WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.439 OK, so we are looking at a stack of sources today 00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:04.919 that if you didn't know better, you'd swear describes 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:08.859 two completely different men. I mean, it's just 00:00:08.859 --> 00:00:10.900 wild. On one side of the desk, we have the biography 00:00:10.900 --> 00:00:14.300 of like a clean cut suit wearing variety comic. 00:00:14.419 --> 00:00:17.339 The Ed Sullivan guy. Exactly. The guy who eventually 00:00:17.339 --> 00:00:20.420 becomes the gentle, soothing narrator of children's 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:23.579 shows about talking trains. And then on the other 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:26.359 side of the desk, you've got the FBI files. You 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:29.620 have the. Legal briefs for a counterculture icon 00:00:29.620 --> 00:00:33.460 who was arrested multiple times for obscenity, 00:00:33.579 --> 00:00:36.020 battled the FCC all the way to the Supreme Court, 00:00:36.100 --> 00:00:38.600 and then spent his final years on stage telling 00:00:38.600 --> 00:00:41.140 his audience pretty bluntly that the human race 00:00:41.140 --> 00:00:43.740 was basically a failed experiment. But the mission 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.179 today isn't just to look at the comedy of George 00:00:46.179 --> 00:00:49.359 Carlin. It's to trace the connective tissue between 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:52.020 those two guys. Because looking at the archives, 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:54.960 it wasn't a sudden switch. No, not at all. It 00:00:54.960 --> 00:00:57.600 wasn't like he woke up one day in 1970 and decided 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.899 to just burn all his suits. It was a slow, painful, 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:04.099 and honestly, a legally complex evolution. It 00:01:04.099 --> 00:01:06.200 really is the ultimate evolution of an artist 00:01:06.200 --> 00:01:08.739 when you dig into it. We're talking about a man 00:01:08.739 --> 00:01:12.859 whose career arc moves from the unproductive 00:01:12.859 --> 00:01:15.760 airman, and that's an actual military designation 00:01:15.760 --> 00:01:18.140 he received. Which is incredible. All the way 00:01:18.140 --> 00:01:20.659 to being the first posthumous recipient of the 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:23.420 Mark Twain Prize for American humor. And what 00:01:23.420 --> 00:01:25.519 stands out to me in these notes is that central 00:01:25.519 --> 00:01:29.040 tension. I mean, he was the man whose seven dirty 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:33.540 words routine literally defined. Indecency for 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:35.519 the federal government. Literally wrote the rule 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:37.680 book. Yet for a huge chunk of the population, 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:41.540 specifically millennials like me, he's Mr. Conductor 00:01:41.540 --> 00:01:43.739 on Shining Time Station. That juxtaposition is 00:01:43.739 --> 00:01:45.700 the whole key. Yeah. But if we only look at the 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:48.239 polls, the dirty words versus, you know, Thomas 00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:51.250 the Tank Engine. We miss the struggle in the 00:01:51.250 --> 00:01:53.349 middle. Right. The sources we have today, the 00:01:53.349 --> 00:01:55.650 court transcripts, his personal letters, even 00:01:55.650 --> 00:01:58.209 his military discharge papers, they paint a picture 00:01:58.209 --> 00:02:00.510 of someone who was consistently rebelling, even 00:02:00.510 --> 00:02:02.590 when he was trying to play by the rules. So let's 00:02:02.590 --> 00:02:04.810 get into that origin story. Because usually when 00:02:04.810 --> 00:02:06.890 we talk about a rebel, we picture someone from 00:02:06.890 --> 00:02:10.090 the fringes of society. But George Dooney Patrick 00:02:10.090 --> 00:02:13.289 Carlin was born right in Manhattan, May 12th, 00:02:13.289 --> 00:02:17.340 1937. Not the fringes at all. No, he grew up 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:19.280 in Morningside Heights. Right, but if you look 00:02:19.280 --> 00:02:21.280 at his own writings about that time, he didn't 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:24.020 call it Morningside Heights. He and his friends, 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:27.479 they dubbed the neighborhood White Harlem. Which 00:02:27.479 --> 00:02:29.560 is just such a telling detail, right? It's all 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:31.840 about his self -mythology. Totally. Morningside 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:34.439 Heights is right near Columbia University. It's 00:02:34.439 --> 00:02:37.939 respectable. White Harlem sounds gritty. It sounds 00:02:37.939 --> 00:02:41.889 tough. Exactly. He was cultivating a street tough 00:02:41.889 --> 00:02:45.030 persona from the time he was a preteen. He wanted 00:02:45.030 --> 00:02:46.969 to project this image that he wasn't just some 00:02:46.969 --> 00:02:49.590 polished kid from a nice Catholic family, even 00:02:49.590 --> 00:02:52.449 though, you know, structurally, that's sort of 00:02:52.449 --> 00:02:54.569 what he was. Well, the family dynamic was definitely 00:02:54.569 --> 00:02:57.189 complicated. His father, Patrick, was an Irish 00:02:57.189 --> 00:02:59.830 immigrant and an alcoholic who, well, he left 00:02:59.830 --> 00:03:01.569 the picture almost immediately. Yeah, George 00:03:01.569 --> 00:03:04.610 was only two months old. Two months old. And 00:03:04.610 --> 00:03:06.469 then Patrick died when George was just eight. 00:03:07.129 --> 00:03:09.229 So he's raised entirely by his mother, Mary. 00:03:09.389 --> 00:03:11.949 And Mary is such a fascinating character in this 00:03:11.949 --> 00:03:15.229 story. The relationship was incredibly fraught. 00:03:15.289 --> 00:03:17.310 I mean, George ran away from home constantly 00:03:17.310 --> 00:03:19.509 to get away from her. Constantly. But he also 00:03:19.509 --> 00:03:22.250 credited her entirely for his linguistic gifts. 00:03:22.449 --> 00:03:24.610 She was the one who taught him to appreciate 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:27.090 the rhythm and the precision of the English language. 