Damn. Another great one gone.
I can't even count how many hours I spent listening to George Carlin's Class Clown LP with my Ann Arbor friends in fifth and sixth grade. We always used to dare each other to bring it to school; listening to "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" or his riff on teenage masturbation on the classroom turntable would've been way more rebellious (and gotten us into a lot more trouble) than spinning our Kiss and ELO albums. We never did, but we got a lot of joy out of thinking about doing it. And I suppose that the idea of ten year-old boys plotting to bum out their teacher by playing George Carlin records in the classroom would have given Mr. Carlin a fair amount of joy, as well.
Like the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, National Lampoon, Creem magazine and the early movies of Mel Brooks, George Carlin profoundly influenced the way that I still view the world and its myriad absurdities. My friend Jason and I loved the "meatcake" riff from his "Ice Box Man" routine so much that, once we "grew up" and formed a band, we inscribed part of it on the run-off grooves on the first Lava Sutra 45 — "Could be meat..." on one side, "Could be cake..." on the other. (The punchline, which we didn't have room for, is of course, "It looks like... meatcake!")
Baseball fan though I am, I was never particularly dug Carlin's famous "Baseball vs. Football" routine. It always seemed kind of toothless in comparison to his other stuff; then again, I guess he needed to have something "clean" he could do on the Tonight Show. But I'll always remember him for his more thoughtful and acerbic routines, such as the still-totally-relevant "Religion Is Bullshit"...
He was a class clown, all right.
George Carlin has actually died twice for me. My ex-wife's brother told us he was dead in 1995 and it took a few weeks for me to figure out that he was still alive. The internet has solved these kinds of confusions.
He was a big part of my youth (the first comedian other than Steve Martin that I knew about). As an adult, I felt that he was much more of a funny philosopher than a comedan and truly appreciated his brilliance. I too will miss him.
Posted by: Chris Perry | June 24, 2008 at 04:07 PM
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200806/george-carlins-last-interview
Posted by: jim saft | June 25, 2008 at 04:23 AM
i think my buddy andy's carlin obit - much like yours - hit the nail on the head: www.bendpress.com
Posted by: Greg Barbera | June 25, 2008 at 05:32 AM