Some comedians have made a living with one-liners, some make fun of their lame sex lives and some just milked their one-note routine for a while and went away (see ya, Diceman).
The best comedians have always been astute observers of absurdity in an ordinary day; their material was about the stuff we saw all around but we didn’t see how funny — or stupid — it could be. Taking something overt and repackaging it so you have a completely different perspective on it is an art. And today, we lost an artist.
George Carlin died of heart failure at age 71.
The thing I liked most about Carlin was his scrutiny of language as used for propaganda, censorship and manipulation:
The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it’s all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition,” Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. “There’s an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. … It’s reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have.
I saw him perform about 20 years ago and, of course, the part that stands out most is his legendary “Seven Words” routine which made me literally fall out of my seat laughing.
Labeling and reciting a string of “dirty” words together wasn’t offensive, it was just funny because he distilled them down to exactly what they were: just words. It’s how we used them and interpreted them that made them the subject of censorship, debate and outrage.
His comedy was philosophy, forcing us to take a look at what we do and why we do it. Timely and timeless, George Carlin always had us thinking twice.
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It’s still hard to believe we lost George Carlin. He has always been there… speaking his mind, speaking the truth, cutting through all the BS, — the guy on the corner who attracts a crowd leveling with them and making them see the absurdity of society.
I will miss him. Every couple of years he would go away and then come back for a visit via an HBO special or comedy tour to tell us what he has observed since the last time we saw him. A couple years from now, I will be expecting a new special, but alas there won’t be one.
Thankfully, he has left us a wealth of material that we can continue to digest and enjoy.
Ed, I forgot that you saw him live 20 years ago. I remember when you did because I was so envious of you.
In his most recent special… just a few months ago, he was looking a bit frail. He seemed older than 71 in it. It made me wonder how much longer we would have him, but I thinking in terms of years, not months.
He will be greatly missed.