The Shorthorn - George Carlin is dead ... %$#*!

George Carlin is dead ... %$#*!

Written by Phillip Bowden

Tuesday, 24 June 2008 09:36 PM

You know those seven words you can’t say on TV?

Those words segregated from the rest of the English language because they are so “bad”?

I do.

I owe that knowledge to George Carlin, the first man I ever heard carry out a discussion of curse words that was both hilarious and cerebral.

I will refrain from mentioning them because I believe they are also seven words you can’t say in a newspaper, but also because I would never rob from anyone the pleasure of discovering them in their original form. You owe it to yourself to do so.

Comedian George Carlin died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

I was awake at my computer just past midnight on Monday morning when I saw the news pop up. I couldn’t believe it. I searched the page thinking it had to be a mistake. Sadly, it wasn’t.

Carlin became my comedy hero when I heard his seminal routine entitled “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.”

As a kid, “dirty” words made me laugh anyway, but what was great about Carlin’s work was the great weight of intellect behind his material.

For every joke involving bodily functions, there was another that would point out some element of stupidity in American culture with razor-sharp wit — he recorded 22 comedy albums, obviously he had much to work with.

Carlin could never be accused of pulling a punch either. He went after the government, the wealthy, the religious, consumers and once even scolded a Las Vegas audience for the stupidity of going there only to give all their money to a giant corporation. He got fired because of that one. Oops.

If there is one thing — but indeed there are many — we should learn from Carlin’s life is that we should all stop being “good” Americans. We should become well-informed, well-educated citizens capable of critical thinking instead of lemmings who roll over when the government tells us to.

We should dare to rattle our cages when the government lies to us, fails us, causes the deaths of innocent people and tries to keep us living in fear by reminding us daily of the Sword of Damocles hanging over our heads.

And yet, even as I get a little worked up, I can’t help but laugh as I imagine Carlin smiling or striking a goofy pose after a passionate rant about how society is coming apart at the seams or about how this country was bought and paid for a long ago.

Even in the midst of the most bitter and depressing of topics, Carlin taught us to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Carlin once talked about the most unfair thing about life, and I think it would be appropriate to end this small tribute on his terms.

We’ll miss you, George.

“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean, life is tough. It takes up a lot of your time. What do you get at the end of it? A Death! What’s that, a bonus? I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you live in an old age home. You get kicked out when you’re too young, you get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You do drugs, alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to grade school, you become a kid, you play, you have no responsibilities, you become a little baby, you go back into the womb, you spend your last nine months floating ... and you finish off as an orgasm.” — George Carlin

— Phillip Bowden is a computer science junior and online editor for The Shorthorn
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 20 January 2009 05:24 PM )

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