June 23, 2008

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press. Carlin's jokes constantly pushed accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" -- all of which are more or taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail -- and typically unapologetic on his release. A Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying the language was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.