Washington, D.C., June 23, 2008—Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute mourns the loss of one of America’s greatest comedic talents, George Carlin. Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, remarked that Carlin was part of stand-up’s holy trinity, to be revered alongside Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce.

This amount of adulation is absolutely deserved. Carlin made 23 comedy albums, won four Grammy awards, produced 14 HBO specials, and was nominated for five Emmys.

The Kennedy Center announced five days ago that Carlin was to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, making him not only one of the greatest of a generation, but of all time. He was truly one of America’s great talents.

Like Bruce and Pryor, Carlin’s controversial material invoked the ire of authorities who sought to make examples of the comedian for violating obscenity laws. In 1972, Carlin was arrested in Milwaukee for performing his “seven words [1]” routine, which describes at length the words that are banned on television and radio.

In a fantastic case of legal irony, Carlin’s “seven words” routine was eventually broadcast over the air, resulting in a landmark Supreme Court case. In 1978, the Court ruled 5-4 in the case of FCC v. Pacifica Foundation—or the “Carlin case” as it now commonly called—that the Federal Communications Commission had the right to regulate the airwaves to prevent children from hearing profanities—striking a huge blow against free speech.

But the Court was sharply split on this decision. Justice Brennan’s railed against the majority in his decent proclaiming:

As surprising as it may be to individual Members of this Court, some parents may actually find Mr. Carlin's unabashed attitude towards the seven “dirty words” healthy [ . . . ] Such parents may constitute a minority of the American public, but the absence of great numbers willing to exercise the right to raise their children in this fashion does not alter the right's nature or its existence. Only the Court's regrettable decision does that.

Both Justice Brennan and Carlin himself recognized that the bit was about more than filthy words; it was a reflection on language, obsessions with certain words, and our society’s sometimes unhealthy attitudes on free speech and censorship. Carlin taught us that “[There are] no bad words—bad thoughts, bad intentions...and words."

CEI is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy group dedicated to the principles of free enterprise and limited government. For more information about CEI, please visit our website at www.cei.org [2].