George Carlin, 71, died yesterday of heart failure.
What an incredibly great loss.
George Carlin was on my short list of people I would like to meet before I die, with Spalding Grey, the Dalai Lama and Alice Cooper. I have reasons for my desire to meet each one, and I have noticed the list of possibilities is growing shorter.
When I was younger and more naive I was appalled at the things that Carlin used to say in his shows. There was a time when I thought he was offensive. As I grew up in body and spirit and mind the things he would say in comedy began to poke at me and would actually make me think about the things I believed. To this day, I try to practice his wise words from one of my favorite stupid 80s movies of all time, “Be excellent to each other”.
His “Seven Words” act is one of the things he is most well known for among people who didn’t follow him that closely, and even got him a footnote in the legal history when the Supreme Court ruled that playing his act on a radio broadcast during hours when children could be listening was not OK.
I personally loved his pokes at religion. I have my reasons. I loved him in Dogma for a lot of the same reasons.
I will leave w/ this clip, that I have posted before, b/c aside from being amazingly hilarious, he also had a way w/ words that I found profound.
We will miss you, George. And I am sorry I never got the chance to finish my list.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrXvDXVhqfU]
Me too. At least I did get to see him live.
I can not even express how that makes me a bit jealous.
I also cried the day they found Spalding Grey, b/c I had always wanted to meet him too. The Dalai Lama is about the same age as Carlin…so I had best get cracking…
Alice Cooper (don’t ask, Detroit love thing I guess…beating alcoholism and such) is probably the easiest on my list.
And, hey, thanks for swinging by from time to time!
It still seems so surreal that he has gone. He was a class act and one of a kind. There is no one that can compare..My honey and I spent the day go back and forth on some of our favorite routines that he did.
indeed it does.
he has no equal and will not be matched by any.
also, awesome to see you on Feministe! Kudos!