RIP George Carlin

[c.n.budz]

Damn, I was watching Dogma about a week ago and one of my friends asked if Carlin was still alive, talk about creepy timing...

I'll hoist one in his memory tonight

 

[MrFebtober]

Carlin single-handedly convinced me that golf was the dumbest and most idiotic game ever. He was a great comic and quite the thinker.

It saddened me to hear this news on my way to work.

 

[TexLaw]

I was not happy to hear that. I remember that my parents had a VCR tape of the very first episode of Saturday Night Live. I don't have a clue how they got it, but they had it. I watched his opening monologue over and over, writing it down, and I could recite it verbatim for a while.

Even yesterday, I thought of Carlin while making a blueberry-garlic-sage-mint-rosemary sauce for some lamb chops. Blue on the vine; purple on the plate. There's no blue food, man!


TL

 

[BlindLemonLars]

I've been reading articles all morning, this is one of the more thoughtful ones I've found.

How George Carlin Changed Comedy

 

[Desert_Sky]

Cheers old man...... you will be missed

 

[DeathBrewer]

man, that is tragic...

 

[EdWort]

I picked up his hard back book Napalm and Silly Putty for the trip home from NHC. It was on the bargain table at Barnes & Noble. Just after the acknowledgments page, there are some quotes.

Many native traditions held clowns and tricksters as essential to any contact with the sacred. People could not pray until they had laughed, because laughter opens and frees from rigid preconception. Humans had to have tricksters within the most sacred ceremonies lest they forget the sacred comes through upset, reversal, surprise. The trickster in most native traditions is essential to creation, to birth.
-Professor Byrd Gibbon in a letter to George Carlin

Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.
-Anonymous

If you can't dance you f*ck a lot of waitresses.
-Voltaire

Sometimes gum looks like a penny.
-Sally Wade

 

[EdWort]

Some notable quotes from the Short Takes section of George Carlin's book Napalm & Silly Putty.

If I had my choice of how to die I would like to be sitting on the crosstown bus and suddenly burst into flames.

There's something I like about the clitoris, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

When you think about it, 12:15 PM is actually 11:75 AM.

You live eighty years, and at best you get about six minutes of pure magic.

"Rivera Live" is such a good show. If only Rivera weren't on it.

I think highways should have a beer lane.

Why aren't there any really disturbing pop songs like "Tomorrow I'm Gonna F*ck Your Wife"?

Lacrosse is not a sport; lacrosse is a ******y college activity. I don't care how rough it is, any time you're running around a field, waving a stick with a little net on the end of it, you're engaged in a ******y college activity. Period.

F*ck Rational Thought.

I hope reincarnation is a fact so can come back and f*ck teenagers again.

Here's to reincarnation and teenagers George!

 

[quickerNu]

I read Napalm and Silly Putty by candlelight in my first house after moving out at 18. Sometimes just couldn't afford electricity. Not a happy guy at that time, but that book sure gave me a different way of looking at things. Made me laugh when little else could.
Thanks, George.

 

[the_bird]

A lot of Napalm + Silly Putty is old material of his; I was watching some performance he did, maybe late '70s, early '80s, and recognized most of the bits from the book. Who knew someone so cynical would be into recycling!

 

[niquejim]

I'll pass on the sh!t and p!ss brews, but I'd like to sample the cvnt and t!ts when they're ready.

Here it is
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=23562

 

[BlindLemonLars]

Who knew someone so cynical would be into recycling!

Which brings to mind one of my favorite Carlin quotes:

"Scratch any cynic, and you’ll find a disappointed idealist."

 

[Sir Humpsalot]

Never been a big fan. He had some pretty clever stuff, but I never saw him as a "laugh Out Loud" kind of guy. A lot of his stuff I thought was a ripoff of Lenny Bruce. Not the material, but the style. But, he was a true American Icon.

Do you realize that he was a friend of Lenny Bruce's? I don't think I'd consider it a "rip-off"... more like a mentor/mentee kind of thing, You probably sound a lot like your friends too. And you'd probably sound even more like them if you were in the same business.

 

[DeathBrewer]

Which brings to mind one of my favorite Carlin quotes:

"Scratch any cynic, and you’ll find a disappointed idealist."

cheers to that!

 

[Soulive]

I wasn't a fan, but I can respect what he's done. RIP...

 

[Damonic]

Hate to be the odd man out on this thread but... I was a fan until my wife bought me tickets for my birthday a couple years ago. It was absolutely awful. I loved his older stuff and thought it very witty but he spiraled downward into a sad bitter old pr*ck. He opened with the same 10 minute tirade that I had already seen on HBO... he'd been milking it forever it seems and I didn't need to pay $$$ to hear it again.

He wasn't funny, he was offensive, and not offensive in a funny way, just plain "slam on the brakes of fun" offensive. People were steadily walking out after the first 20 minutes and he was cussing them out as they left.

Then he started talking about these young girls that had just been murdered locally and he started talking about how we should dig 'em up and f*ck 'em since it was a waste of good p*ssy. WHAT?!

At that point my wife and I looked at each other, smile-less, and said let's go. Trust me, its not like we're prude or anything, we went for the dirty humor and biting political opinion... but the spark was gone. George Carlin wasn't there... there was just a bitter old dirty man onstage.

 

[EdWort]

Then he started talking about these young girls that had just been murdered locally and he started talking about how we should dig 'em up and f*ck 'em since it was a waste of good p*ssy. WHAT?!

At that point my wife and I looked at each other, smile-less, and said let's go. Trust me, its not like we're prude or anything, we went for the dirty humor and biting political opinion... but the spark was gone. George Carlin wasn't there... there was just a bitter old dirty man onstage.

His book is filled with sick statements like that. It is a shame cause he truly made me laugh my a$$ off, but as I mentioned before he extremely bitter in his last years.

Now that he is dead, I will try to remember only the stuff that made me laugh instead of the stuff that made me think that he was a bitter pr!ck rengas lihas.

 

[BlindLemonLars]

For those who wish to celebrate the life and work of this great social satirist, HBO will be playing eleven of his specials, Wednesday (6/25) and Thursday nights. Fire up the Tivo!

Wednesday, June 25 on HBO2

8pm George Carlin at USC (1977)
9pm George Carlin Again! (1978)
11pm Carlin at Carnegie (1983)
12am Carlin on Campus (1984)
1am Playin' With Your Head (1986)

Thursday, June 26 on HBO2

8pm What Am I Doing in New Jersey? (1988)
9pm Doin' It Again (1990)
10pm Jammin' in New York (1992)
11pm Back in Town (1996)
12am You Are All Diseased (1999)
1am It's Bad For Ya (2008)