The grandfather of relevant comedy satire has died, age 71.
George Carlin, one of the best comedians ever to walk a stage, the origin point of the landmark "Seven Words" routine, and the first comic I ever heard express a specifically anti-religious, anti-government stance, died over the weekend of "heart failure," a euphemism he himself would probably have hated.
When you’re young and you start to really enjoy comedians, you have to hide it initially. You know that you’re getting away with something, and that your folks and other satellite adults would shut you down if they found out. You also, when you are younger, glean much of your information and understanding of history in a style I refer to as "backwards acquisition." Carlin represents a locus point for me of both of those things. He was the first comedian I listened to that I had to hide, because he was so raunchy and controversial that I knew I would have to conceal the tapes, lest they be confiscated. Beginning to drive was handy for this, since I could just drive around for hours listening to various routines. What Am I Doing In New Jersey, Place For My Stuff, Parental Advisory and Occupation: Foole were all albums I listened to this way.
Carlin also was my backwards acquisition point for Lenny Bruce. I started listening to Lenny Bruce because of George Carlin. Lenny Bruce’s style is addictive, as is Carlin’s, and once you get into them, no one else will do. It’s a natural path from those guys into more comedy, and it led me into Richard Pryor, Robert Klein, Sam Kinison, and Bill Hicks, pretty much in rapid succession.
No one seemed to have a more perverse grip on the motivations of people than did George Carlin. That understanding – bred, I believe, by his intelligence, stamina, and firm resistance to the beliefs of others - together with a love of language and a need to tear down authoritative systems and rail against the machine, deliberately walking against the flow of society’s direction, made George not just a comedian of the highest order, but a social commentator and iconoclast, which I suppose is what all great comics should aspire to be.
I only got to see him perform once, but his stage routines were often just expressions of his mind, which was accessible on his albums and in his writing. The world is poorer and less funny without Carlin around.