George Carlin attacked religion, authority figures, bureaucracy and even something as ridiculously oxymoronic as "jumbo shrimp" — and became one of the country's most influential and controversial humorists.

The iconoclast, who died Sunday from heart failure at 71, was practically a one-man history of American comedy — from the rise of '60s counterculture through the war on terrorism. For more than 40 years, this harsh critic of our shared foibles was determined to set us straight every step of the way. In nightclubs and eventually cable television, he did so in a pointed, profane style that challenged our standards for what could be said on the public airwaves.