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June 23, 2008
George Carlin Dead [Dan Collins]
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Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 6/23 @ 7:31 am #
“Richard [Pryor] had a heart attack, I had a heart attack. Richard had another heart attack, I had another heart attack. Richard set himself on fire, I said ‘Fuck that, I’m havin’ another heart attack.’”
He’ll be missed.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 7:53 am #
This is what will have to pass for sad today I guess.
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/23 @ 8:03 am #
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 8:06 am #
This is the best thread to say I lived another year. YAY. The sadness of being old and busted, just needs to be properly framed in terms of someone who can’t get any older or busteder, to restore the HAPPEE!
Comment by Roboc on 6/23 @ 8:13 am #
Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and SugarTits™
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/23 @ 8:20 am #
Yes … that is an improvement Roboc.
Comment by serr8d on 6/23 @ 8:20 am #
From “Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live“; George Carlin was the first host of the first show, in October 1975…p. 54
RIP, George, and don’t go getting shot out of no cannon on our account….
Comment by serr8d on 6/23 @ 8:21 am #
stinkin’ unclosed blockquotes.
Dan, can you fix?
Comment by memomachine on 6/23 @ 8:28 am #
Hmmm.
I’m sorry he’s gone but frankly I think a large portion of what joy he found in life was lost when he lost his wife.
Comment by irongrampa on 6/23 @ 8:43 am #
George Carlin was an undeniably funny man, until he became an old, bitter man.
Rgardless, RIP, Mr. Carlin.
Comment by Jamie on 6/23 @ 8:49 am #
Carlin was a comedic genius. Though he gravitated more towards cynicism late in his career, he maintained an intellectual approach that would nearly persuade the listener to see things his way. He would have been absolutely remarkable had he ever ventured into national-scale politics.
I disagreed with his take on religion, but even there he was relevant. He symbolized the opposite extreme of the continuum, and illustrated some of the very real problems with organized religion (remeber that Jesus’s enemies were “religious” people). I believe somewhere in between is where we should live, and Carlin’s views on what he termed “religious superstition” played a role in me finding that middle ground.
Carlin and his style of comedy will be truly missed.
Comment by Puck on 6/23 @ 9:10 am #
Interesting, Jamie. Kind of like Carlin’s comment on license plates:
“Somewhere between ‘Live Free or Die!’ and ‘Famous Potatoes,’ the truth lies. Probably it’s a little closer to ‘Famous Potatoes,’ but then, that’s just one guy’s opinion.
I grew up loving Carlin, though I confess I couldn’t even sit through his last three or four shows, he was so grumpy and ridiculous (plus, senior citizens who spend more than 5 seconds on a fart joke is just unseemly). But in his prime, Carlin was undoubtedly one of the greats. It doesn’t get much better than “Class Clown.”
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 9:18 am #
Got some anecdotal evidence in favor of an afterlife yesterday. It could be chalked up to conicindence, but I believe my mom sent a birthday greeting from beyond.
Though I was peakid still, DH drove me down to Colonial Williamsburg yesterday some hours before his speaking engagement there, and for some diversion prior to his speech and glad-handing chores. I also would get a “Bentley for my birthday”, as he was speaking at the Rolls Royce Bentley convention (I did manage to get a meet-and-greet with a fabulous convertible)
You may know my mother has passed on recently, and she was an historical interpreter in Colonial Williamsburg for many, many years prior to her death, having given up her career in SCIENCE! for the history that was always her passion.
When I stopped by the lodge to meet my husband after his engagement, I went into the lobby shop for a moment and a book on 18th century medicine that was new caught my eye. I thought I might like to have it and picked it up, opened it, and there was my mother in stays and purple gown, pictured leaning over the bed of a pregnant servant near delivery. A nice birthday hello!
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 9:20 am #
Carlin had sway with multiple generations. That has to count for something. My son was really very down about it, and has been reading memorials all morning.
Comment by Log Cabin on 6/23 @ 9:21 am #
I wasn’t a huge fan. He wasn’t so much funny as thought provoking. One thing I can say for him is that he was a healthy skeptic of all the PC bullshit that the media spoon feeds us.
Rest easy, George. I hope that you are pleasantly surprised to find that there is a loving God, after all.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 9:23 am #
I like that story what Sarah said more better than stupid pretentious bitter George Carlin’s stories. Sheesh. It’s not like he didn’t die like forever ago.