00:03:27.409 --> 00:03:30.189 It's that classic Irish storytelling tradition, 00:03:30.389 --> 00:03:33.009 isn't it? The love of the gift of gab. But there's 00:03:33.009 --> 00:03:34.689 another genetic component here that I hadn't 00:03:34.689 --> 00:03:37.169 realized until I really dug into the deeper biography. 00:03:37.669 --> 00:03:41.370 His maternal grandfather was an NYPD officer. 00:03:41.650 --> 00:03:44.360 A cop. Which you'd normally associate with rules 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.979 and order. You would. But this cop used to transcribe 00:03:47.979 --> 00:03:50.860 the works of Shakespeare by hand. Get out. Just 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:52.759 for the sheer pleasure of writing out the words. 00:03:52.939 --> 00:03:55.340 Okay. That is such a critical link. I mean, think 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:57.900 about it. You have law enforcement. the ultimate 00:03:57.900 --> 00:04:00.680 authority figure, combined with a deep, almost 00:04:00.680 --> 00:04:03.580 obsessive reverence for language. If you fast 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:06.199 forward 40 years, what is George Carlin doing? 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:09.060 He's battling law enforcement using language 00:04:09.060 --> 00:04:12.099 as his weapon. It's almost like his entire career 00:04:12.099 --> 00:04:14.900 was pre -written in his DNA. It really was. He 00:04:14.900 --> 00:04:17.199 was fighting the cop side of his heritage with 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:19.790 the Shakespeare side. And that rebellion started 00:04:19.790 --> 00:04:22.689 way, way before the comedy clubs. I mean, just 00:04:22.689 --> 00:04:24.910 look at his education. Expelled from Cardinal 00:04:24.910 --> 00:04:28.410 Hayes High School at 15. Three semesters. That's 00:04:28.410 --> 00:04:30.050 all he lasted. And you have to remember, this 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:33.050 is the 1950s. Getting expelled from a Catholic 00:04:33.050 --> 00:04:35.790 high school wasn't just a bad grade situation. 00:04:35.850 --> 00:04:38.660 Oh, no. That was a moral failing. It was a huge 00:04:38.660 --> 00:04:41.079 deal. He bounced around other schools, but the 00:04:41.079 --> 00:04:44.120 die was cast. He was already rejecting dogma, 00:04:44.139 --> 00:04:46.480 rejecting authority. Although there is this one 00:04:46.480 --> 00:04:49.800 little soft spot in his early years. Camp Notre 00:04:49.800 --> 00:04:52.470 Dame in New Hampshire. Yes. Amidst all the running 00:04:52.470 --> 00:04:54.350 away and the expulsions, he actually thrived 00:04:54.350 --> 00:04:56.509 there. He won drama awards. It was one of the 00:04:56.509 --> 00:04:58.930 few places he felt validated for his talents 00:04:58.930 --> 00:05:00.870 instead of being punished for his behavior. And 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:03.410 it clearly meant something deep to him. Oh, absolutely. 00:05:03.589 --> 00:05:06.329 He requested that some of his ashes be scattered 00:05:06.329 --> 00:05:08.829 at Spofford Lake where the camp was, which, you 00:05:08.829 --> 00:05:11.610 know, it suggests that deep down he really held 00:05:11.610 --> 00:05:13.990 on to that little piece of innocence. But before 00:05:13.990 --> 00:05:16.389 he could become the comedian we all know, he 00:05:16.389 --> 00:05:19.350 had to go through that standard 1950s young male 00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:22.470 rite of passage. The military. And this is where 00:05:22.470 --> 00:05:25.350 we get the unproductive airman title. It's honestly 00:05:25.350 --> 00:05:27.269 my favorite part of his resume. It's just perfect. 00:05:27.470 --> 00:05:30.790 It's amazing. He joins the Air Force, trains 00:05:30.790 --> 00:05:33.310 as a radar technician, and gets stationed in 00:05:33.310 --> 00:05:36.269 Louisiana. On paper, he should have been a squared 00:05:36.269 --> 00:05:38.689 -away soldier. In reality, he was a complete 00:05:38.689 --> 00:05:41.449 disaster. The list of infractions is genuinely 00:05:41.449 --> 00:05:43.810 hilarious. He was court -martialed three times. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:47.019 In three years. Three times. Most people get 00:05:47.019 --> 00:05:49.319 kicked out after the first one. He was sleeping 00:05:49.319 --> 00:05:52.000 on duty, shirking responsibilities, just generally 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.319 making a mockery of the entire chain of command. 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:55.879 But while he's doing that, at the same time, 00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:58.839 he's moonlighting. He starts working as a DJ 00:05:58.839 --> 00:06:01.720 at a local radio station, KJOE in Shreveport. 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:05.040 Right. So while he's failing spectacularly as 00:06:05.040 --> 00:06:07.720 a soldier, he's discovering the microphone. He's 00:06:07.720 --> 00:06:11.000 finding his voice. And that split focus is eventually 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:14.620 what got him out. In 1957, The Air Force gives 00:06:14.620 --> 00:06:17.300 him a general discharge. The official label they 00:06:17.300 --> 00:06:20.019 slapped on his file was unproductive airman. 00:06:20.120 --> 00:06:23.180 And that word is so important. They didn't say 00:06:23.180 --> 00:06:25.579 he was incompetent. They said he was unproductive. 00:06:25.660 --> 00:06:28.579 He refused to produce what they wanted. Which 00:06:28.579 --> 00:06:31.300 was conformity. Exactly. It's amazing that the 00:06:31.300 --> 00:06:33.680 military just kind of gave up on him. But those 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:35.399 discharge papers might as well have been his 00:06:35.399 --> 00:06:38.939 diploma. He takes that radio experience and pretty 00:06:38.939 --> 00:06:41.680 soon after, he teams up with Jack Burns. They 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.819 form a duo. The Wright brothers. And this brings 00:06:44.819 --> 00:06:47.439 us to what I always call the tale of two Georges. 