George Carlin, More Than the Sum of his Words

George Carlin has been dead for almost two weeks now, and no one has mentioned it here on the site. I have wanted to since the day I heard the news, but things kept getting in my way and I wasn't able to. Luckily for me, this pre-Holiday week at work is starting to grind to a halt so I've found myself with some free time to speak my piece.

I'm sure by now you've all been refreshed on why exactly Carlin is a god among Comedians, and the way that he bucked the system in the 60's by essentially "joining" the counter culture. So I figured I'd just share a personal anecdote.

I discovered Carlin a few years ago while I was still attending college. At the time, I was rapidly developing into a critical human being, and beginning to question everything around me. Discovering Carlin at that time was almost kismet, because as anyone knows who has listened to his comedy, it was more about truth than it was laughs.

What Carlin mastered that makes him so rare, is the idea that the best way to get a point across is by making someone laugh. The man had incredibly progressive political views which were usually the focal points of his shows. He was also pretty pessimistic on humanity and our legacy in the grand scheme of things. Looking around at the world today, it's not hard to see what he was talking about.

My father also loved Carlin, and it was one of our goals to get a chance to go see him together. He had gotten the chance to see him back in the 70's, during the time when he was perfecting his "7 Dirty Words Schtick", but it was an experience I had not had myself. At one point a few years back, my father was about to buy tickets for me and him to go see an upcoming show, when a series of events led to him losing his job. Every year since, I've sworn to myself I was going to buy tickets so I could go see him with my father, but I never did. I'm a pretty young person, just turned 26, and this is one of my first experiences with the notion of "never again". I missed my opportunity, and that has caused me no small amount of regret over the last two weeks.

It has killed me how many people I've heard say that George is now "looking down" on us from Heaven, because as anyone who knows George knows, the man didn't exactly believe in God... like, at all. I too, am a card carrying Atheist (or at least I would be, if they made cards), and so I wanted to post just this one Carlin bit for old times sake.

It's called (fittingly) "There is No God". You may agree or disagree with George and I, but you've got to admit, the man knew how to make a point. So let's all take a moment to remember Carlin, and don't forget... God bless Joe Pesci.