In Memory of George Carlin

We lost an American Icon this weekend as comedian George Carlin passed away on June 22, 2008 at the age of 71 from heart failure. Knowing him, he would probably hate the fact that I said he "passed away". He would say something like "I didn't pass away and I'm not lost..... I'm fuckin' dead!" George Carlin was, by far, the most intelligent and controversial stand up comedian of our time. His outlook on life and the world set him apart from other comedians. I grew up listening to him and I am very sad to hear of his death. I wasn't fortunate enough to see him perform live but I will cherish the HBO specials that I have tapes of. I won't take you through his whole life but I will talk about some of the things that he said that made me and others like me think.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention his most infamous routine "The seven words you could never say on television" I won't repeat them here because I don't want to get banned from AC but most of you know what they are. If you don't know what they are, either you've been living under a rock or you're one of those Bible thumping religious fanatics. While this was, in my opinion, the funniest routine he ever did, it was also the smartest. He made you realize that there really are no offensive words if you don't let words offend you. He took each one of these "dirty words" and dissected them to the point where you just couldn't find them offensive, just funny.

George had a lot of "great ideas" and one of my favorites was his idea for illegal immigrants in this country. I will paraphrase him on this one. His idea was that if Mexican immigrants want to become US citizens then give them a rifle and send them to Iraq. After they serve this country and do their tour of duty then makes them citizens. If they refuse to serve, send them to Iraq anyway without the rifle. In my opinion this was absolutely brilliant. It made sense and was funny at the same time. These kinds of ideas are what made George so special. He was always thinking of new ways to improve this country even though most of his ideas were so far off the wall they would never work.

"If two people are in an elevator and one person farts everyone knows who did it" This is classic Carlin from the album Occupation: Foole and the routine "Cute Little Farts". I still listen to this album to this day and laugh my ass off every time I hear it. Occupation: Foole along with "Class Clown" (which has the now famous "7 words you can never say on television" routine) are his two best albums ever. Only Carlin could get away with talking about farts without coming off as being grotesque or offensive and the reason why was his knowledge of the English language. Very few people could command the language like him and he did this effortlessly.

I could go on for hours quoting George Carlin and talking about his character but many of you already know what a great individual he was. He wasn't a religious man and in many interviews questioned the existence of God. He did joke that he worshiped the Sun because that was something he could see and prayed to Joe Pesci because he looked like a guy who could get things done. Joe and George were close friends in real life.

I never met George Carlin but I admired and loved him just the same. In a career than spanned five decades he brought joy and laughter to millions of people around the world and his comedic genius will live on for years to come. He was abrasive, nasty, rude, crude, outrageous, controversial, offensive and often disgusting and that's why we loved him so. I will truly miss George Carlin as will the millions of fans that have followed his career. He was and always will be my favorite stand up comedian. Take care of yourself where ever you are my friend. You will never be forgotten.