George Carlin

The satirical link between Lenny Bruce and Jon Stewart, George Carlin started brewing comedy from controversy in the '60s and '70s, when his hippie-era contemporaries were still stuck on stoner humor. Carlin's ultimate "up yours"-to-the-establishment signature bit, "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television," makes a mockery of censorship. You can practically hear the birth of Steven Wright's shtick on "A Place For My Stuff," in which Carlin gooses the existential with the absurd. Not even the Great American Pastimes are safe from the stand-up tiger's saber-toothed wit, as he skewers sports on "Baseball-Football." In Next Steps, Carlin sticks a pin in the political balloon, making for the funniest "pop" you'll ever hear.

Like his comedic forefather, Lenny Bruce, George Carlin has a knack for pulling apart the hypocrisy of politics while keeping an eye on the punch line. "American B******t" (fill in the blanks) is a laugh-filled lesson in U.S. history, with the class clown taking over the teacher's seat. Curious George sets his sights even higher when the gags get biblical on "God." And his gift for characters comes moves into the spotlight when he plays the whacked-out, wisecracking DJ on his radio spoof "Son of Wino." In Deep Cuts, you'll listen in on the verbal virtuoso as he plays with words to reveal the laughter in language itself.

There's something funny in everything we say, and no one's better at finding the comedy in common turns of phrase than wordplay wizard George Carlin. The sultan of stand-up turns auctioneer of angst on "Things to Watch Out For," in which he rattles off a rapid-fire roll call of everyday dangers, like a filibustering senator out to crack up his committee. Carlin shows us how to use ordinary words as weapons of mass hilarity on "Words We Leave Behind." And never one to leave himself out of the line of fire, he even lampoons his own lifelong method of madness on "Occupation: Foole."

Dennis Miller, take note: no one can crank up the crankiness with more glee than the original rant raiser, George Carlin. From the cruel cool of his counterculture satire in the days of lava lamps and Richard Nixon to his present-day status as stand-up comedy's Grand Old Grouch, Carlin has never missed his target when aiming for the underlying comedy in the way we live, the words we use, and the rules we (sometimes) follow. Not only did he help create the template for today's "bad boy" stand-up comics; Carlin was also a crucial figure in establishing the comedy album as both a barrel of laughs and a work of art. Listen in on his take-no-prisoners routines and you'll recognize what he's been proving to audiences for decades: the truer the tale, the funnier the telling.