Broadcasters operated under a license from the FCC and with that came some responsibilities, including not beaming George Carlin into homes with children watching.

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Though clearly not to everyone's taste, the likes of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore's Derek and Clive sketches and George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words routine have influenced generations of humorists.

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The spirit is willing, but the material is never quite there, despite game performances from Anna Faris, Charlie Sheen, Queen Latifah, Leslie Nielsen, Jenny McCarthy, Pamela Anderson, George Carlin, and the Michael Jackson impersonator Edward Moss.

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The joke is told tenderly by Paul Reiser, urbanely by Martin Mull, seductively by the sublime Sarah Silverman, gravely and with much loving, superfluous detail by George Carlin, and shrilly, with an emotion bordering on hysteria, by the inspired pixie Gilbert Gottfried.

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