But Carlin, who died Sunday of heart failure at age 71, wasn't just saying those words for the heck of it -- he was employing them satirically to make a social/cultural point about the ironic way our verbal queasiness around "dirty words" actually imbues them with their "obscene" power. And he made his point with blazing verbal and oral mastery, crafting a kind of jazz riff out of the forbidden syllables, speaking in precise rhythms that not only enhanced his message but were, in and of themselves, deliciously gratifying morsels of entertainment.

That's probably why Carlin never was a "TV personality." Who could fit his swift-minded comic gift into the sitcom mold? Fox tried, with its short-lived 1994-95 George Carlin Show, casting the then 56-year-old as a barfly taxi driver forever spouting the kind of social commentaries popularized by a standup comic of the same name. But even series creator Sam Simon, fresh off The Simpsons, couldn't get more than 27 episodes out of the premise. (The series isn't on DVD, and hasn't been seen in TV repeats either. But you can watch full episodes free online at AOL's In2TV.)

Carlin was his own man, not some tube character -- something that was clear from the moment in the 1960s when he morphed from the innocuous business-suited "hippy dippy weatherman" comic (click link for vintage 1966 video), as seen on TV's middle-American Ed Sullivan Show variety showcase, into a long-haired counterculture jester poking holes in the pretensions of a "straight" society under assault by those irreverent hippie kids.

But even his "hippy dippy weatherman" days revealed Carlin's gift for putting words together with a beat and cadence that went beyond mere stand-up comedy, into a rhythmic mode all his own. And he was never dependent on punchlines but on attitudes and observations, bridging the relevance of Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl into the more rambling "did you ever think about" era of Jerry Seinfeld and his 1980s comedy club brethren. (See Carlin's immortal routine about "stuff.")

Meanwhile, the moral-compass ruthlessness Carlin developed in his own jovial way would reach a more caustic peak in the similar transformation of comedy contemporary Richard Pryor from Sullivan show joker to N-word flinging satirist of the 1970s.

That Carlin influenced so much of the comedy we saw over the final four decades of his life, whether benign or scorching, is a continuing tribute to his breadth of thought and appeal. He was also the first guest host of NBC's generational-shift late-night showcase for those counterculture kids, Saturday Night Live. And he became an early mainstay for cable TV's pacesetting pay-channel HBO, presenting the first of his 14 uncensored standup specials with 1977's On Location: George Carlin at USC. Upcoming HBO lineups already list three of them airing again in the next week -- 1984's "Carlin On Campus" late Monday/early Tuesday (June 24) at 1 AM ET on HBO Comedy; 1978's "George Carlin Again" late Wednesday/early Thursday (June 26) at 1:10 AM ET on HBO Comedy; and his most recent, last March's "It's Bad for Ya!," via HBO On Demand through July 3. The pay cabler is also busy scheduling a more formal tribute to be announced soon.

Carlin influenced law, too, of course, with that 1978 Supreme Court decision affirming the government's right to limit the broadcast of "indecent" speech. And as more proof of life's irony, it was just announced last week that Carlin would be honored in November by The Kennedy Center -- yes, that government memorial to our 35th president -- with the annual Mark Twain Prize, the nation's highest honor for humorists.

Hear Carlin talk about his career and controversies in sharp vintage interviews from NPR's Fresh Air here.

HBO has scheduled its Carlin standup encores this week.
Airing on HBO2 (all times ET):
Wednesday, June 25 -
8 PM - George Carlin at USC (1977; first HBO special)
9:30 PM - George Carlin Again (1978)
11 PM - Carlin at Carnegie (1983)
12 midnight - Carlin on Campus (1984)
1 AM - George Carlin: Playin' With Your Head (1986)
Thursday, June 26 -
8 PM - George Carlin: What Am I Doin' in New Jersey (1988)
9 PM - George Carlin: Doin' It Again (1990)
10 PM - George Carlin: Jammin' in New York (1992)
11 PM - George Carlin: Back in Town (1996)
12:05 AM - George Carlin: You Are All Diseased (1999)
1:10 AM - George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya (2008)

Airing on HBO:
Friday, June 27 -
9 PM - George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya (March 2008)