Editing George Carlin (section)

=== 2000–2008: Final HBO specials ===
[[File:Loz carlinbd2.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Carlin at a book signing for ''[[Brain Droppings]]'' in 2004]]
Carlin later said that there were other, more pragmatic reasons for abandoning his acting career in favor of standup. In an interview for [[Esquire (magazine)|''Esquire'']] magazine in 2001, he said, "Because of my abuse of drugs, I neglected my business affairs and had large arrears with the IRS, and that took me eighteen to twenty years to dig out of. I did it honorably, and I don't begrudge them. I don't hate paying taxes, and I'm not angry at anyone, because I was complicit in it. But I'll tell you what it did for me: it made me a way better comedian. Because I had to stay out on the road and I couldn't pursue that movie career, which would have gone nowhere, and I became a really good comic and a really good writer."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esquire.com/features/what-ive-learned/george-carlin-quotes-0102 |title=What I've Learned: George Carlin |publisher=Esquire.com |date=June 23, 2008 |author=Larry Getlen |access-date=June 10, 2014}}</ref>

In 2001, Carlin was given a [[Lifetime Achievement Award]] at the 15th Annual [[American Comedy Awards]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}} In 2003, Representative [[Doug Ose]] introduced a bill (H.R. 3687) to outlaw the broadcast of Carlin's "seven dirty words",<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/108th-congress/house-bill/3687|title=H.R.3687 - To amend section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for the punishment of certain profane broadcasts, and for other purposes.|date=December 8, 2003|website=congress.gov}}</ref> including "compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms)". The bill omitted "tits", but included "asshole", not one of Carlin's original seven words. It was referred to the [[United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties|House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution]] in 2004 and was tabled.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Jesus is coming.. Look Busy (George Carlin).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Carlin in April 2008]]

Carlin performed regularly as a headliner in [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]], but in 2004 his run at the [[MGM Grand Las Vegas]] was terminated after an altercation with his audience. After a poorly received set filled with dark references to suicide bombings and beheadings, Carlin complained that he could not wait to get out of "this fucking hotel" and Las Vegas; he wanted to go back east, he said, "where the real people are". He continued: "People who go to Las Vegas, you've got to question their fucking intellect to start with. Traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of fucking moronic. That's what I'm always getting here is these kind of fucking people with very limited intellects." An audience member shouted, "Stop degrading us!" Carlin responded, "Thank you very much, whatever that was. I hope it was positive; if not, well, blow me." He was immediately fired, and soon thereafter his representative announced that he would begin treatment for alcohol and prescription painkiller addiction on his own initiative.<ref name="tagreviewj">{{cite news |url=http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Dec-04-Sat-2004/news/25407915.html |title=Dark Carlin |newspaper=reviewjournal.com |date=December 4, 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041207042940/http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Dec-04-Sat-2004/news/25407915.html |archive-date=December 7, 2004 |access-date=June 12, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/12/27/george.carlin/index.html? |title=George Carlin enters rehab |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=December 29, 2004 |access-date=June 12, 2014}}</ref>

After his 13th HBO special on November 5, 2005, ''[[Life Is Worth Losing]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hbo.com/events/gcarlin/?ntrack_para1=insidehbo3_text|title=Carlin: Life is Worth Losing |publisher=HBO |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060115070120/http://www.hbo.com/events/gcarlin/?ntrack_para1=insidehbo3_text |archive-date=January 15, 2006 |access-date=June 12, 2014}}</ref> Carlin toured his new material through the first half of 2006. Topics included suicide, [[natural disaster]]s, [[Human cannibalism|cannibalism]], [[genocide]], [[human sacrifice]], threats to [[civil liberties]] in the U.S., and his theory that humans are inferior to other animals. At the first tour stop, at the Tachi Palace Casino in [[Lemoore, California]], he said the appearance was his "first show back" after a six-week hospitalization for heart failure and [[pneumonia]].{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} In the 2006 [[Pixar Animation Studios|Pixar]] animated film ''[[Cars (film)|Cars]]'', Carlin voiced Fillmore, an anti-establishment hippie [[Volkswagen Type 2|VW Microbus]] with a [[psychedelic art|psychedelic]] paint job and the license plate "51237" (Carlin's birthday in [[Date and time notation|m/dd/yy format]]).{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} In 2007, he voiced the wizard in ''[[Happily N'Ever After]]'', his last film.

Carlin's last HBO stand-up special, ''[[It's Bad for Ya]]'', aired live on March 1, 2008, from the [[Wells Fargo Center for the Arts]] in [[Santa Rosa, California]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/movies/dvd/2007-09-24-carlin-collection_N.htm |title=George Carlin reflects on 50 years (or so) of 'All My Stuff' |author=Wloszczyna, Susan |newspaper=[[USA Today]] |date=September 24, 2007 |access-date=June 12, 2014}}</ref> Themes included "American bullshit", rights, death, old age, and child-rearing. He repeated the theme to his audience several times throughout the show: "It's all bullshit, and it's bad for ya".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyr_ec6etjo |title=George Carlin - It's all bullshit, and it's bad for you. |website=YouTube |date=March 14, 2016 }}</ref> When asked on ''[[Inside the Actors Studio]]'' what turned him on, he responded, "Reading about language". When asked what made him proudest of his career, he cited the fact that his books had sold close to a million copies.{{citation needed|date=July 2016}}