George Carlin dies at 71

[Swimmy]

George Carlin Mourned as Counterculture Hero

[lucy]

How very sad, he was one of my favorites.

[dgriffin]

I loved his bit about asking Father Rivera in religion class about being on a ship and missing his Easter Duty when the last Sunday ended at midnight, causing him to commit a mortal sin. But then the ship crosses the International Date Line and it's Sunday again! So then he receives communion and wonders if the mortal sin gets canceled. It was on his second album, I think, "I Used To Be An Irish Catholic."

[dgriffin]

Hey! I just read the local obit on George and found out that his brother lives about 2 miles up the road from me as you start up the mountain! That's more golly-gee-whiz than finding out years ago that Jack Lord's brother (Hawaii Five O) lived nearby. We're awash in poor relations here. I wonder if George's brother stopped at my porch sale last summer? If he looked as dissipated as George could at times, I probably just took note of him and held the cash box a little closer.

[Disgusted-Daily]

My condolences go out to his family and friends but I will admit I was not a big fan of his. I found it was hard to watch him for to long, but he did have some funny moment's.

Rest in peace George.

[dgriffin]

I know what you mean, Todd. I suppose he should be admired for pushing his kind of humor along for so many years. I saw a small part of his last TV special and was unable to stay for it very long.

[Clipper]

Well Dave, you and I are of an age that can remember George Carlin before the advent of all the permissive, and unbridled profanity on TV. I enjoyed him much more in years gone by, for his wit and intelligence, but became bored with the "Andrew Dice Clay" persona, that evolved in late years. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, but profanity can also detract from an otherwise great performance. I guess it is all in the ear of the listener.

I love many of his quotes on recent subjects, such as illegal immigration. He definitely was a very smart and deep person, with a lot to offer the world. I simply think it was funneled into the "late night cable" format too often in late years.

[dgriffin]

By the way, there's a piece attributed to Carlin now going around the Internet, called "The Paradox of Our Time." It doesn't "snope" as true and a search of Snopes.com for "george carlin" yields the following results page. Evidently he's being credited for a lot of things he neither wrote nor said.

tinyurl.com/k4xe2

It's interesting that George did not at all appreciate his name being assigned to any of these stories. He felt they were all far below his high standards for writing and comedy.

[corner]

i watched some of an hbo special the other nite he stopped being funny about 20 years ago, at any rate seeing he was a rabid atheist i wonder what he may have said to st peter at the gates,,, i bet he had an oh shit moment.