Comment by TheGeezer on 6/23 @ 9:47 am #
Comment by Sdferr on 6/23 @ 9:51 am #
Truth is, I always preferred Spike Jones.
Comment by Education Guy on 6/23 @ 10:00 am #
I was a fan. I agree that he did seem to take on the bitter man position in his later years, but he was funny for a long, long time. Which takes talent. He made me laugh, and for that gift I will remember him fondly.
Comment by BJTex on 6/23 @ 10:01 am #
What Geezer said, but I can still rip off just about the entire “Wonderfull WINO Radio” routine.
People run screaming.
BING BONG! Five minutes after the big hour of 5 o’clock!
Comment by Sdferr on 6/23 @ 10:04 am #
Colonial Williamsburg just goes to show what you can get with some of that evil big evil oil evil money evil.
Comment by TmjUtah on 6/23 @ 10:10 am #
He’s probably pretty steamed about now.
Not only is he waiting for the Creator’s judgement, he’s waiting for Him to finish his round of golf….
Comment by Roboc on 6/23 @ 10:29 am #
Tampa could use an Al Sleet, or maybe just a Mexican high!
Comment by Jeff G. on 6/23 @ 10:44 am #
I found his performance in Car Wash lackluster. But I won’t hold it against him.
Comment by Roboc on 6/23 @ 10:46 am #
His Cardinal Glick character in Dogma was funny!
Comment by Big Mac on 6/23 @ 10:47 am #
I disagreed with most of his positions, and the last few HBO specials were more ranting and raving than comedy, but still, I am a big fan of his work. The world just won’t be the same without him.
His best bits (besides the 7 words, stuff, baseball vs. football, Wonderful WINO Radio, and Al Sleet) were the little moments that everyone could relate to. And I loved how he could pick apart the PC crap everyone gets spoonfed. On that issue, he lambasted the left and right equally.
Oh, and I have it good authority….the wait is not for God to finish is round of golf. George simply can’t find a place for his stuff.
Comment by Big Mac on 6/23 @ 10:49 am #
Roboc, I must agree. He was terrific in as Cardinal Glick. His best scene, however, was in the deleted scenes where he’s calling for help because they’re being attacked “by a large flying thing.”
Comment by McGehee on 6/23 @ 10:49 am #
I’ll always have kind thoughts about him. But then, I’ve always found bitter, cynical people to be more tolerable as friends than just about any other kind.
It’s probably just me.
Comment by The Sanity Inspector on 6/23 @ 10:53 am #
I don’t enjoy potty-mouth humor, but Carlin had enough great observational humor to keep my interest. I’ll miss him.
Comment by Stiv on 6/23 @ 10:55 am #
George Carlin was a lot like Sinatra in that, for a brief time, he was very good at what he did and was able to trade on that through the various levels of increasing mediocrity/self parody over the following thirty years or so.
Comment by LionDude on 6/23 @ 11:12 am #
“I never understood a moment of silence for the dead at sporting events. How about a moment of screaming? Aaaaaahhhhh!!! How about a moment of muffled conversation for the treated and released? I always wanted to be treated and detained.” – George Carlin (paraphrased to the best of my memory)
How about a shout-out for the Toledo Window Box album?
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 6/23 @ 11:20 am #
“W-I-N-O….Wonderful winooooo…..just below the police calls on your radio dial kids….”
- Yeh BJt. Remember it well. He was a funny guy in his younger and tweener years, in his dodage, not so much.
- The article mentions the Lenny Bruce connection in passing, giving Carlin far more credit than he deserves. The seven words thing was lifted in full, almost word for word, from Bruce’s club act, so the praise a number of fellow comedians are heaping on him is misplaced. It was Bruce, not Carlin, that braved the ire of the existing moors.
- RIP Carlin. You started mellow, and ended bitter and anal. Maybe you’ll get your “shit” and your “stuff” together now.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 11:25 am #
Ok yeah for real I think the world is an uglier place for him having lived in it. I think NPR’s gonna cry.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 11:28 am #
Tell me you didn’t think he look like he smelled funny.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 11:32 am #
Oh. *looked* … For sure he smells funny now.
Comment by BJTex on 6/23 @ 11:32 am #
“Sam Slade, here! the bossjockwiththebosshits ofthebosssoundsofthebosssongs that my boss told me to play!
