A sad day
Posted on June 23rd, 2008 by Brad
George Carlin is dead. This sucks on, like, a billion different levels.
The most remarkable thing about Carlin as a comedian wasn’t just that he never lost his edge as he got older; rather, it’s that his edge actually got sharper. The older and bitterer the dude got, the funnier he became. His “seven dirty words” routine, while still his best-known work, is nothing compared to stuff like this:
I’ll miss you, George Carlin. You’re easily the funniest guy of my lifetime.
I always liked his take on the Persian Gulf War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjRQwvnjpPw
And yet, Cheney’s robotic pig-valve/baboon heart keeps beating. There’s no justice.
Oh, I dunno…I think K-Lo’s got Carlin in teh funnay department.
Yeah, I was gonna say Bert Prelusky or mebbe Daffy Ab-Huge Sammich
Not that it’s not a sad day, of course. i <3 G.C.
I regret not ever seeing that magnificent bastard perform in person. He came through my town a few times in the last decade or so, but you never think, “You know, this might be the last time it happens…” And it just so happens that it was.
Very sad.
K.Lo: “… John McCain would be well served by a more audible wife on the campaign trail.”
True, that’s comedic gold. To whit:
“Say goodniight, Cindy.”
“Goodnight, baldie.”
“Shut up, you cunt!”
Younger than McCain.
I’ve been watching Carlin clips all morning.
“You know what ‘like chocolate’ means? It means there’s no fucking chocolate in it!”
After Bill Hicks died we at least still had George Carlin, but now we are left with Dane Cook. Are there any smart comedians left?
Chris Rock is incredibly funny, though not so much in recent years.
The public sucks; Fuck hope.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u6lCBnRoHQ&eurl=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/23/11114/5831?detail=f
He will be missed.
I was lucky to have seen Carlin perform a couple years ago. He was awesome.
Bill Hicks sucked. The difference between Hicks and Dane Cook/Carlos Mencia/etc. is not as big as you’d like to think.
One of the highlights of my teenage years was a performance by Carlin in Shreveport, Louisiana, of all places, in 1976. Carlin had been stationed at nearby Barksdale AFB in the early 60s, and did a local radio show during that time. He told some great stories about his time in the area.
But he also did the Seven Words bit (with a digression to talk about how, while you can’t say “fuck” on TV, you can sure talk about it–“how to fuck, when to fuck, whom to fuck, how to feel while you’re fuckin’ . . . you just can’t say FUCK!”). I was sore in my rib cage from laughing for a couple of days.
When people talk about that overused cliche “truth to power,” they are really talking about Carlin.
RIP.
Next up: Wingnut-o-rama time, as George Carlin becomes the latest “DFH potty-mouthed indecent amoral society-ruining” poster boy for old-fart Boomers who never got laid in college and still sit around grousing about it.
(ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back) (ignoring Larry Johnson) (ignoring Hillaryis44) (ignoring Riverdaughter) (ignoring Taylor Marsh) OBAMA STILL DOESN’T GET IT! (pats self on back)
The first Carlin piece I ever heard was Fussy Eater, but my favourite is God: The Last Refuge of The Man With No Answers. Can’t find a link for it, but it’s especially poignant right now in the light of the House capitulation last week.
Next up: Wingnut-o-rama time, as George Carlin becomes the latest “DFH potty-mouthed indecent amoral society-ruining” poster boy for old-fart Boomers who never got laid in college and still sit around grousing about it.
True, but I would prefer that to wholesale co-opting of the spirit his message and claiming that deep-down he was actually a conservative, which is their usual tactic.
The old coot had good run.
I hope the worms find you a tasty morsel Mr. Carlin.
“Bill Hicks sucked.”
Aren’t you wonderfully contrary and discriminating of taste.
Found it. George Carlin telling you where your fourth amendment is.
Bingo. And I can’t wait for Andrew Sullivan to look deeply into the mirror of his soul and come to the conclusion that he really always was and is *more* George Carlin than Carlin himself.
I’d go for Pryor for inherent funniness, but Carlin for overall output, especially given his several scrapbooks of observations.
“Bill Hicks sucked. The difference between Hicks and Dane Cook/Carlos Mencia/etc. is not as big as you’d like to think.”