00:06:47.779 --> 00:06:50.279 Because you go on YouTube and pull up clips from, 00:06:50.319 --> 00:06:54.300 say, 1960 to about 1968. The guy you see is. 00:06:54.379 --> 00:06:56.779 Yeah. He's unrecognizable. He looks like an accountant 00:06:56.779 --> 00:07:00.100 or an IBM salesman. Totally. Short hair, skinny 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:02.680 tie, a well -tailored suit. And the material 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:04.970 completely matches the suit. He and Burns were 00:07:04.970 --> 00:07:06.790 successful. They were on The Tonight Show with 00:07:06.790 --> 00:07:08.550 Jack Pair. They played the Playboy Club. When 00:07:08.550 --> 00:07:10.689 he went solo, he was a regular on The Ed Sullivan 00:07:10.689 --> 00:07:13.350 Show. And you just don't get more establishment 00:07:13.350 --> 00:07:16.550 than Ed Sullivan in the 1960s. You don't. I was 00:07:16.550 --> 00:07:18.230 watching some of those old bits like the hippie 00:07:18.230 --> 00:07:20.670 weatherman character, Al Sleet. Hippie dippy 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:23.230 weatherman. Yeah. And it's funny, but it's very, 00:07:23.290 --> 00:07:25.889 very safe. It's poking fun at the counterculture, 00:07:26.029 --> 00:07:28.470 but from a comfortable distance. It's a kind 00:07:28.470 --> 00:07:29.990 of comedy your parents could watch without getting 00:07:29.990 --> 00:07:32.589 offended. That was the entire point. And it was 00:07:32.589 --> 00:07:35.649 working for him. He was making a reported $250 00:07:35.649 --> 00:07:38.990 ,000 a year by the late 60s. Which, adjusted 00:07:38.990 --> 00:07:41.449 for inflation, is just massive money. He was 00:07:41.449 --> 00:07:44.709 comfortable. He was a star. But internally, you 00:07:44.709 --> 00:07:46.569 can see from his writings, he felt like a fraud. 00:07:46.829 --> 00:07:48.990 The notes mention the Lenny Bruce connection 00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:53.470 here as a major catalyst. And this story is legendary. 00:07:53.889 --> 00:07:56.550 It's the moment the torch was passed, in a way. 00:07:56.649 --> 00:08:00.189 So it's 1962, Chicago. Lenny Bruce is the godfather 00:08:00.189 --> 00:08:02.740 of modern standup. He's the one actually taking 00:08:02.740 --> 00:08:05.519 risks, actually talking about society in a raw 00:08:05.519 --> 00:08:08.060 way. Right. He gets arrested for obscenity during 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:10.540 a show. And George Carlin is in the audience. 00:08:10.779 --> 00:08:12.579 Just watching the show. And the cops start checking 00:08:12.579 --> 00:08:14.399 everyone's IDs, right? Right. They're trying 00:08:14.399 --> 00:08:16.839 to round up witnesses, whatever. And George, 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:19.959 even in his clean cut suit and tie phase, he 00:08:19.959 --> 00:08:23.120 can't help himself. He refuses to show his ID. 00:08:23.220 --> 00:08:25.120 He tells the police he doesn't believe in government 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:27.180 issued identification. Which is such a purely 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:29.060 Carlin move. He just talks himself right into 00:08:29.060 --> 00:08:31.329 an arrest. Exactly. He wasn't performing. He 00:08:31.329 --> 00:08:33.950 wasn't part of the act. He was just a bystander. 00:08:34.049 --> 00:08:36.289 But he ends up in the back of the paddy wagon 00:08:36.289 --> 00:08:39.409 right next to Lenny Bruce. And Lenny asks him, 00:08:39.490 --> 00:08:42.629 so what are you in for? And George says, I didn't 00:08:42.629 --> 00:08:45.570 show my ID. Wow. It's this incredible moment 00:08:45.570 --> 00:08:49.389 of solidarity. He saw firsthand that words and 00:08:49.389 --> 00:08:52.090 even just attitude could get you locked up. But 00:08:52.090 --> 00:08:54.080 the real transformation. to what we're calling 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.120 the great pivot that happens around 69, 1970. 00:08:57.779 --> 00:09:00.320 I mean, the country is on fire. Vietnam, civil 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:02.639 rights, the assassinations. And George looks 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:04.600 in the mirror and sees a guy in a suit telling 00:09:04.600 --> 00:09:06.679 safe jokes. And he just couldn't do it anymore. 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:08.740 He said he felt irrelevant. He used the phrase, 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:10.720 I was entertaining the enemy, meaning the people 00:09:10.720 --> 00:09:12.639 who supported the war, the people who hated the 00:09:12.639 --> 00:09:14.500 youth culture he was starting to identify with. 00:09:15.870 --> 00:09:18.669 He changed. And we are not talking about a subtle 00:09:18.669 --> 00:09:21.090 shift here. This was a complete reinvention. 00:09:21.269 --> 00:09:24.190 He grew the beard, grew the hair long, put on 00:09:24.190 --> 00:09:26.090 the jeans and T -shirts. And the industry punished 00:09:26.090 --> 00:09:28.210 him for it immediately. Oh, it's financial suicide. 00:09:28.690 --> 00:09:32.669 That $250 ,000 a year income, the sources say 00:09:32.669 --> 00:09:36.870 it dropped by 90%. 90%. I mean, just try to imagine 00:09:36.870 --> 00:09:40.480 that. Taking a 90 % pay cut. Voluntarily. It's 00:09:40.480 --> 00:09:42.779 staggering. He was kicked out of the Copacabana. 00:09:42.860 --> 00:09:45.100 He was fired from the big casino gigs in Vegas. 00:09:45.340 --> 00:09:47.460 The establishment didn't want this long -haired 00:09:47.460 --> 00:09:49.860 weirdo. And the hippies didn't trust him yet 00:09:49.860 --> 00:09:51.600 because they still remembered him from the Ed 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.379 Sullivan show. He was completely in no man's 00:09:54.379 --> 00:09:56.740 land. This is where his management team, Jeff 00:09:56.740 --> 00:09:59.700 Wald and Ron de Blasio, really earned their keep. 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:02.179 They saw that the college circuit was exploding. 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:05.320 Right. They were smart. They pushed him into 00:10:05.320 --> 00:10:07.840 the coffee houses, the little folk clubs like... 00:10:08.009 --> 00:10:10.490 The Troubadour in L .A. and The Bitter End in 00:10:10.490 --> 00:10:12.789 New York. They realized that if he wanted to 00:10:12.789 --> 00:10:14.429 talk about the counterculture, he had to go to 00:10:14.429 --> 00:10:16.809 where the counterculture actually lived. And 00:10:16.809 --> 00:10:20.429 that huge bet paid off with the 1972 album FM 00:10:20.429 --> 00:10:23.509 and AM. The title itself is the perfect metaphor 00:10:23.509 --> 00:10:26.350 for what he was doing. It is. The AM side was 00:10:26.350 --> 00:10:28.690 his old stuff. The zany characters, the safe, 00:10:28.750 --> 00:10:31.820 broadcast -friendly jokes. The FM side. That 00:10:31.820 --> 00:10:33.559 was the New George. That's the underground stuff. 