearance was his "first show back" after a six-week hospitalization for heart failure and pneumonia.

Carlin voiced a character in the Disney/Pixar animated feature Cars, which opened on June 9, 2006. The character, Fillmore, is an anti-establishment hippie VW Microbus with a psychedelic paint job and the license plate "51237" — Carlin's birthday. In 2007 Carlin 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 told his audience to cut through the "bullshit" and "enjoy the carnival".

Personal life

In 1961 Carlin married Brenda Hosbrook, whom he met while touring the previous year. The couple's only child, Kelly, was born on June 15, 1963. In 1971 the couple renewed their wedding vows in Las Vegas. Brenda died of liver cancer in 1997, a day before Carlin's 60th birthday. On June 24, 1998 Carlin married Sally Wade in a private, unregistered ceremony. The marriage lasted until he died, two days before their tenth anniversary.

Although raised a Roman Catholic—which Carlin described anecdotally on the albums FM & AM and Class Clown—religion, God, and religious adherents were frequent subjects of criticism in his routines. He described what he saw as the flaws of organized religion in interviews and performances, such as his "Religion" and "There Is No God" routines in You Are All Diseased. In his last HBO stand up show, It's Bad for Ya, he mocked traditional oath affirmations on the Bible as "bullshit", "make believe", and "kid stuff". He described the types of hats that religions ban, or require, as part of their practices, and remarked that he would never want to be a part of a group that requires or bans the wearing of hats. Carlin joked in his second book, Brain Droppings, that he worshipped the Sun (because he could see it), and prayed to Joe Pesci ("because he seems like a guy who could get things done").

Themes

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 conceal or distort the actual meaning 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, among many others. For example, Carlin often criticized elections as an illusion of choice. He said the last time he voted was in 1972, for George McGovern, who ran for President against Richard Nixon.

 

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 performance, 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 (Feb. 9, 1971; 6am), 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.

Health problems, death and legacy

Carlin had a history of cardiac problems spanning several decades. These included 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. In early 2005 he entered a drug rehabilitation facility for treatment of addictions to alcohol and Vicodin. He died on June 22, 2008 at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California of heart failure. He was 71 years old.His death occurred one week after his last performance at The Orleans Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. In accordance with his wishes he was cremated, his ashes scattered, and no public or religious services of any kind were held.

In tribute, HBO broadcast 11 of his 14 HBO specials from June 25–28, including a 12-hour marathon block on their HBO Comedy channel. NBC scheduled a rerun of the premiere 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 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 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 his death the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named Carlin its 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honoree. He became its first posthumous recipient on November 10 in Washington, D.C.. 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. The text of the one-man show is scheduled for publication under the title New York Boy.

The George Carlin Letters: The Permanent Courtship of Sally Wade, 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.

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

Works

Discography 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: 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

• 1968 With Six You Get Eggroll
• 1976 Car Wash 1979 Americathon
• 1987 Outrageous Fortune
• 1989 Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
• 1990 Working Tra$h
• 1991 Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
• 1991 The Prince of Tides
• 1995 "Streets of Loredo"
• 1999 Dogma
• 2001 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• 2003 Scary Movie 3 2004 Jersey Girl
• 2005 Tarzan II
• 2005 The Aristocrats
• 2006 Cars
• 2006 Mater and the Ghostlight
• 2007 Happily N'Ever After Television

Television

• 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)
• Nick at Nite (station IDs) (1987)
• 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/Narrator) (1991–1993)
• Mr. Conductor's Thomas Tales (as Mr. Conductor/Narrator) (1996–1997)
• Storytime with Thomas (as Mr. Conductor/Narrator) (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)
• I'm Telling You For The Last Time
• 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)

Video games

• Cars (2006) (as Fillmore)

HBO specials

• On Location: George Carlin at USC 1977
• George Carlin: Again! 1978
• Carlin at Carnegie 1982
• Carlin on Campus 1984
• Playin' with Your Head 1986
• What Am I Doing in New Jersey? 1988
• Doin' It Again 1990
• Jammin' in New York 1992
• Back in Town 1996
• George Carlin: 40 Years of Comedy 1997
• You Are All Diseased 1999
• Complaints and Grievances 2001
• Life Is Worth Losing 2005
• All My Stuff 2007
• It's Bad for Ya 2008

Audiobooks

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

 

Bibliography

• Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help 1984
• Brain Droppings 1997
• Napalm and Silly Putty 2001
• When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? 2004
• Three Times Carlin: An Orgy of George 2006
• Watch My Language 2009
• Last Words 2009

Internet hoaxes

Many writings found on the internet have been falsely attributed to Carlin, including various joke lists, rants, and other pieces. The web site Snopes, an online resource that debunks urban legends and myths, has addressed these forgeries. Many of them contain material that runs counter to Carlin's viewpoints; some are especially volatile toward racial groups, gays, women, the homeless, and other targets. Carlin was aware of these bogus emails and debunked them on his own web site, saying, "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 web site", and "It bothers me that some people might believe that I would be capable of writing some of this stuff."