So long George
George Carlin died late Sunday evening. It’s hard to know where to begin. Carlin started off for me as a secret pleasure. My friends and I would filch our parent’s records and listen to them in secret. We knew we’d get in trouble if we were caught, but we also knew we were willing to risk nearly any punishment. His razor wit and his ability to hold a mirror up to America and expose its flaws, hypocrisy, and damn-right stupidity — and all while making it funny, was a rare gift indeed. Who can forget “Golf Courses for the Homeless” or “The All-Suicide Channel”? How about “Rape can be funny” (”picture Porky Pig raping Elmer Fudd”)?
Carlin is, undeservedly I think, best remembered for his skit on the Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television. This one skit represents an important turning point in American culture with regards to obscenity, but in terms of Carlin as a comedian it is just one among dozens of skits that he performed about the vagaries of language and our social mores.
He was the first host of Saturday Night Live, had a 30 year run of highly successful HBO specials, and over 20 albums. One I think stands out above the rest, which is his “Carlin on Comedy” in which he talks about his comedy.
His stance on America is not always in line with what we want to believe about ourselves:
This country is full of nitwits and assholes.
I love the freedoms we used to have.
But let’s not forget his skits on how alike we are, like “Little things we share” or “A Place for My Stuff”
But I think, above all, my favorite skit he’s ever done is the one on religion, the first portion of which I am obligated to quote.
Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever till the end of time!
But He loves you.
I use some one-liners as part of my collection of random signatures, but for the most part, Carlin’s comedy is not about bons motes, it’s about a logical progression taken to just enough of an extreme that it’s funny.
I believe you can joke about anything.
I leave symbols to the symbol-minded.
These are the thoughts that kept me out of the really good schools.
Let me leave you with one final Carlin quote that I bet you haven’t seen elsewhere because it’s not funny. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth being remembered.
The quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our language.
So, pull out some old vinyl, or CDs if you must, and listen to him riff on who we are, who we want to be, and who we’re afraid of being.