00:10:33.720 --> 00:10:35.559 Yeah, he was talking about drugs, birth control, 00:10:35.799 --> 00:10:38.279 the Vietnam War, and crucially, the language 00:10:38.279 --> 00:10:41.059 we use. It won a Grammy. It was this huge validation 00:10:41.059 --> 00:10:43.440 that the audience was ready for the New George. 00:10:44.139 --> 00:10:48.019 But on that FM side was the seed of his biggest, 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:51.139 most defining legal battle. We have to talk about 00:10:51.139 --> 00:10:54.139 those seven dirty words. Heavy seven. This routine 00:10:54.139 --> 00:10:57.120 is the absolute fulcrum of his career. And it's 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.120 so important to clarify, he wasn't just standing 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.419 on stage shouting profanities for shock value. 00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:03.659 No, it was a linguistic seminar. It was a bit 00:11:03.659 --> 00:11:05.440 about the words. He was breaking down why these 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:07.960 specific sounds were forbidden. Shit, piss, fuck, 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:10.220 cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. He 00:11:10.220 --> 00:11:12.139 argued that these words have no inherent evil. 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:14.139 They're just sounds. He had that great line. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:17.500 There are no bad words, bad thoughts, bad intentions, 00:11:17.639 --> 00:11:20.440 but no bad words. But the Milwaukee Police Department 00:11:20.440 --> 00:11:25.600 disagreed. Strongly. In July 1972, he was at 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:27.899 an outdoor festival called Summerfest in Milwaukee. 00:11:28.299 --> 00:11:30.820 He performs the routine, he comes off stage, 00:11:31.059 --> 00:11:33.100 and the cops are waiting for him. And this leads 00:11:33.100 --> 00:11:35.779 to the first major legal distinction we need 00:11:35.779 --> 00:11:38.519 to make. He was charged with violating obscenity 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:42.190 laws. But the judge threw the case out. Right. 00:11:42.269 --> 00:11:44.649 And this is crucial for what comes later. The 00:11:44.649 --> 00:11:47.049 judge in Milwaukee ruled that the language was 00:11:47.049 --> 00:11:50.129 indecent, but not obscene. And because he didn't 00:11:50.129 --> 00:11:52.169 cause a riot, you know, nobody fainted, nobody 00:11:52.169 --> 00:11:54.250 started a fight. He was free to say it. It was 00:11:54.250 --> 00:11:56.649 actually a big victory for free speech. But then 00:11:56.649 --> 00:11:59.509 comes the big one. FCC v. Pacifica Foundation. 00:12:00.250 --> 00:12:02.950 This is the case that ends up in every law school 00:12:02.950 --> 00:12:05.429 textbook in America. And it all started because 00:12:05.429 --> 00:12:08.350 of one single complaint. One guy. A single complaint. 00:12:08.730 --> 00:12:11.649 A man in New York was driving with his 15 -year 00:12:11.649 --> 00:12:13.549 -old son in the car in the middle of the afternoon. 00:12:13.750 --> 00:12:17.330 He had the radio tuned to WBAI, which is a Pacifica 00:12:17.330 --> 00:12:19.450 station. A listener -supported station known 00:12:19.450 --> 00:12:21.909 for being progressive. Exactly. And they played 00:12:21.909 --> 00:12:24.610 a recording of Carlin's routine, now titled Filthy 00:12:24.610 --> 00:12:27.309 Words, from another album. The father hears it, 00:12:27.330 --> 00:12:29.950 gets upset, and writes a letter to the FCC. He 00:12:29.950 --> 00:12:33.070 writes a letter saying, essentially, my son shouldn't 00:12:33.070 --> 00:12:35.429 have to hear this on the public airwaves. And 00:12:35.429 --> 00:12:37.730 the FCC, which was under a lot of political pressure 00:12:37.730 --> 00:12:40.750 at the time, decided to make an example of Pacifica. 00:12:40.830 --> 00:12:43.870 They issued a censure, basically a formal reprimand. 00:12:44.250 --> 00:12:47.690 Pacifica sued and it just kept getting appealed 00:12:47.690 --> 00:12:50.649 all the way to the Supreme Court in 1978. Now, 00:12:50.710 --> 00:12:52.470 this is where we have to get a little technical 00:12:52.470 --> 00:12:56.409 because people often get indecency and obscenity 00:12:56.409 --> 00:12:59.340 mixed up. They're not. The same thing legally. 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:02.460 Not at all. Obscenity under the Miller test has 00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:04.639 zero First Amendment protection. If something 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.879 is legally obscene, you can be jailed for it. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:09.639 But the Supreme Court had already defined obscenity 00:13:09.639 --> 00:13:11.580 as something that, among other things, lacks 00:13:11.580 --> 00:13:14.679 serious literary, artistic, political or scientific 00:13:14.679 --> 00:13:17.539 value. And Carlin's routine clearly had artistic 00:13:17.539 --> 00:13:19.820 and political value. It was satire. Right. So 00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:21.960 the court couldn't call it obscene. So they hardened 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:24.500 this other category in decency. And how do they 00:13:24.500 --> 00:13:27.509 define that? It was a very close ruling, 5 to 00:13:27.509 --> 00:13:31.129 4, a razor -thin margin. The court ruled that 00:13:31.129 --> 00:13:33.470 the government has a compelling interest in protecting 00:13:33.470 --> 00:13:36.029 children from patently offensive material on 00:13:36.029 --> 00:13:38.590 the public airwaves, which are uniquely pervasive. 