What a sad, shitty day. It's raining outside, seems like it has been for weeks, and now a hero of mine is dead. George Carlin was 71, and if there is an afterlife, he's probably rolling his eyes and pantomiming beat-off gestures behind God's back right about now.
My friend Joel first turned me on to George through his book "Brain Droppings". Of course I had heard of him before, but reading this book was truly one of the seminal moments of my life. It's crass, and his literary style leaves much to be desired, but the ideas... holy shit. Just the sheer fact that one person could be such a confident, logical, unapologetic atheist blew my mind. I was a junior in high school, working at a movie theater, and my life basically revolved around watching movies for free and trying to scam older people to buy me beer. I was also about to be confirmed in the Catholic Church, and these questions and ideas were in my mind, somewhere, trolling below the surface, never showing their face. This book, and George, brought them out front and center, slapped me in the face with them, but most of all legitimized them to me. Maybe I'm not the crazy one for doubting that there's some magical man who lives in the sky and hears all of our thoughts all at the same time. This doesn't seem logical to me, but I'm the crazy one? Fuck that and fuck everyone else who tries to make me think so.
With George and his writing and monologues, it wasn't the actual dogma that he preached, but the way he preached it. He was one of the rare cats that was able to cut out all of the stupid bullshit surrounding him, look internally and think, truly think for himself. That why his shows were so entertaining: you knew you were seeing something special, the unfettered, unfiltered internal dialogue and thought process of a truly creative, intelligent person. George had an uncanny ability to hold up a mirror to us, as a society, and show us how truly fucking ridiculous we are. He was, and is, completely unique, as many acts have tried to rip him off, but they only come off as hacky and sad, and it lifts up the brilliance of his performances even more. If you don't know what the title of this post means, you need to Google that shit. It's his life's work summed up in seven words, and there are far, far worse legacies to leave.
The world is a worse place for him not being in it, and I'll miss him. My writing can't really do him justice, so listen to the words of the man himself- and enjoy.
George On Religion:
The Seven Dirty Words (I think he was pretty coked up here... in fact, I'm sure of it):
RIP, George.
1 comment:
George is the man - never got to see him in person and that is a big bummer. I will pour out some licka when rocking Escanaba next weekend.
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