All here on the nifty 850!”
Said really fast. One of my favorite routines. Who could forget the sportcaster?
“BIFF BARF HERE! BIFFIN’ UP THE SPORTS AND BARFIN’ IT BACK ATCHA!”
Comment by Roboc on 6/23 @ 11:34 am #
- The article mentions the Lenny Bruce connection in passing, giving Carlin far more credit than he deserves. The seven words thing was lifted in full, almost word for word, from Bruce’s club act, so the praise a number of fellow comedians are heaping on him is misplaced. It was Bruce, not Carlin, that braved the ire of the existing moors.
Yeah, and Dennis Leary lifted a lot of Bill Hicks’ stuff. The entertainment community thrives on the untimely demise of their greatest talent.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 11:35 am #
At some point comedy and funny diverged and everybody pretended not to notice. I think they thought they were being polite.
Comment by Big Bang Hunter (pumping you up) on 6/23 @ 11:40 am #
- In other news John McCain during his talk this morning, out on the campaign trail, coined a new word for Americans to apply in their daily labors:
“Creatility !”
- Cree’ate’til-it’tee: (adverb). To utilize a creative approach in a utilitarian manner; to make assertions based on needs or convenience; to manufacture facts by pulling them out of your ass on the fly. ibid, see Barack Obama speeches.
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 12:03 pm #
Thanks Feets, that mom-hello made the down hairs on my neck prickle up. It’s that long slide into geezery crankery I fear more than death now.
That and
Say, do kids still the comedy album thing? Not so much listen as group-listen in great lanky chip-eating heaps warily supervised by “interrupting mom”? Those were the days.
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 12:03 pm #
I have a kid, but it’s all podcasts and headphones with him.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 12:09 pm #
Well, it’s video now I guess. YouTube a lot. The little scamps basically YouTubed this guy into posthumous famousness.
Comment by TheGeezer on 6/23 @ 12:37 pm #
I resemble that remark!
Comment by BJTex on 6/23 @ 12:53 pm #
Huh, Geezer. Did he just cast asparagus upon you?
Fatwa!
Comment by Lisa on 6/23 @ 1:06 pm #
#1: I agree.
#3: Hee hee.
Comment by Ouroboros on 6/23 @ 1:32 pm #
Carlin was funny in the day.. but before it’s too late I’d sure like to see a Cheech and Chong reunion…
Comment by ccoffer on 6/23 @ 2:30 pm #
Carlin was hilarious when I was 11 years old. The older I got, the less so he became.
Comment by cranky-d on 6/23 @ 2:47 pm #
So do I!
Comment by McGehee on 6/23 @ 4:44 pm #
Alla you kids get offa my lawn!
Comment by Rusty on 6/23 @ 4:57 pm #
Well. I guess he’s gonna find out once and for all whether Jesus can bring the pork chops.
Pingback by Wasteland [Dan Collins] on 6/23 @ 4:57 pm #
[...] someone at Instaputz was bent about my paean to Carlin, and posted this: Somewhere Out There Is An Ex-Girlfriend Who Needs To Be Publicly [...]
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/23 @ 7:27 pm #
“Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 8:06 am #
This is the best thread to say I lived another year. YAY. The sadness of being old and busted, just needs to be properly framed in terms of someone who can’t get any older or busteder, to restore the HAPPEE!”
Thank God for fellow travellers! It’s tough to become an old street urchin in the time it takes for someone to hit you across the face with a two-by-four.
Well, not literally, but it sure feels like it sometimes.
And coincidentally, speaking of living another year, tomorrow is my mummble mumble birthday.
I have lived more than twice as long as I thought I would. All of the best rock stars died in their twenty seventh year, and when I didn’t, I was bummed. And unprepared for the more than twenty seven years that have ensued.
I would never kill myself, because I am afraid that I might miss something coll (which is also why I tend to stay up so late), but sometimes I wonder. Were my friends who checked out in their thirties the smart ones? I mean, imagine how much I could have saved on bills and taxes.
Anyway, happy mumble mumble to me!
Comment by happyfeet on 6/23 @ 7:32 pm #
Yay birthday, Mr. Lost Dog! Have a very happy one, you should. I skipped my birthday this year cause I was on a plane and I was really a lot knackered when I got in, but now that feels like the wrong thing to have done I think.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/23 @ 7:41 pm #
God’s farts now sound like George Carlin, and the angels chuckle politely.