00:13:38.929 --> 00:13:42.269 They use this famous nuisance rationale. Justice 00:13:42.269 --> 00:13:44.730 Stevens wrote that the words were like a pig 00:13:44.730 --> 00:13:47.450 in the parlor. A pig in the parlor. Yeah. A pig 00:13:47.450 --> 00:13:49.850 is fine in the barnyard, but it becomes a nuisance 00:13:49.850 --> 00:13:52.629 in the parlor where it doesn't belong. So the 00:13:52.629 --> 00:13:54.889 radio waves are the parlor and George Carlin's 00:13:54.889 --> 00:13:57.419 words are the pig. So the government can regulate 00:13:57.419 --> 00:14:00.700 the pig in the parlor. Exactly. This ruling established 00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:03.220 the safe harbor hours. It's the reason why you 00:14:03.220 --> 00:14:05.659 can't say those seven words on broadcast TV or 00:14:05.659 --> 00:14:09.840 radio between 6 .00 a .m. and 10 .00 p .m. George 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.100 Carlin is personally responsible for the bleep 00:14:12.100 --> 00:14:14.669 button. The irony is just delicious. The man 00:14:14.669 --> 00:14:16.889 who wanted to liberate language ended up being 00:14:16.889 --> 00:14:18.649 the reason the government built a cage around 00:14:18.649 --> 00:14:21.629 it for most of the day. And he knew it. He wore 00:14:21.629 --> 00:14:23.710 it as a badge of honor. I mean, he was arrested 00:14:23.710 --> 00:14:26.669 seven times in total for performing that routine 00:14:26.669 --> 00:14:29.350 in different cities. He became the poster boy 00:14:29.350 --> 00:14:31.450 for the First Amendment, even if the Supreme 00:14:31.450 --> 00:14:33.929 Court ultimately ruled against him on that specific 00:14:33.929 --> 00:14:37.169 broadcast issue. And yet, while he's being arrested 00:14:37.169 --> 00:14:39.570 and sued and becoming this counterculture hero, 00:14:39.789 --> 00:14:43.409 he's also hosting the very first episode of Saturday 00:14:43.409 --> 00:14:46.720 Night Live. Night Live in 1975. Which just cemented 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:48.639 him as the voice of that generation. Although, 00:14:48.679 --> 00:14:50.720 interestingly, there's a great story in the archives 00:14:50.720 --> 00:14:53.259 that he refused to be in the sketches. Right. 00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.139 He told Lorne Michaels, I'm a stand up. I don't 00:14:56.139 --> 00:14:58.340 do sketches. So he did three separate stand up 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:00.700 monologues that night. He was reportedly high 00:15:00.700 --> 00:15:03.059 on cocaine for the entire week of rehearsals, 00:15:03.059 --> 00:15:05.179 but he absolutely delivered. So by the end of 00:15:05.179 --> 00:15:08.220 the 70s, he's a legend. But the 80s and 90s get 00:15:08.220 --> 00:15:10.500 weird. We enter what the sources call the middle 00:15:10.500 --> 00:15:13.340 years, where his career just fragments in the 00:15:13.340 --> 00:15:16.100 most unexpected ways. This is where that Carlin 00:15:16.100 --> 00:15:18.100 paradox we mentioned in the intro really just 00:15:18.100 --> 00:15:21.200 explodes. Because on one hand, he's still the 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:24.899 edgy counterculture comic putting out HBO specials. 00:15:24.919 --> 00:15:27.320 But on the other hand, he starts taking these 00:15:27.320 --> 00:15:30.419 acting roles that introduce him to completely 00:15:30.419 --> 00:15:34.000 new mainstream audiences. The first big one being 00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.000 Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Rufus. For 00:15:37.000 --> 00:15:39.639 millions of kids my age, he wasn't the seven 00:15:39.639 --> 00:15:43.200 dirty words guy. He was the cool, time -traveling 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:45.759 mentor from the future who helped save the world. 00:15:45.879 --> 00:15:48.759 It completely softened his image. But the real 00:15:48.759 --> 00:15:50.700 head -scratcher, the one that I think still confuses 00:15:50.700 --> 00:15:54.649 people, is Thomas and Friends. 1991. The producers 00:15:54.649 --> 00:15:56.690 are looking for an American narrator for the 00:15:56.690 --> 00:15:59.250 show. Ringo Starr had done the British version, 00:15:59.350 --> 00:16:01.269 so they needed someone with a really distinct 00:16:01.269 --> 00:16:03.490 voice, someone who could be a great storyteller. 00:16:03.610 --> 00:16:05.590 And they picked George Carlin. They picked George 00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:08.309 Carlin. The man who fought the Supreme Court 00:16:08.309 --> 00:16:10.470 for the right to say cocksucker on the radio 00:16:10.470 --> 00:16:14.029 is now the voice of a talking tank engine. It's 00:16:14.029 --> 00:16:17.009 the ultimate subversion. It is. But here's the 00:16:17.009 --> 00:16:20.829 thing. He took it incredibly seriously. Britt 00:16:20.829 --> 00:16:23.309 Allcroft, the producer, told the story about 00:16:23.309 --> 00:16:25.789 how nervous George was in the beginning. He was 00:16:25.789 --> 00:16:28.429 so used to having a live audience, that feedback 00:16:28.429 --> 00:16:30.669 loop of laughter. He needed the energy from the 00:16:30.669 --> 00:16:33.350 crowd. Exactly. Being alone in a vocal booth, 00:16:33.450 --> 00:16:35.809 just reading a script about trains, it terrified 00:16:35.809 --> 00:16:37.870 him. He didn't know if it was working. So they 00:16:37.870 --> 00:16:39.769 had to improvise a solution for him. They did. 00:16:39.990 --> 00:16:42.230 They put a teddy bear in the booth with him. 00:16:42.289 --> 00:16:44.669 He had to deliver all the lines to the teddy 00:16:44.669 --> 00:16:47.250 bear as if it were a child. That image is just 00:16:47.250 --> 00:16:51.259 incredible. bearded, cynical, anti -establishment 00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:55.480 icon, alone in a soundproof room, reading gently 00:16:55.480 --> 00:16:58.100 to a teddy bear. It speaks to his range, but 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.340 it also speaks to his ambition. We have to remember, 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:03.019 George's original dream wasn't to be a stand 00:17:03.019 --> 00:17:05.000 -up comedian. No, he wanted to be an actor. He 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:07.240 wanted to be Danny Kaye. He wanted to be a comedic 00:17:07.240 --> 00:17:09.460 actor. He always thought of himself as an actor 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:11.440 who just sort of fell into stand -up by accident. 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:14.019 He did try the traditional acting route with 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:18.220 the sitcom, The George Carlin Show. in 1994 on 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:22.099 Fox. Which he absolutely hated. He famously trashed 00:17:22.099 --> 00:17:24.819 the experience later. He said he liked the cast, 00:17:25.059 --> 00:17:27.319 but he hated the committee nature of network 00:17:27.319 --> 00:17:30.119 television. He hated the notes, the lack of control. 