QUICK TAKES - Jan. 22, 2009

Talk about irony. Comedian George Carlin spent decades pushing the bounds of free speech by saying the seven words you can never say on television, but not one of them made it into an FBI file on him.

Among the 12 pages that do make up a file recently released by Carlin’s family are a couple of letters from outraged citizens who complained that the “alleged comedian” had made fun of the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, during TV appearances in 1969 and 1970.

There’s also a letter from Hoover himself thanking one of Carlin’s critics for defending his honor, and an internal FBI memo that quotes the director as asking: “What do we know of Carlin?”

Not much, as it turned out. The memo notes the FBI has “no data concerning Carlin” other than the two letters from his critics.

Carlin, who died of a heart attack last June, obtained the file years ago through a Freedom of Information Act request, according to his daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall.