Re the 7 dirty words: Should be only 5. "Piss" has made it into the regular broadcast lexicon (i.e. "pissed off," "pissed away.") "Motherfucker" is redundant because it already contains "fuck," one of the original 7. But Carlin made you think, didn't he? Yeah, he did. Which puts him a step over Murphy and Pryor.
I was thinking Mike Barnicle, but yours works, too. Carlin is great and funny. He and Kurt Vonnegut seemed about the two most depressed and cynical people on the planet in recent years, though Carlin seems to get angrier. Hopes it's just his schtick.
I've always liked him; saw him live in the "Class Clown" days ("Tits, meet Toots. Toots, Tits.") But I have to say his most recent special, the one on death, was one I didn't get a single laugh out of. Not because it was tasteless or I disagreed with anything, it just didn't bring the funny. OTOH, there's nothing wrong with losing a bit off the fastball as you approach 70 years old.
Sadly, I don't think it is. Carlin got meaner and darker right about the time his wife died. Family and pets were a big part of his act, but I don't remember him ever talking seriously about him. But I've heard others talk about what she meant to him and I don't think Carlin is the same without her. I'm sure just getting older is a factor as well. I hope I'm wrong and he isn't nearly as sad as he seems. The guy can still be pretty damn funny, but so much of his act has become negative and harsh that I just don't laugh like I did at his old material. My wife and I have always been huge Carlin fans. We actually watched a video of "Carlin at Carnegie" together the week we met. It was one of the first bits of common ground we found between us. And Football_Bat, I see where you are coming from, but you have to remember how long ago he came up with the list of seven dirty words. I first heard them in the early '80s, at the end of "Carlin at Carnegie" when it originally aired on HBO. I'm pretty sure the list had already been a part of his act for a while by then. the ideas of what is profanity have changed. And as far as the use of both fuck and motherfucker....um, it's called humor.
It's not rude and crude like today's stuff, most of which is funny as hell, but don't dismiss his early stuff. "Al Sleet, your hippy-dippy weatherman with all the hippy-dippy weather, man" was a frickin' riot.