00:17:30.259 --> 00:17:32.500 He felt like a cog in a machine. That experience 00:17:32.500 --> 00:17:35.099 seemed to push him back to the stage. It did. 00:17:35.359 --> 00:17:38.019 He realized that his true freedom was on the 00:17:38.019 --> 00:17:41.200 stage, alone with a microphone. No notes, no 00:17:41.200 --> 00:17:43.819 censors, no committee. But we can't talk about 00:17:43.819 --> 00:17:45.720 this period without addressing the elephant in 00:17:45.720 --> 00:17:48.339 the room, which was his health. Underneath all 00:17:48.339 --> 00:17:50.440 the acting gigs and the constant touring, he 00:17:50.440 --> 00:17:52.480 was really falling apart physically. He was a 00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:55.160 man burning the candle at both ends and right 00:17:55.160 --> 00:17:57.440 in the middle. He had a massive history of drug 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:00.900 abuse. Cocaine was his fuel in the 70s and 80s. 00:18:00.900 --> 00:18:03.420 Later in life, it was Vicodin, painkillers, and 00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:05.180 alcohol. And the heart attacks. It wasn't just 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:09.240 one. Three of them. 1978, 1982, and 1991. Any 00:18:09.240 --> 00:18:10.779 one of those should have been a wake -up call. 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:13.000 Most people would slow down. George sped up. 00:18:13.319 --> 00:18:15.220 And, you know, part of that was actually financial 00:18:15.220 --> 00:18:18.309 necessity. The tax trouble. Huge tax trouble. 00:18:18.410 --> 00:18:22.029 He owed the IRS millions of dollars, partly due 00:18:22.029 --> 00:18:24.390 to mismanagement, but also just the sheer amount 00:18:24.390 --> 00:18:27.630 of money he spent on drugs. Right. He frankly 00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:29.289 admitted in interviews that he stayed on the 00:18:29.289 --> 00:18:31.170 road because he had to pay the government. He 00:18:31.170 --> 00:18:33.309 had this great line. He said, for many years, 00:18:33.450 --> 00:18:35.630 I wasn't working for me. I was working for the 00:18:35.630 --> 00:18:38.089 IRS. But he also claimed that that pressure made 00:18:38.089 --> 00:18:40.700 him a better comedian. It did. He couldn't afford 00:18:40.700 --> 00:18:42.920 to take a year off. He couldn't just do a greatest 00:18:42.920 --> 00:18:45.839 hits tour. He had to generate a brand new hour 00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:48.319 of material every single year to keep the theaters 00:18:48.319 --> 00:18:50.779 full and the money coming in. It turned him into 00:18:50.779 --> 00:18:53.660 a relentless writing machine. And that pressure 00:18:53.660 --> 00:18:56.900 cooker, that constant need to create, led to 00:18:56.900 --> 00:19:00.480 what I think is his most potent and maybe his 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:02.720 most important era, what the outline calls the 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.880 final evolution. It's all bullshit phase. This 00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:09.140 really begins with the 1992 HBO special Jammin' 00:19:09.160 --> 00:19:26.660 in New York. The tone shifts from, have you ever 00:19:26.660 --> 00:19:30.410 noticed to, here's why you are all idiots. exactly 00:19:30.410 --> 00:19:33.589 he adopts this persona of the grumpy old man 00:19:33.589 --> 00:19:36.710 but it's a philosophical grumpiness he fully 00:19:36.710 --> 00:19:39.809 embraces nihilism he stops trying to fix the 00:19:39.809 --> 00:19:41.950 world and starts popping popcorn to watch it 00:19:41.950 --> 00:19:45.259 burn The freak show. He called it the freak show. 00:19:45.380 --> 00:19:49.079 He said, I have a front row seat to the decline 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:51.559 of the species. And frankly, I'm enjoying it. 00:19:51.619 --> 00:19:53.759 There is a specific incident from this period 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:56.440 that just encapsulates this hostility perfectly. 00:19:56.720 --> 00:20:00.559 The MGM Grand incident in 2004. Oh, this was 00:20:00.559 --> 00:20:03.960 ugly. But it was pure, unfiltered Carlin. He 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:06.099 had a residency at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. 00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:07.859 Now, you have to think about the typical Vegas 00:20:07.859 --> 00:20:10.680 audience. Right. tourists, gamblers, people who 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:12.539 just saw a magic show and are looking for some 00:20:12.539 --> 00:20:14.319 light entertainment. They're not there for a 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:17.160 lecture on the evils of capitalism and consumerism. 00:20:17.220 --> 00:20:20.200 Probably not. And George just lost it one night. 00:20:20.519 --> 00:20:22.680 He started tearing into the audience. He told 00:20:22.680 --> 00:20:25.140 them they were morons for coming to Vegas. He 00:20:25.140 --> 00:20:27.599 insulted their intellects for gambling away their 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:29.839 money. He essentially told them that they, the 00:20:29.839 --> 00:20:31.900 audience, were the problem with America. And 00:20:31.900 --> 00:20:34.880 the audience, understandably, pushed back. Oh, 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:36.960 yeah. They started booing. Someone in the crowd 00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:39.380 yelled, stop degrading us. And George, who was 00:20:39.380 --> 00:20:41.400 never one to back down from a fight, fired back 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:43.559 with, thank you very much, whatever that was. 00:20:43.559 --> 00:20:45.900 If not, well, blow me. And that was the end of 00:20:45.900 --> 00:20:48.619 the residency. He was fired immediately. But 00:20:48.619 --> 00:20:50.700 here's the crucial context that a lot of people 00:20:50.700 --> 00:20:53.640 miss. Shortly after that incident, he checked 00:20:53.640 --> 00:20:56.200 himself into rehab for an addiction to alcohol 00:20:56.200 --> 00:20:58.420 and prescription painkillers. So the outburst 00:20:58.420 --> 00:21:01.420 was fueled by substances. Probably, but the sentiment, 00:21:01.480 --> 00:21:04.519 that was real. He genuinely despised the consumerist 00:21:04.519 --> 00:21:06.980 culture that Vegas represented. He felt dirty 00:21:06.980 --> 00:21:09.599 taking their money, and so he lashed out. His 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.809 final specials. life is worth losing from 2005 00:21:12.809 --> 00:21:16.529 and it's bad for yah from 2008 are incredibly 00:21:16.529 --> 00:21:19.829 dark i mean the topics are suicide