|
I don't own all black clothing, but I needed some the day George Carlin Passed. I do, however, have a beard, and a black keyboard, so the sentiment was there. When you've spent nearly two decades of your life being as itinerant as I have, constants in your life are rare. Jesus, now that I think about it the only constants in my life over the last fifteen years have been Camels, a guitar, the ability to always be right, the last word, and George Carlin. |
Sunday, June 22 at 5:55pm (because it's unfortunately impossible to die at 6:66), America, and I, lost a hero. Hell, the world lost a hero. Nobody did it like Carlin. The depth and breadth of his vocabulary, the mastery of language, the complete lack of give-a-damn, the sincerity, and the seven dirty words separated, elevated, and kept him heads and shoulders above the rest of anyone in his line of work. I could load this up with quote after quote as a testament to his genius, but I'd rather go down a different road. I'd like to talk about the witless, mouth breathing, abortion clinic bombing drones that are breathing a sigh of relief at this great man's passing. Because, if Carlin taught me anything, it's that these people need to be made fun of.
I was looking at the online article about Carlin's death in my local newspaper that morning, and it was littered with posts from supposedly decent, God-fearing Christians literally calling for the flock to dance on his grave. Seriously, they were actually stoked, and went charging Bible first in their inflammatory comments. Is this the behavior that a compassionate, forgiveness-minded deity encourages? How can these khakied, tassel loafered, six percent tithing, black and gay fearing, regional sales managers be expected to be treated with any fucking respect when this is how they deal with the passing of an entertainer? Why don't they simply just cram the latest issue of Guideposts up their born again asses?
George Carlin criticized religion. He mocked it, challenged it, cited example after example of it's foibles, fallacies, short comings, and hypocrisies. Why? Because he was raised fuckin' Catholic! Because he was provided with enough material to carry on for another forty years. Because a wet piece of paper could poke a hole in that argument, and that's what he did. With logic, reason, humor, and the subtlety of a steroid fed cage fighter.
I will miss this man greatly. The world is tragically less funny without him in it, but I'm hesitant to mourn his passing. He forced us to think, to read, to be aware, and greatly elevated the sense of humor in America. With respect to your tenacity, it is my hope that you don't rest in peace, George, but rather that your spirit possesses each of us, and and we all pick up where you left off.
- Steve -
Warning: main(/home/content/h/i/p/hipsterpad/html/comments/comments.php) [function.main]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/content/h/i/p/hipsterpad/html/articleDayHumorDied.php on line 570
Fatal error: main() [function.require]: Failed opening required '/home/content/h/i/p/hipsterpad/html/comments/comments.php' (include_path='.:/usr/local/lib/php') in /home/content/h/i/p/hipsterpad/html/articleDayHumorDied.php on line 570
| |