Now we know who asked to hear Free Bird! Always wondered who that was.
Let’s not do the old guy a disservice and pretend that he was backing a horse in this race. When I saw him a couple years ago, he said he didn’t give a fuck about politics. No co-opting him for our agenda.
He was a magnificent guy, though.
I’m glad I got to see him. I laughed so hard I cried. He was the best at toilet humor.
He did, however, always endorse ignoring religion and treating each other better.
I call that one for the liberals.
No co-opting him for our agenda.
Certainly not, but they can’t have him either.
Yeah, I always saw him as apolitical. He had too low a tolerance for bullshit to be political.
Yeah. You know who’s really funny, though? That Carrot-Top.
Anyway- good job, George.
I’m gonna miss him. He was one of the biggest influences on how I view comedy and language. I agree he was apolitical, but God help the poor bastard that wandered into his sights. I always saw him as libertarian really: “Leave me the fuck alone.” And one of the very few comedians who embraced his atheism. In fact I was just trolling Youtube (avoid the comments at all costs!) and caught his ‘swear on the bible’ routine.
A shame, it would have been nice if he could have at least stuck around to see the onset of an Obama presidency. Might have let him go out with a bit more of a smile, and a flip of the bird to the right wing asshole legions…
What does the Silver Douchebag have to say about this?
I always saw him as libertarian really
You and the Ron Paul people.
I’ll never forget you, George. Thank you for the years of laughter and calling bullshit the way you did.
By the way,
Three rednecks: “Hey buddy, we’re Christians and we don’t like what you said”.
Bill Hicks: “Then forgive me”.
Just that puts him way ahead of the Cooks and Mencias of today.
Oh no!
RIP, George. I was lucky enough to see him three times live, and I’ve been listening to his stuff since the early 80s.
My brother’s going to be devastated – he worships Carlin.
fuck the ump! fuck the ump! fuck the ump!
Carlin was a titan and he will be missed. At least we still have David Cross.
Much bigger, more personal loss than Russert.
(no disrespect intended)
It’s like losing a brother.
I suppose the wing-nuts will attack, now.
Peace
Goerge, I’ll miss ya.
At least you don’t have to worry about where to put your stuff anymore.
If by the slim chance you’re wrong (and I don’t think you are) I’ll see you soon, but in the meantime give Mr. Invisible the finger for me will ya?
I never laughed much at Carlin except when I was in the 8th grade and heard him use dirty words. He did, however, make me aware of language and its use in the way that I imagine smarter people get schooled by Orwell essays.
Thanks to George for making me a smidge less stupid.
I just posted his “All about your precious fucking rights” bit. Agreed on avoiding the YouTube comments (what is it with some of those morons?) and wish like hell that I’d had the chance to see Sir George live, as my traveling-solo husband did in Vegas a few years back. Grrrr.
He’s one of the greats, and his wit and wisdom will be sorely missed. *sniff*
Heh. In the same way that conservatives claim Stephen Colbert, I assume.
Found it. George Carlin telling you where your fourth amendment is.
Wow, I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years or so. He’d really gotten frail, hadn’t he? I assume that was a recent clip.
Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck.
George Carlin
Damn I’ll miss him.
Wow, I hadn’t seen him in a couple of years or so. He’d really gotten frail, hadn’t he? I assume that was a recent clip.
You’ll probably want to check with the Carlin-ologists but it looks like the set is from his March 1st show.
I just IMed my wife w/ the sad news that George died. Her response:
“Glad we didn’t buy those tickets to his show this fall.”
She thought George would have loved that joke.
One less shit-disturber.
Scary … shit gets dangerous when it gets too comfortable.
One of the very best. Good to brilliant material, and a killer delivery. He will be missed.
I find it telling that even the conservotrolls all over the internet today can’t get their hate on without letting us know that that Carlin wasn’t funny anymore. Few dare a flat “wasn’t funny” — too obvious for a proper troll.
Still, what they’re really telling us is “I liked Hippy Dippy Weatherman and hearing dirty words right up til one of my oxes was gored”. I expect Roy Edroso to have plenty of fodder in the next few weeks; the wingnuts won’t be able to resist sharing the results of running Carlin’s entertainment product through their ideological filter assembly. Hooray lizard shit FUCK!
