Includes bibliographical references (p. 235-246) and index.

Warm-up -- Heavy mysteries -- Class clown -- Attracting attention -- Values (How much is that dog crap in the window?) -- The confessional -- Special dispensation -- Seven words you can never say on television -- Wasted time -- America the beautiful -- Squeamish -- Kicker.

Journalist and cultural critic James Sullivan tells the story of Alternative America from the 1950s to the present, from the singular vantage point of George Carlin, the Catholic boy for whom nothing was sacred. This critical biography is an insightful (and hilarious) examination of Carlin's body of work as it pertained to its cultural times and the man who created it, from his early days as a more-or-less conventional comedian to his stunning transformation into the subversive comedic voice of the emerging counterculture. Sullivan also chronicles Carlin's struggles with censorship and drugs, as well as the full-blown renaissance he experienced in the 1990s, both personally and professionally, when he became an elder statesman to a younger generation of comics who revered him. This is the definitive biography of an American master who changed the world, and also a work of cultural commentary which frames his extraordinary legacy.--From publisher description.