RIP, George.
My favorite Carlin line--which he uttered onstage after his FIRST huge heart attack:
"I hear that a lot of you were praying for me. Well, I got better ANYWAY...."
The routine itself is damn near a doctoral dissertation on the words and the hypocrisy of the so-called “affronted” so outraged by their use
A transcript of the routine is attached as an appendix to F.C.C. vs. Pacifica Foundation,438 U.S. 726 (197
, the Supreme Court case which had it at its heart (and thus, it is included in the Laws of our great nation until the end of time, or the Revolution, whichever comes first).
Having said that, don't read it. Click on the YouTube. The transcript is lacking the tone, the pacing, the inflection. Read it, and you are nonplussed. Watch it, and you pee in your pants laughing.
Damn it, that should say "1978." I. Hate. Haloscan.
Politicians have traditionally hidden behind three things: The Flag, The Bible, and Children. "No Child Left Behind. No Child Left Behind." Oh, really? Well, it wasn't long ago you were talking about giving kids a Head Start. Head Start.... Left Behind....someone's losing fucking ground here.
There's a reason for this. There's a reason for this. There's a reason education sucks and there's a reason it will never, ever, ever, be fixed. It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you got. BECAUSE THE OWNERS OF THIS COUNTRY DON'T WANT THAT. I'm talking about the real owners. The big, wealthy business interests that control everything and make all the important decisions.
It get better.
Glad I got to see him on stage once in my life.
he came to my college once 20 or so years ago... and I can remember seeing him live. My ribs ached from laughing and my mind was buzzing from all the truth telling and thinking. I sat up last night watching tons of carlin youtube videos and I laughed and cried alternately at his brilliant comedy and our loss. the world is certainly a bit darker today.
Definitely the best eulogy for Carlin that I've read so far.
And I'm glad you mentioned Robert Klein, too, who I've long thought was the most underappreciated of the Big Three. His SNL gigs during that first year -- especially the one with the "Atomic Lobsters" -- have remained with me, ever since I first saw them.
I never knew much about Robert Klein. I did see him once or twice on HBO, and he was a semi-regular on Carson for a time back in the day.
It's interesting to see some perspective on him.
Amen padre.
And speaking of those --
"...who chiseled at the marble more, with finer tools and then buffed it to a glowing finish..."
-- you just get better and better, LM.
That was friggin beautiful LM. Chiseled buffed marble. Your wordsmithing abilities just get better and better. That's what I loved about George Carlin, his ability to use language was amazing.
Well, as Carlin would actually say: "He's fucking dead!" and he wouldn't bowdlerize the 7 words. Not. Ever.
Damn. The ONLY time I've been disappointed in an LM post.
Carlin was indeed a master of language, and he probably spent more time thinking about, and commenting on, Language - The English Language - thank anyone else in the public eye.
I guess they didn't have enough tubes to stick in him.
if pryor, klein and carlin are willie, mickey and the duke...does that make bruce the babe?
Thanks LM.
Selah.
“if pryor, klein and carlin are willie, mickey and the duke...does that make bruce the babe?”
I consider Lenny Bruce to be akin to Sandy Koufax—a late bloomer who was a mess at first, who then channeled eldritch lightning in a bottle and simply DOMINATED—changed everything, but then had to leave the game waaaaaaaay too soon.
An immortal for sure, but he stayed too short a time on the field. 
Damn.
I totally agree with you about Carlin's talents as a wordsmith, when he was on he was a very good performer, and thanks for reminding us of his ability to find that fresh fifteen quarter after quarter, for forty years.
I'll add that he was probably the most influential comic of his time. How many people in the business have paid their mortgage being some variation on George Carlin? He also revolutionized the comedy business. I don't know if its possible to overstate the impact of his early HBO specials. That changed the entire game. His albums were also the gateway for a lot of kids to discover standup.
Was he Mantle? No, not on his best day.
A good comic makes you laugh. A great comic makes you laugh while he's fucking up the most fundamental way you look at things. When its really good you never quite get back to where you were before. Bruce, Pryor, Hicks and Kinison were that good. So were Newhart, Winters and Allen in the clean era. There's your Murderer's Row, and your Mantle and Mays.
Carlin was never in that league. He took what Lenny Bruce did and made it commercially and socially acceptable, and that changed comedy forever. He mentored probably hundreds of young comics and as you said, his writing skills were second-to-none. I don't know any comic who was more devoted to his craft than Carlin.
If you want to make a baseball analogy he was Cal Ripken Jr. Not the best player ever, but no one worked harder with the skills he had or did more for the game he loved.
Geez, LM, I'm getting tired of saying this to you: "I've been waiting for you to weigh in on this, and as always you don't disappoint."
Maybe we can have a moratorium on death for a while...
One more thing that depresses me. Carlin is gone. Pryor is gone. Fuck, even Dennis Fucking WOLFBERG is gone.
But you know who's still out there, toiling away in semi-obscurity?
Marc Maron -- for my money, the most heartbreakingly funny man out there right now. He's been screwed over by Air America 27 ways to Sunday, his personal life is a mess, but he's the one guy out there treading the road Carlin and Pryor and Klein cleared. And he deserves our support.
Jill: I'm with you on Marc Maron. his best is very, very good.
LM: you said it all, and I agree with our Drfiter: you do chisel at that stone!
I'm not sure that I agree about Carlin's material getting better with age (towards the end, I felt that he was sacrificing funny for anger), but the man's craft, pacing, and language work was second-to-none.
My personal favorite observation of Carlin's related to the number of stupid people out there: "Think of how stupid the average person is. Now realize that half of them are dumber than that."
Still the most terrifyingly accurate thought I ever heard...
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