Michael from Muckrock writes, "After George Carlin satirized FBI and J. Edgar Hoover in a bit "considered to be in very poor taste" (but which was incredibly tame by Carlin standards), the Bureau took a special interest in the famed comedian, starting a file and sending out queries across the country as to Carlin's loyalties and background."
The documents also reveal that Hoover took it upon himself to respond to a complaint from viewers in Cocoa Beach FL who were upset with Carlin's "'take-off' on the FBI, the Director, and the 'ten most wanted'."
The viewer complained that "such a flagrant display of poor taste and degradation of one of our finest governmental investigative agencies, which maintains dignity, pride, and honor." The viewer even went as far as to accuse Carlin of "contributing to the breakdown in this nation's respect for law and order."
In a later document addressed to Jackie Gleason, another viewer wrote that the Department of Justice "is not a subject to be made fun of, any more than it would be proper to make light of the U.S. Constitution." The letter also contains mention of "the hippies and the yippies," and maintains that the FBI "is to be spoken of with reverence and respect rather than jest and so-called wit."
"Considered to be in very poor taste" George Carlin's FBI File [Muckroc]
(Icon: George Carlin 1969, Wikimedia Commons)
