George Carlin---R.I.P.

I can remember that George Carlin was the very first host of the premier edition of NBC's Saturday Night Live....he came out and did a monologue and then participated in a grand total of ZERO sketches.  That was him--he wasn't a sketch guy, he was a guy who was best coming out in front of an audience or a camera and talking about the peculiarities of life.  He would point out words that made him laugh or the way that certain words had more than one meaning.  And when he was on, he was amazing in his observational abilities.  No, mind you....he wasn't my parents kind of a comedian.
George, much like his contemporary Richard Pryor, could curse up a blue streak---getting fouler and fouler by the minute.  My parents were not raised in an era where cursing was part of the everyday language.  Carlin & Pryor taught an entire generation how to curse--and I don't think that's an exaggeration.  Pryor did it from an anger that lived inside of him.  Carlin did it to point out that words can't offend...only their meaning did.  And to him, that seemed absurd.  So he used the words on a regular basis as his way of pointing out that absurdity. 

I can remember my mom taking me to Sears one weekend in my senior year of high school (far too long ago) and I picked up Toledo Window Box.


Here was the album in which George talked about how all the characters in various fairy tales were obviously on drugs, and gave examples.  It was hilarious, and quite obviously my mother had NO IDEA of what she had allowed her impressionable young son to purchase.  Call in the child welfare people!!!

I liked that album so much that I bought another one....this one was called Class Clown:


An amazingly, this one was about what it was like...to grow up in an Irish Catholic family.  Hello....I think we found a winner.  Well, that an the 7 words you weren't allowed to say on television.  When I played that one, I turned my stereo down so mom & dad couldn't hear.  And then I laughed my ass off.

But the guy was a big part of my youth.  I finally got to go see him live in concert about 8 years ago with Kim & my friends Pat & Nancy.  It was a great night out and we all enjoyed ourselves.  He wasn't as wild as he had been in my youth...he was like a lion that had been de-fanged.  Something was missing it seemed.  But then, when you thought he had become just another tamed comedian....he reminded you that his claws still were sharp.  He remained that way until this morning....when he passed away at age 71 from heart failure.

He'll be missed by a generation of fans.  I did the YouTube search for him, and naturally there are tons of clips that feature him.  But after a brief search, I was able to find one that was actually clean.  No cursing!  Because I wanted my parents to enjoy him also, to see him use words to show the absurdity of it all....not to offend....but as a way of observing.  So Mom & Dad, give this one a look see.  George Carlin looks at the differences between baseball & football--in case you didn't know already.

YouTube - Baseball and Football


Later,
Jeff