mass death 00:21:19.829 --> 00:21:22.710 natural disasters he has a whole bit arguing 00:21:22.710 --> 00:21:26.869 that humans are inferior to animals and yet it's 00:21:26.869 --> 00:21:29.210 bad for yah which was filmed just a few months 00:21:29.210 --> 00:21:31.990 before he died is brilliant it's hilarious you 00:21:31.990 --> 00:21:35.190 can see he looks frail on stage he's thin but 00:21:35.190 --> 00:21:38.329 his mind is a razor He's attacking the self -esteem 00:21:38.329 --> 00:21:40.369 movement. He's attacking parents who worship 00:21:40.369 --> 00:21:42.950 their children. He went out swinging at all the 00:21:42.950 --> 00:21:45.529 things he thought were making society soft and 00:21:45.529 --> 00:21:47.630 stupid. Let's pivot to his private life for a 00:21:47.630 --> 00:21:49.849 minute. Because for a guy who seemed to hate 00:21:49.849 --> 00:21:52.730 humanity in the abstract, the sources show that 00:21:52.730 --> 00:21:56.259 he loved very, very deeply in person. He was 00:21:56.259 --> 00:21:58.960 a total romantic, which is another part of the 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:01.240 paradox. We have to talk about his first wife, 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:04.160 Brenda Hosbrook. They met in 1960 while he was 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:06.099 on tour. She was a waitress. They were married 00:22:06.099 --> 00:22:08.720 for over 35 years. But the sources make it very 00:22:08.720 --> 00:22:11.160 clear it was not a fairytale marriage. Oh, far 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:12.940 from it. For many years, it was total chaos. 00:22:13.259 --> 00:22:14.920 He was addicted to cocaine. She was a severe 00:22:14.920 --> 00:22:17.579 alcoholic. The stories of their fights are legendary, 00:22:17.859 --> 00:22:20.099 but, and this is the real redemption arc of their 00:22:20.099 --> 00:22:22.599 story, they got sober together. They cleaned 00:22:22.599 --> 00:22:25.539 up. They did. When George finally kicked coke 00:22:25.539 --> 00:22:28.099 and Brenda kicked booze, they rediscovered their 00:22:28.099 --> 00:22:31.039 marriage. The last decade of her life, by all 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:33.400 accounts, they were incredibly close. And then 00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:36.779 she died in 1997. Liver cancer. Right before 00:22:36.779 --> 00:22:40.099 his 60th birthday. It absolutely devastated him. 00:22:40.259 --> 00:22:43.180 He wrote about how losing her felt like losing 00:22:43.180 --> 00:22:46.059 his anchor in the world. But then, not long after, 00:22:46.180 --> 00:22:48.619 he meets Sally Wade. This is the part of the 00:22:48.619 --> 00:22:51.099 story that always surprises people. He meets 00:22:51.099 --> 00:22:53.660 Sally, who is a comedy writer, and he falls head 00:22:53.660 --> 00:22:56.500 over heels in love. Like, giddy teenage can't 00:22:56.500 --> 00:22:58.720 stop thinking about her love. There's that book 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:01.180 she published, the George Carlin letters. It's 00:23:01.180 --> 00:23:03.220 a collection of the notes and letters they wrote 00:23:03.220 --> 00:23:04.839 to each other, and if you read them, you just 00:23:04.839 --> 00:23:07.140 cannot reconcile the man who wrote those letters 00:23:07.140 --> 00:23:09.660 with the angry old man on stage. They are tender 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:12.460 and sweet and poetic. It shows that the anger 00:23:12.460 --> 00:23:14.759 was a performance, or at least a channel for 00:23:14.759 --> 00:23:17.680 his disappointment in the world. heart he was 00:23:17.680 --> 00:23:19.980 a total softy we should also touch on his view 00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:22.099 of religion because it was such a massive and 00:23:22.099 --> 00:23:24.119 consistent target for him throughout his career 00:23:24.119 --> 00:23:27.500 the invisible man in the sky he was raised catholic 00:23:27.500 --> 00:23:30.160 and you can tell the scars ran really deep He 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:32.859 rejected it wholesale with a passion. But he 00:23:32.859 --> 00:23:34.859 wasn't really an atheist in that sort of Richard 00:23:34.859 --> 00:23:37.640 Dawkins science is everything sense. He had his 00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.140 own little mystical streak. He did. He famously 00:23:40.140 --> 00:23:42.259 joked about worshiping the sun because he could 00:23:42.259 --> 00:23:44.599 actually see it. But in a more serious interview, 00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:47.240 he said, no, there's no God, but there might 00:23:47.240 --> 00:23:49.779 be some sort of an organizing intelligence. And 00:23:49.779 --> 00:23:52.640 I think to understand it is way beyond our ability. 00:23:52.859 --> 00:23:54.819 So he was a humble agnostic, really. Exactly. 00:23:55.279 --> 00:23:57.339 He thought the real arrogance of religion was 00:23:57.339 --> 00:23:59.539 claiming to know the answer. And when he died 00:23:59.539 --> 00:24:03.480 June 20, 2008, from heart failure, he stuck to 00:24:03.480 --> 00:24:06.779 his guns. No hypocrisy at the end. Absolutely 00:24:06.779 --> 00:24:09.180 none. He was explicit. No religious service, 00:24:09.299 --> 00:24:12.160 no funeral of any kind. He was cremated. His 00:24:12.160 --> 00:24:14.299 ashes were scattered at some of the nightclubs 00:24:14.299 --> 00:24:16.619 in New York where he made his name and at Spofford 00:24:16.619 --> 00:24:18.099 Lake in New Hampshire where that summer camp 00:24:18.099 --> 00:24:20.500 was. He returned to the places that made him, 00:24:20.559 --> 00:24:23.900 not to a church. It's perfectly fitting. And 00:24:23.900 --> 00:24:26.279 he worked right up until the very end, too. He 00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:28.779 performed his last show in Vegas just one week 00:24:28.779 --> 00:24:31.200 before he died. That's the ultimate comedian's 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:32.900 death, isn't it? You die with your boots on. 00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:35.859 You do. So looking back at the legacy now, it's 00:24:35.859 --> 00:24:39.779 just staggering. Five Grammys, the Mark Twain 00:24:39.779 --> 00:24:42.519 Prize. Which was awarded to him posthumously, 00:24:42.559 --> 00:24:45.019 the first time they ever did that. It was a recognition 00:24:45.019 --> 00:24:46.700 from the establishment that he was too big to 00:24:46.700 --> 00:24:48.880 ignore, even after he was gone. And Rolling Stone 00:24:48.880 --> 00:24:51.720 ranked him the second best stand -up of all time. