George Carlin (1937-2008)

I was all set to sit down today and get this blog rolling with a standard pointless, unfocused rant about our obsession with our jobs, until I went over to IMDB and saw this headline:

“Comedian George Carlin dies at 71.”

Shit.

For those of you who don’t know who George Carlin is: first of all, what the hell is wrong with you? And second, he was a brilliant stand-up comic who later in life also became known as a writer and actor, most notably appearing as Rufus in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” and a hilarious turn as Cardinal Glick in “Dogma” (best line: “Christ didn’t come to Earth to give us the willies… He came to help us out. He was a booster.”) But mostly Carlin was known as one of the greatest stand-ups of all time (in fact, when Comedy Central did a top 100 countdown special of comics several years back, he ended up #2, behind only Richard Pryor). He was certainly one of my favorites, if not my very favorite, and I was always enamored with how is acts almost always had something profound to say. He had a much different style than that of a, say, Dane Cook, who, though he is funny as shit, really has nothing to say about society or life.

What Carlin probably will be most remembered for, however, was for his “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine. It may seem quaint for us now that “dirty words” could ever get someone in trouble, but back when he was first performing this routine in the early 70s, he was actually arrested several times for violating obscenity laws. The case eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, and I don’t think its far fetched to argue that Carlin’s routine helped pave the way for much of the freedoms enjoyed by comics today.

What George Carlin understood better than, sadly, a vast majority of people, is that the key ingredient to humor is one thing: honesty. If you are pulling any punches, or censoring yourself, or worried about offending others…its just not funny. People that know me know that one of my biggest annoyances in life… maybe my BIGGEST annoyance…are people who can’t laugh at themselves, and will crush any sort of humor in the name of “political correctness” and “sensitivity.” Folks, we are alive for a very, very, very short time. And life is mostly ridiculous and pain filled. If we can’t laugh at ourselves and what is going on around us, then existence isn’t worth shit and we are just marching a slow and solemn march to our grave. Carlin knew this, and today the world is infinitely less funny and, more importantly, less honest, without him.

If you have never seen George Carlin in stand-up, do yourself a favor and watch all the clips below. If you have seen him, do yourself a favor and watch the clips below and remember how brilliant this son-of-a-bitch was:

This first one is Carlin discussing the war in Iraqi. No, not the one we are in now: this is from a show in the early 90s, shortly after that OTHER Iraqi war had ended. Notice, however, how much of what he has to say about the first Persian Gulf conflict still resonates as completely true now.

This clip is from the same special. It’s not quite as deep or meaningful (though I think it does contain some brilliant observations about the weird way we use language), but it is fucking hilarious. I distinctly remember watching this as a 12-year old with my parents, and during this section I was literally laughing so hard I couldn’t breath. Good times.

And finally, this is a clip from a more recent George Carlin act, where he is discussing death. A philosophical person might say we can watch this and think of it as George talking to us from the afterlife, helping us deal with is death. But I’m fairly certain Carlin would think that is a bunch of bullshit. So just watch it cause it’s funny:

Good night, George Carlin. Thanks for the laughs!