Wal-Mart Won?t Sell Carlin?s Book

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation’s largest retailer, is not selling comedian George Carlin’s best-selling new book, “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops,” in its stores because its cover makes fun of the “Last Supper,” a spokesman for Carlin said on Oct. 28.

But Wal-Mart spokeswoman Karen Burk said the book was not being stocked in Wal-Mart stores because the company felt it “would not appeal to a majority of our customers.” She said Wal-Mart is selling the book online.

Burk said 3,500 copies of the book sent mistakenly to Wal-Mart stores had been returned to a distributor because they were not ordered.

Carlin spokesman Jeff Abraham said Wal-Mart did not like the book’s cover that shows the comedian in the setting of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” sitting next to an empty chair where Jesus sits in the painting.

“They did not like the cover because it was a parody,” Abraham said. “George attacks everything in this book but it does not have any nude photos. He said he thought the title would offend everyone.”

“It’s an honor to be considered a bad guy by a company that has consistently shown itself to be an immoral, unethical and, at times, illegal operation,” Carlin said through a prepared statement released to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal on Nov. 2. “I can only assume that these cretins who suppress free expression don’t understand. They always help boost the sales of the things they ban. Thank you, Wal-Mart. Merry Christmas.”

Earlier in October, Wal-Mart said it refused to offer shoppers the best-selling humor book “America (The Book)” because it contained photographs of nine naked and aged bodies, each capped with the superimposed head of a Supreme Court justice. The book is a mock school textbook written by Jon Stewart and the writers of “The Daily Show,” which airs on Viacom Inc.’s Comedy Central cable television network.