George

Yesterday in California, one of America's comedic genius' died of a heart attack. George Carlin, famous as a counter-culture figure since the early 1960's, was one of the brainiest, brashest, comedian's ever. But if you're looking for a gushing post about him from me, you had better stop here.

Yup....George was the man that created "The Seven Words you can't say on Television", a routine that I can recite word for word from memory still. He had routines so uproariously funny that involved word-play, irony, and sarcasm that went from soft to harsh in mere seconds, but later on in life it morphed into harsh to hateful in even less time. Counter-culture had its place in the 60's, 70's, and even the early 80's, but comedic attitudes shifted in the late 80's and 90's.

George didn't shift with it.

His wife of 36 years died in 1997, and potentially with her, so may have a part of George's soul. When you're married that long, obviously a great love drove that marriage, and so her loss must have been devastating to him. The man who made us laugh, giggle, and smile by pointing out the absurdity of phrases like "Jumbo Shrimp", "Getting ON the plane" instead of IN the plane, and weathermen who made up phrases like "Rain Event", to which he responded, "Rain Event? Holy shit, I hope I can get tickets to that!" became old, wifeless, and mean the last 10 years of his life.

I can remember looking forward to watching an HBO special from 2003, and my memory will always be saddened by the fact that I felt he was so hateful and bitter, I turned it off after only 10 or 15 minutes. One of his targets that night was inexplicably golf courses, where George described them as "eye-sores" and an affront to humanity. Eye-sores and an affront to humanity? In what context does anyone besides misguided environmentalists see golf courses in that manner? Just before I turned off his hate-fest, George went into a rant (tirade?) about his favorite subject, Religion. Never in our history has a comedian gone after religion and people who believe in God more than George. On this particular night, he took off the gloves and hammered at belief and faith like he never had before, and it was so indefatigable and contemptible, I couldn't get to the remote control fast enough.

And I'm hardly what you would call staunchly religious. I just felt he was attacking a group that had never attacked him, and it was not funny. Not at all.

The irony here is that the one person who could point out irony better than anyone on a public stage is now dead, and as of yesterday afternoon, George now knows, one way or another, whether there is a higher power or not.

Perhaps he could send us a sign. In the unlikely event that happens, I'll stick to my memories of the stuff he did when he was funny. It's better for me that way.