The Investigative Writer

George Carlin, satirist and humorist, has retained the attention of audiences for approximately forty years now. Carlin’s commentaries, presented in comedic settings, analyzed with a writer’s scrutiny create an emergent sense of woe. I wonder as an individual “how are these comments funny?” As an author I seek further clarity in his humor, his politics, and the climate of his audience to learn from, rather than judge, his talent.

"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

George Carlinism's:

• The nice thing about being dead is that you immediately become eligible to appear on stamps and money.

• By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.

• The mayfly lives only one day. Sometimes it rains.

• If people stand around in a circle long enough, eventually they will begin to dance.

• Just when I discovered the meaning of life, they changed it.

• In America, anyone can be president. That's the problem.

You too may, or may not, as a contemporary of The Fourth Estate find Mr. Carlin’s work jocular. With further investigation as a Fourth Estate Guardian you may re-interpret Mr. Carlin’s repertoires comparing his early works to his present day effigies. You may learn that The Kraft Summer Music Hall delivered an entourage’ of like minded comedians: John Davidson, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, and Flip Wilson. You would ascertain that since its production took place in the mid-60’s most of Mr. Carlin’s present work would never have been introduced to the American public. Additionally, you would find that Bob Banner-screenwriter, lecturer, and adjunct professor was perhaps a co-creator and overseer of this earlier work.

We know that in 1962 the palate of the American public would have rejected a modern day George Carlin bantering. Essentially he entertained The Fourth Estate with his “Seven Words You Can Never Use on Television” and resultant 1978 legal case that processed through the Supreme Court. They ruled in favor of the FCC (whose rise to acclivity began in 1934). The Supreme Court deemed the FCC should continue regulating inappropriate language during television broadcasting. This benchmark performance of Carlin’s opened the floodgates of introspection as he compared real life to televised acceptance of fantasized perfection of life. We continue to observe the Supreme Court’s ruling of FCC regulation; however, the FCC doesn’t regulate as stringently now as it did in the mid-60’s and 70’s—most assuredly not as restrictive as in 1934.

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