Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Monday, June 23, 2008 -- 1:15 AM ET
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George Carlin, the Comedian, Is Dead at 71
George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and
actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary,
poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and
language, and groundbreaking routines like "Seven Words You
Can Never Use on Television," died in Los Angeles on Sunday
according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. He was 71.
Loved him since he surfaced, sad to see him go. Like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, he tackled some of society's hypocrisies straight on. And, like many comedians, there was always something a little sad about him.
"This is Al Sleet, your hippy-dippy weatherman, with all the hippy-dippy weather, man! High today... as soon as I get up, heh heh."
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"I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I uh, I think is important. I love..as I say, they're my work, they're my play, they're my passion. Words are all we have really.
We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. You know, [humming]. And, then we assign a word to a thought, [clicks tongue]. And we're stuck with that word for that thought. So be careful with words. I like to think, yeah, the same words that hurt can heal. It's a matter of how you pick them.
There are some people that aren't into all the words. There are some people who would have you not use certain words. Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad. They'd have to be outrageous, to be separated from a group that large. All of you over here, you seven. Bad words. That's what they told us they were, remember? 'That's a bad word.' 'Awwww.' There are no bad words. Bad thoughts. Bad Intentions.
And words, you know the seven don't you? Shit, Piss, Fuck, ***** Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, huh? Those are the heavy seven. Those are the ones that will infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war.
Shit, Piss, Fuck, ***** Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, wow. Tits doesn't even belong on the list, you know. It's such a friendly sounding word. It sounds like a nickname. 'Hey, Tits, come here. Tits, meet Toots, Toots, Tits, Tits, Toots.' It sounds like a snack doesn't it? Yes, I know, it is, right. But I don't mean the sexist snack, I mean, New Nabisco Tits. The new Cheese Tits, and Corn Tits and Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits, Onion Tits, Tater Tits, Yeah. Betcha can't eat just one. That's true I usually switch off . But I mean that word does not belong on the list.
Actually, none of the words belong on the list, but you can understand why some of them are there. I am not completely insensitive to people's feelings. You know, I can dig why some of those words got on the list...like cocksucker and motherfucker. Those are...those are heavy-weight words. There's a lot going on there, man. Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling. They're just busy words. There's a lot of syllables to contend with. And those K's. Those are aggressive sounds, they jump out at you. CocksuckerMotherfuckerCocksucker. It's like an assault, on you. So I can dig that.
And we mentioned shit earlier, of course. Two of the other 4-letter Anglo-Saxon words are Piss and ***** which go together of course. But forget about that. A little accidental humor there. Piss and Cunt. The reason Piss and Cunt are on the list is that a long time ago certain ladies said 'Those are the two I am not going to say. I don't mind Fuck and Shit, but P and C are out. P and C are out.' Which led to such stupid sentences as 'OK, you fuckers, I am going to tinkle now.'
And of course the word Fuck. The word Fuck, I don't really...well, this is some more accidental humor, but I don't really want to get into that now. Because I think it takes too long. But I do mean that. I mean, I think the word fuck is an important word. It's the beginning of life, and, yet it's a word we use to hurt one other, quite often. And uh, people much wiser than I have said, I'd rather have my son watch a film with two people making love than two people trying to kill one other. And I of course agree. I wish I know who said it first, and I agree with that. But I would like to take it a step further. I would like to substitute the word fuck, for the word kill in all those movie cliches we grew up with. 'Okay Sheriff, we're gonna fuck ya now. But we're gonna fuck ya slow.' So maybe next year I'll have a whole fuckin' rap on that word. I hope so.
Uh, there are two-way words, but those are the seven you can never say on television. Under any circumstances you just can not say them ever, ever ever, not even clinically. You can not weave them in the panel with Doc and Ed and Johnny, I mean it's just impossible, forget those seven, they're out.
But, there are some two-way words. There are double-meaning words. Remember the ones your giggled at in sixth grade? 'And the cock crowed three times.''Hey, the cock the cock crowed three times. It's in the bible.' There are some Two-way words, like it's okay for Curt Gowdy to say 'Roberto Clemente has two balls on him.' But he can't say, 'I think he hurt his balls on that play Tony, don't you? He's holding them. He must have hurt them by God.' And the other two-way word that goes with that one is prick. It's okay if it happens to your finger. Yes, you can prick your finger, but don't finger your prick. No, no."
Too bad, one of my favorites. He wasn't the funniest guy around, imho, but the things and people that irritated him synced up pretty well with me. Plus, he was probably the most popular advocate of atheism in the entertainment world (more popular than Penn & Teller, I'm guessing), performing an invaluable service in steering young folk down the right path. One hopes someone else steps up to take on that mantle.
Thanks, Mr. Carlin.
Last edited by Brian Olewnick; June-23rd-2008 at 10:20 AM.
In college, I did a whole analysis on George Carlin's contribution to the study and current use of language for a class called Contemporary American Public Speakers. Got an A on the paper, too.
The man had a definite understanding of words and his unique take on the whole concept of "Good" words vs. "Bad" words stays with me even today. His whole idea was that words are tools and that the values we arbitrarily place on them [that there are no good or bad words; just words] got me thinking in entirely new directions relative to word use.
I will miss his unique insight and profound influence on our language.
Rest in Peace, George.
Last edited by GoodSpeak; June-23rd-2008 at 11:06 AM.
Too bad we couldn't have a 2-week long 24-hour coverage of comedians going on about their friend George Carlin to make us laugh. That would be fun.
Heh, yes. Now, nothing particularly against Russert, but between the two, who contributed more--far more--to American culture? But I bet the network coverage ratio will be in excess of 10-1 in Russert's favor.
Carlin was brilliant, I liked his work very much, but he made it ok for comedians to use "fuck." Now most comics rely on the word to create what they think is humor.
I watched Penn & Teller the other night and I would wager that every third word out of Penn's mouth was "fuck." At a shout, of course.
I once saw a special of his which he concluded with a photograph of his dog humping his cat, while the cat looked on with a sanguine expression. Cracked me up.
Whoa. I just heard the news only now. I got to see Carlin twice in concert. I liked him very much. He wasn't my favorite comedian -- Richard Pryor will always have that corner to himself -- but he was one of my favorite show-biz people and commentators on the state of things, for many years.
What very sad news. George was also one of my very favorite comedians. He was a fantastic observer and uncommonly insightful, which led to his trademark style. He'll be greatly missed.
Loved his way of cutting through stuff. He did a bit on Arsenio Hall Show on America's war on drugs, war on this an that. He made the audience and producers really uncomfortable. Brilliant! I can't find it, but this one is really good:
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