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Los Angeles: George Carlin, the dean of US counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalised in his Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV routine, died of heart failure on 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," said Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s.
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 less 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 (Dh550) bail - and typically unapologetic on his release.
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