Had to share this bit of gibberish.
Witness:
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/008959.html
A strong contender for NWOTY.
Yeah, I always saw him as apolitical.
Not entirely:
Sorry, but I have to share one of the comments from that Small Dead Animals blog, because this is truly the winner of the Missing the Point sweepstakes:
“I never liked him, or found his insights to be anything but trite and banal.If you’re going to be an angry comic, at least be able to understand some universal truths.”
“Bill Hicks sucked. The difference between Hicks and Dane Cook/Carlos Mencia/etc. is not as big as you’d like to think.”
What a wonderful discovery- not only is Helen Keller still alive, she’s posting on blogs now.
VIRGOTEX makes a good point.
How often can you pinpoint the exact moment when a commenter jumps the shark?
The 2005 HBO special on youtube (in 7 parts) is great.
Life is worth living
I think Hicks has been a tad canonized since his early departure, but I always thought he was pretty fucking funny. Would love to have heard his thoughts on current affairs.
But I grew up with Carlin, and have many, many fond memories of disturbing other college library patrons by laughing my fool head off while listening to his albums with headphones on. These days I always find myself stopping on one of his shows when I’m channel-surfing, and, while his age was certainly showing in his most recent HBO special, he was still sharp and made me laugh.
I’ll hoist one tonight for the old bastard.
Found this in the comments over at that site Yuck pointed to. Can someone please explain what the fuck this is supposed to mean?
My emphasis. That is the entire comment, by the way, not merely an excerpt.
I saw George 3 times in the 90s. He wasn’t apolitical, he was anti-partisan and unaffiliated. He was also one of us, the BDS sufferers, the folk not fooled by Governor Bush. If anything, he became far, far more political over time, a fact not received well by the trailer trash sitting in front of me during one show when George went into his routine about the first Gulf War and GHW. They were just there for the swearing, they didn’t expect or want to be forced to think.
This is gonna be like HST, and keep hitting me for a long time. I feel like I’ve lost a limb.
And I hope someone chucks rotten fruit at Dane Cook when he’s onstage at the inevitable populated by shitheads tribute performance.
And shoots Carlos Mencia.
Only Jon Stewart, David Cross, Zach Galifinakas, and the members of UCB should be involved.
I meant to say Life is worth Losing
This clip is a beautiful excerpt.
But then there’s this (also from the article):
Point being; personally, he was left-of-center and interested, but he was never really known for his political humor, despite the occasional salvo.
Me, I think his bullshit detector was too finely tuned to favor any political party. I think he was obviously a social liberal, but then, most rational people are.
old-fart Boomers who never got laid in college and still sit around grousing about it
As opposed to old-fart Boomers who keep nattering on about how they got laid in college while most of us do not want to picture their geriatric asses pumping away.
Would somebody please explain the appeal of Dane Cook?
I don’t follow stand-up comedy, but HAVE followed any number of links over the past years to “hot new comics” and had a laugh or two.
First read a mostly negative article about Cook — whom I had never heard of — a couple of years ago, and my inner knee-jerk contrarian said “Dammit, I’m gonna like this guy.”
Watched about an hour’s worth of clips on youtube and not only did I not laugh even once, I felt like I was hallucinating — because the audience was beside itself, falling over in the aisles, laughing so hard they were in tears.
A year after that, Cook is the guest of a radio show hosted by some Local Hipsters (whose show I always enjoy). It went about like this:
Local Hipster: “Ha, ha, ha… so DANE! So good to see you! You’ve blown up HUGE! You’re like the biggest comic on the planet right now! How does that feel?”
Dane Cook: “Oh, I try not to think like that.”
Local Hipster: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
Seems like a nice, self-effacing kind of guy. But why is he funny? Or rather, why does he have so many fans?
And if anybody can quote even one good joke, I’d appreciate it.
No, you’re not the only one mystified by the claim that Dane Cook is funny. I tried watching some of his HBO special, and I quite literally couldn’t identify the laugh lines. Even with, say, Mencia I can tell which moments are supposed to be funny, even if they’re not, but Dane Cook, as far as I can tell, doesn’t actually tell jokes.
