"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately." -- George Carlin
I remember my brother somewhere getting a recording of George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television" routine. It was a real Beavis and Butthead moment for him: "he said shit, heh, heh." As I grew older, I came to appreciate George Carlin's wit and sense of absurdity even more than his pottymouth. It saddened me to hear of his sudden death this weekend. He managed to skewer the minor irritations of life as adeptly as the major contradictions of humanity, and that's quite a talent.
Well, if crime fighters fight crime, and firefighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
How is it possible to have a civil war?
Have you ever noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff?
Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man...living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money.
If a deaf person swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
Why don’t sheep shrink when it rains?
This is the first news I've heard of it. Sigh. And those of us raised Catholic won't forget impure, impure, impurity, impureness
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way when I read about this this morning. He'll be missed.
ReplyDeleteSigh. I didn't know. He will be missed. May God have a sense of humor, and be good to him.
ReplyDeleteOooh. He gave so many laughs- and laughs are so valuable. Thanks for the quotes. Love the religion one.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting those quotes.
ReplyDeleteone of my first albums was carlin's "class clown".
ReplyDeletethe bi-labial frickative. the artificial fart under the arm. the seven words you (still) can't say on tv.
yeah, man, good times.
hopefully george and god are having a good laugh right now.
I was so sad to hear the news, I really thought he was funny, both thoughtfully and goofily. The last of his kind.
ReplyDeletei was lucky enough to see him live when i was in college. i was sitting in the third row and i laughed so hard that my abdomen hurt for 3 days afterwards.
ReplyDeletei will miss him.
Hooray, Lizard Shit, Fuck!!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's for you, George Carlin.
You can't say 'em on TV, but you sure as hell can say 'em on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI heard this morning and have been bummed all day. I never did hear the seven words bit (off to google in a moment), but I remember being relieved the first time I heard one of his riffs on religion. I took a lot of shit as a 14 year old by dropping out of church, and it was nice to know that there was one adult who would have been accepting. Humm, beginning to see why I'm feeling worse over his passing that over my father's a few years ago. Sad, but true.
ReplyDeleteGeez. I remember once I saw him on TV doing a riff on his dog going to the vet to get his anal gland expressed . . . It was not just his deliciously sardonic voice that was so funny, but the expressions of his craggy face.
ReplyDeletePerhaps this is why the acronym ROTFL was invented?
Jerry Seinfeld wrote a wonderful, funny tribute to George the other day in the New York Times. He said that every time he came up with a hot comedic idea, somebody would say, "Carlin did that already."
ReplyDeleteI have often used Carlin quotes on my blog. I will miss his cynical but spot-on take of the world.
The seven words, memorized from that same record in the 1970s: piss, shit, fuck, cunt, motherfucker, cocksucker, tits.
ReplyDelete