Carlin

[Kyoshi]

I just wanted to express a sadness from the loss of a great comedian and man. And if you've been living under a rock then George Carlin died on Sunday from heart problems. It twas a sad day and sadly I found out this yesterday. I know this way off topic but I just wanted to say something and to post one of his jokes as a tribute.(Plus I liked the joke...)

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, "You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done"."
-George Carlin (1937-2008)

[reydien]

I dread the deaths of certain super-celebrities. Not because I care about them, but because of all the [****] I have to endure on television when one of them dies. All those tributes and retrospectives. And the bigger the personality, the worse it is.

For instance, imagine the [poop] we'll have to endure on TV when Bob Hope dies. First of all, they'll show clips from all of his old road movies with Bing Crosby, and you can bet that some news anchor [****] will turn to the pile of clothing next to him and say, "Well, Tami, I imagine Bob's on the Road to Heaven now."

Then there'll be clips of all those funny costumes he wore on his TV specials, including the hippie sketch, where they'll show him saying "Far out, man, far out!" They'll show him golfing with dead presidents, kissing blonde bombshells, and entertaining troops in every war since we beat the [****] out of the Peloponnesians. And at some point, a seventy-year-old veteran will choke up, and say, "I just missed seein' him at two, 'cause I got my legs blowed off. He's quite a guy."

Ex-presidents (including the dead ones) will line up four abreast to tell us what a great American he was; show-business perennials will desert golf courses from Palm Springs to O.J.'s lawn to lament sadly as how this time, "Bob hooked one into the woods"; and, regarding his talent, a short comedian in a check-ered hat will speak reverently about "Hope's incredible timing."

And this stuff will be on every single newscast day and night for a week. There'll be special one-hour salutes on "Good Morning America," the "Today" show, and "CBS This Morning." Ted Koppel will ask Henry Kissinger if it's true Bob Hope actually shortened some of our wars by telling jokes close to the front lines. CNN will do a series of expanded "Show Biz Todays." One of the cable channels will do a one-week marathon of his movies. And it goes without saying that NBC will put together a three-hour, prime-time special called "Thanks for the Memories," but at the last minute they'll realize Bob Hope's audience skews older, and sell it to CBS.

Then there'll be the funeral, carried life on the Dead Celebrity Channel, with thousands of grotesque acne-ridden fans seeking autographs from all the show-business clowns who dug out their best black golfing outfits to attend "one of the hottest burials to hit this town in decades" -- Variety. And all this [****] will go on for weeks and weeks and weeks. Until Milton Berle dies. And then it will start all over again. I dare not even contemplate Frank Sinatra and Ronald Reagan.

-George Carlin

(slightly reworded by the profanity filter)

[Grain]

This is a family friendly forum.

Just a reminder...

-Grain

[Kyoshi]

Funny thing is he even did a sketch on when he dies and what they would call it when he does. Because look when we die seriously we "pass on" or something else depending on where it happens. Strange we have so many words for death but really basically one for life.

[lupos]

I'm glad this thread poped up as I have always been a big Carlin fan. I remember as far back as being 5-6 (1985-86 if you're wondering) years old and watching his "live at carnegie hall" performance over and over again because my parents had taped it off of HBO. I'm glad they had the faith in their child to know I could handle such content even then, and I'm glad for George for making me so aware of the sillyness of the world around me so early on. I think it's a shame that stand-up seems so under-appreciated these days. Are Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia really supposed to carry the torch?

At any rate I loved George. Even though his later stuff stopped being jokes and mostly just became angry old man complaining. Mainly because I can't blame him. Can you imagine spending the better part of your life trying to tell the world how silly they are being in hopes that maybe they'll knock it off only to watch things seemingly get worse every day. I bought a copy of "When will jesus bring the pork chops?" about 2 years ago and never got around to reading it. I just started on it tonight. Really makes me regret never getting to see him live, especially living in NYC where he's filmed most of his specials. Gonna have to put my 4 disc classic gold cd's on the zune as well. Always strikes me as weird when I care about stuff like this. I kind of pride myself on not caring much about celebrities lives but Carlin was one of the few I bothered to give a crap about. He just seemed like what you see is what you get. I hate it when I find out someone I admired turns out to be a dill hole (billy corgan anyone?). Similarly I was pleased as heck when Me, GGG and Logress crashed Weird Al's after party after we saw him in concert and he was actually very nice and took photos with us and everything. He had every right in the world to be annoyed and kick us out but he was incredibly abiding. Thankfully Al's a vegan and will most likely out live me so I don't have to worry about him to much.

Anyway, rambling, you'll learn quickly it's a problem of mine....

We will miss you George. You were one of the good ones.