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:53.960 Right behind Richard Pryor. Right behind Pryor. 00:24:54.039 --> 00:24:56.779 And you see his DNA everywhere today. In Louis 00:24:56.779 --> 00:25:00.240 C .K., Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, 00:25:00.480 --> 00:25:03.119 Stephen Colbert. He created the archetype of 00:25:03.119 --> 00:25:06.519 the comedian as philosopher. Before Carlin, stand 00:25:06.519 --> 00:25:09.200 -up comedy was mostly set -up, punchline jokes. 00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:11.940 After Carlin, comedy could be a dissertation. 00:25:11.980 --> 00:25:14.579 It could be a lecture. He made it okay to be 00:25:14.579 --> 00:25:16.619 smart and angry on stage. Yeah, he really did. 00:25:16.819 --> 00:25:19.279 But there is this weird side effect of his legacy 00:25:19.279 --> 00:25:22.059 that we absolutely have to address. The internet 00:25:22.059 --> 00:25:24.460 hoaxes. Oh, this drives me crazy. I call it the 00:25:24.460 --> 00:25:27.059 zombie Carlin phenomenon. You open your email 00:25:27.059 --> 00:25:29.200 or you check Facebook, and there's a meme with 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:31.720 a picture of George and some quote about how 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:34.240 we need to get rid of liberals or something really 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:37.279 right -wing and aggressive. And 99 % of the time, 00:25:37.299 --> 00:25:40.019 it's completely fake. It's totally fabricated. 00:25:40.039 --> 00:25:42.700 People just use his image to validate their own 00:25:42.700 --> 00:25:45.619 anger. But if you actually know Carlin's work, 00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:48.420 you know he would never punch down like that. 00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:51.160 He attacked the powerful. He attacked the church, 00:25:51.299 --> 00:25:53.359 the politicians, the corporations. He didn't 00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:56.190 attack the marginalized. Those fake quotes are 00:25:56.190 --> 00:25:59.049 the exact opposite of his philosophy. It's gotten 00:25:59.049 --> 00:26:01.789 so bad that Weird Al Yankovic actually referenced 00:26:01.789 --> 00:26:05.529 it in a song. And stop forwarding that crap to 00:26:05.529 --> 00:26:08.650 me. The line is, and by the way, your quotes 00:26:08.650 --> 00:26:10.650 from George Carlin aren't really George Carlin. 00:26:11.230 --> 00:26:13.490 When Weird Al is fact -checking your legacy, 00:26:13.730 --> 00:26:16.049 you know you've reached a strange level of cultural 00:26:16.049 --> 00:26:19.269 saturation. So bringing it all back home, we 00:26:19.269 --> 00:26:21.630 started with the paradox. The unproductive airman 00:26:21.630 --> 00:26:24.130 and the Mark Twain winner. The dirty words guy 00:26:24.130 --> 00:26:26.529 and the children's show narrator. What is the 00:26:26.529 --> 00:26:28.049 through line? What connects all these different 00:26:28.049 --> 00:26:30.410 Georges? I think the through line is disappointed 00:26:30.410 --> 00:26:33.470 idealism. I honestly believe George Carlin was 00:26:33.470 --> 00:26:35.849 a guy who loved language and loved the potential 00:26:35.849 --> 00:26:38.849 of humanity. But he looked around and he just 00:26:38.849 --> 00:26:41.690 saw us wasting it. Wasting it how? We wasted 00:26:41.690 --> 00:26:45.430 our words on euphemisms and jargon. We wasted 00:26:45.430 --> 00:26:48.190 our freedom on consumerism and mindless entertainment. 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:50.980 So the anger wasn't hate, it was frustration. 00:26:51.460 --> 00:26:53.640 Exactly. You don't get that angry at something 00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:56.599 you don't care about. He cared deeply. He wanted 00:26:56.599 --> 00:26:59.119 us to be better. And when it became clear we 00:26:59.119 --> 00:27:01.380 weren't going to be, he decided to at least make 00:27:01.380 --> 00:27:03.759 us laugh at our own stupidity. And it goes back 00:27:03.759 --> 00:27:06.440 to that dream he had. He wanted to be Danny Kaye. 00:27:06.440 --> 00:27:08.980 He wanted to be an actor. And for a long time, 00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:10.779 he kind of thought he failed at that. But he 00:27:10.779 --> 00:27:13.279 didn't. That's the final realization you get 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:16.119 from the sources. His stand -up was acting. When 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:18.480 he performed the seven dirty words routine or 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:21.079 the famous stuff routine, he wasn't just talking. 00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:23.859 He was performing a meticulously written, directed, 00:27:23.940 --> 00:27:27.400 and acted one -man play. He was a one -man theater 00:27:27.400 --> 00:27:30.079 company. He achieved his dream every night he 00:27:30.079 --> 00:27:32.299 stepped on stage. That is a beautiful way to 00:27:32.299 --> 00:27:34.400 frame it. And here is a thought to leave you 00:27:34.400 --> 00:27:37.720 with as you're listening. We live in an era of 00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:41.410 content moderation. of shadow banning, of so 00:27:41.410 --> 00:27:44.450 -called cancel culture. We are constantly debating 00:27:44.450 --> 00:27:47.089 what can be said and where it can be said. And 00:27:47.089 --> 00:27:49.250 the Carlin warning is still on the airwaves. 00:27:49.250 --> 00:27:51.730 Those seven words are still officially banned 00:27:51.730 --> 00:27:55.549 on broadcast TV during the day. So is that warning, 00:27:55.650 --> 00:27:59.069 that idea of broadcast indecency, more relevant 00:27:59.069 --> 00:28:01.589 today than when it was created? Or have we just 00:28:01.589 --> 00:28:04.829 found new digital ways to build our own parlors 00:28:04.829 --> 00:28:07.700 and decide which pigs don't belong? Carlin told 00:28:07.700 --> 00:28:09.380 us to question everything, including the people 00:28:09.380 --> 00:28:11.339 giving us the news. And yes, even the people 00:28:11.339 --> 00:28:13.480 making deep dives like this one. In his words, 00:28:13.720 --> 00:28:16.619 it's all bullshit and it's bad for you. Check 00:28:16.619 --> 00:28:18.740 your sources, question authority, and we will 00:28:18.740 --> 00:28:20.319 see you on the next deep dive. Take care.