71. Seemed longer.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/23 @ 7:46 pm #
Or did I mean “…something cool…”? I’m actually not sure what “coll” means.
And SaraW – Keep on keepin’ on. I have had a horrendous two years, but I still believe. That and the thing about missing something way cool. I just wish I could still shoot out of bed after sleeping four hours in three days, hit the car, and be fine by the time I got to work.
Now, even after a good night’s sleep, it takes at least an hour, two cups of coffee, and 150 Adderols before I can even open the shades.
I’m pretty sure I was 26 about a year ago, but I wouldn’t swear to it. My only real complaint, though, is that I have been around long enough that when I play in a bar and am “ahemed”, I see the driver of the car instead of the chrome.
And the last set is like swinging a sledgehammer. The last set used to be a call to arms…
Best to you, Sara. I really enjoy reading your stuff.
Comment by The Lost Dog on 6/23 @ 7:52 pm #
And thanks, HF.
I wish I could skip THIS one! And maybe the last twenty five or so, also.
Just kidding. But this B’day is the first one ever that has made me feel that my immortality is crumbling.
But wonder of wonders! I am still here, and intend to enjoy every last minute. Well, at least I’m going to try.
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/23 @ 9:09 pm #
Happy Birthday you two!
Comment by Dave E. on 6/23 @ 9:34 pm #
“It was Bruce, not Carlin, that braved the ire of the existing moors.”
Yes, no one expects the Bruce Reconquista!
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 9:43 pm #
Hey, TLD, I wish you a very happy mumble. We’re like twins!
Adderals…lucky. I wish I could get me some of those. I did have a chocolate rocket which is this granita made with cocoa and chocolate chips from Ray’s Italian Ice. It wasn’t even sugar free. I had them when I was sick last week and they turn out to contain crack.
I got a tiger maple box and a party dress also. Now I just have to sit back and wait for death.
HF, you deserve a birthday. You could have one of those Christmas in July halfway birthdays.
Comment by SarahW on 6/23 @ 9:48 pm #
Oh plus I got to touch a Bentley convertible.
DH was driven about in one of the big, 2009 Brooklands. So that was neato
Comment by Jeff G. on 6/23 @ 11:49 pm #
happy –
Hedberg was a comic genius. I wrote about his death here somewhere. Likely the day he died. He was really starting to hit his stride when he died. If you get the chance to get the uncut version of his HBO special, check it out. It’s available on DVD.
Comment by Spies, Brigands, and Pirates on 6/23 @ 11:54 pm #
Yes, no one expects the Bruce Reconquista!
So he was a Marrano?
Comment by Norm on 6/24 @ 1:38 am #
The Hippy Dippy Weatherman.
Comment by Cowboy on 6/24 @ 4:13 am #
Jeff:
Hedberg is featured on the comedy channels on XM radio now and then during my commute. Flat out hilarious.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/24 @ 4:56 am #
Thank you for the birthday wishes. Hedberg – I have a couple shows somewhere but I’ve never seen them, and I’m not sure where they’re living right now. I think they’re on that external over there but it looks like I don’t have a letter thingy for that drive. I wonder what the red light means. This will all get resolved when I get my new machine built. But the Hedberg – at Christmas I saw these highschool kids do his stuff verbatim on and on and it was interesting cause it wasn’t really at all funny the way they said it but you could tell he had really made an impression, so I’ve been wanting to see.
My thing with comedy is that I have a short attention span for it cause it tends to sort of be too much of the same flavor. Does that make sense? And also I hardly ever seek it out cause not-comedy is surprisingly plenty funny more often than you’d think. You saw what Shyamalan did at the box office a couple weeks ago.
Comment by TheGeezer on 6/24 @ 6:19 am #
Heh.
There’s amnesia in the hangnot
and comfort in the axe;
but the simple way of poison
will make the nerves relax.
With an ugh! and a groan
and a kick of the heels
Death comes quiet
or it comes with squeals…
I cannot remember who wrote it, so my apologies to the author.
And why on earth would I have memorized this poem when I was a thanatoptic teenager – and remembered this snippet only?
Comment by David Harr on 6/24 @ 7:01 am #
I think that was something that Heinlein wrote and attributed to his character “Jubal Harshaw” from A Stranger in a Strange Land.
I prefer
Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren’t lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
– Dorothy Parker