I think he’s an outgrowth of the Jimmy Fallon phenomenon, where it doesn’t matter if he’s funny so long as enough teenage girls think he’s cute.
his peroration on how we went from “shell shock” to “post traumatic stress disorder” is beyond brilliant. i thought it was part of the linked vid but it wasn’t there.
dane cook sucks donkeys who in turn are sucking donkey balls. and what’s weird about him is that it is by design. i’ve worked with him in a loose setting where he was able to improv (Waiting) and he was really really funny. then i went to see his stand-up and it was just frat-boy nothingness. i think there are two things going on: dane is aggressively anti-jewish in his humor presentation (and i’m not talking anti-semitically)–he’s really some weird kind of american pablum fratty style type. second thing is he gets that this shit sells, and he’s happy to purvey it as long as it fills up arenas.
anyway, george carlin, one of my all time punk rock heroes. he will be missed.
Would somebody please explain the appeal of Dane Cook?
I don’t know Dane Cook, but I have a pretty handy rule for this sort of thing. You can never overestimate America’s poor taste.
Dane Cook: There’s only ONE GEORGE CARLIN!!
(for all you MLB playoff fans)
George Carlin, Margaret Cho, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks . . . My four favorite comedians.
Well, I’ve still got Margaret.
Ah, George. I think I completely wore out the 8-track copies of “Class Clown” and “FM” that I had while growing up.
“OK Sheriff, we’re gonna fuck ya now. And we’re gonna fuck ya sloooowwwww.”
Ya had a damned good run, buddy. We’ll miss you, indeed.
He did not lose his edge that’s for sure, even at 70. Debasement of language is a hobby horse of mine, too, but I never, in a million years, could get on a brilliant rant like that.
Loved George. Still love him. Always will.
For me, hearing George Carlin as an adolescent set me on the path.
I’m glad I had the chance to see him perform a few years ago.
Thank goodness for old vinyl, cd reissues, and YouTube.
Thanks for the laughs, George. Every one of them mattered.
“If you’re going to be an angry comic, at least be able to understand some universal truths.”
Understanding the “universal truths” — life sucks, and then you die, all the while surrounded by idiots — is guaranteed to make you angry, but few of us are strong enough to push past that anger and let it make us comic as well. Carlin is Celtic for knowing; a carlin person was one possessed of the secret knowledge only available to those who are willing to look at the world as it is, not as we wish it was or as our superiors tell us it is. Today George Carlin was memorialized by the media as “the guy who did that hilarious routine about the seven dirty words”, just as Mark Twain was memorialized in his day as “the man who wrote that hilarious story about the jumping frog — comic ethnic accents and everything!” Carlin would not be surprised to have his fifty-year career reduced to Seven Words, but don’t I wish his response to such eulogies could be youtubed!
I liked Dane Cook the first time, when he was Ryan Reynolds.
I haven’t been this bummed since Vonnegut died. Of course, barely a month after Vonnegut, Jerry Falwell kicked the bucket. Maybe there’s some sort of Karmic balancing act going on here: take one of Ours, take one of Theirs. If that is indeed the case, then Pat Robertson had best start getting his will up to date…
Carlin was the first comedian I remember hearing as a kid and thinking, “Wow. This guy gets it.” I was probably seven, circa 1972 and AM/FM. He reminded me of my big brother more than my parents, and I liked that.
He never quit being honest and incisive, much to his credit.
All that said, Bill Hicks was the greatest comedian of my adult life. There’s barely a day that goes by that I don’t wish he were still here to rage against the assholes running this country.
But Bill Hicks’ greatest moments came when he knew he was dying, right? I thought I read that somewhere. Not that that diminishes him, but it’s fascinating in a very different way.
What would Carlin have said if he’d believed he only had a week to live? I don’t know if _I’d_ want to know that, but I’m sure Bush definitely wouldn’t want to hear it….
When he got to the bit about “Passing Away” instead of dying I suddenly got choked up. He really was the funniest comic alive. Thanks to youtube i’ve seen almost every performance put to tape, now I’m so sad there will be no more.