The legendary, influential comedian died of heart failure this weekend:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/06/23/carlin.obit
Carlin's Seven Dirty Words... routine "prompted a landmark indecency case after WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where the justices ruled on a 5-to-4 vote that the sketch was "indecent but not obscene," giving the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the airwaves.
"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," Carlin said. "In the context of that era, it was daring."
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/06/23/carlin.obit
Carlin's Seven Dirty Words... routine "prompted a landmark indecency case after WBAI-FM radio aired it in 1973. The case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court where the justices ruled on a 5-to-4 vote that the sketch was "indecent but not obscene," giving the FCC broad leeway to determine what constituted indecency on the airwaves.
"So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of," Carlin said. "In the context of that era, it was daring."