Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
It just came out that George Carlin has died at age 71. I don't typically get caught up in celebrities dying, but this one really hits home. Carlin is one of my original idols, since I was a little kid. He is a true comedy genius. If there's a Mt. Rushmore of comedy, there's no way he's not one of the four faces carved into the rock. He is probably the greatest and most prolific stand up comic of the last 50 years.
Carlin was the best kind of comedian there is. He didn't just tell jokes, the jokes actually meant something. They were critiques of us as individuals and as a collective, a mirror held up to reflect our absurdities, our imbecilities, our human foibles and our hypocrisies. He did that while always straying true to the joke, which is a remarkably difficult thing to do. Even more difficult to do it with such consistency over many decades. His voice will be sorely missed and impossible to replace. RIP George.
Comments
We've lost one of the important ones, folks.
Posted by: gary l. day | June 23, 2008 9:51 AM
George Carlin is dead?
Shit!
Posted by: Raging Bee | June 23, 2008 10:05 AM
I loved his work in later years;
I adored his needling of all that is foolish in modern life.
I will enjoy his analysis of the word "fuck" for as long as I live.
But before all that, long before I could have appreciated his adult fare, he brightened my childhood. He was the Conductor on Shining Time Station, and that is enough.
Posted by: MRL | June 23, 2008 10:08 AM
He was truly one of a kind, and a major voice in two things I care about very deeply: free thinking and free speech. There just aren't enough people out there doing that. RIP
Posted by: Wes | June 23, 2008 10:11 AM
I first knew George Carlin as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station. When I first saw his standup routine a few years later, I couldn't help but think, "That's Mr. fucking Conductor!? Shit!"
Posted by: Adrian | June 23, 2008 10:37 AM
George Carlin was one of the greatest stand-up philosophers of our time. He didn't just push the envelope; he tore it in to confetti and presented it to the all the other envelopes just to show them who they were messing with. Irreverent and insightful, he taught me to laugh at the things that piss me off. I'm sorry to hear he's gone.
Posted by: Abby Normal | June 23, 2008 10:47 AM
"The weather tonight will be...dark".
Today's weather is...sad.
We lost another good one, folks.
Posted by: BobbyEarle | June 23, 2008 10:53 AM
I just found out about this about half an hour ago.
This was completely unexpected to me, and it definitely hits really hard. I'm really going to miss him.
Posted by: Chris Berez | June 23, 2008 10:55 AM
aside from lenny bruce, noone ever came close to carlin. how many comedians actually changed his/her audience on such a scale? maybe richard pryor, but you know what i mean.
he was as much of a philosopher as a comedian, and he will be sorely missed. :(
Posted by: coreydbarbarian | June 23, 2008 10:56 AM
"straying true to the joke" somehow seems apropos!
-Rusty
Posted by: minusRusty | June 23, 2008 11:04 AM
He really did represent comedy at its very best. It's possible to be very funny as a comedian without ever really saying anything of substance. I'm thinking of people like Jeff Cesario, Jeff Stilson and Ron White - really funny, consistently clever comedians who write and tell great jokes but don't really make you think much. But comedy at its highest level, when it transcends being merely jokes and becomes social commentary in joke form, is rare. And Carlin practiced that art form better and for a longer time than anyone in history. 14 years ago we lost Bill Hicks, who at his best was Carlin's equal (and Carlin recognized that, praising Hicks many times in interviews). But to do what he did for 50 years makes for one of the truly great careers in any field of entertainment. Comedy has lost its Sinatra, its Babe Ruth, its Muhammad Ali and its Michael Jordan.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | June 23, 2008 11:08 AM
Somewhere, Sister Mary Elephant has had her faith in prayer restored. What if he'd died on a ship, and then the ship crossed the international date line?
Posted by: doyle | June 23, 2008 11:11 AM
What I loved about him was that he was one of the few comedians who went "blue" to make a point-not just to say "bad words" and he was one of the few comedians who could be "clean" and still absolutely hilarious! I appreciated his satire-even when it hit close to home to my faith, etc. If you can't laugh at yourself and life choices-then you've become too full of yourself!
My wife still loves the "Seven Words" routine. She has two degrees with four majors (completed in just four years) in journalism, english, classical studies and linguistics. Her masters is in linguistics. She said that Carlin's "Seven Words" routine was regularly studied at the Ernie Pyle (google him, folks) School of Journalism at IU. And she uses the routine teaching Interpersonal Communications at Valpo (a Lutheran university) when they cover the topic of "taboo language."
On a personal note-I see that Carlin was less than a year older than my dad. Dang!
Posted by: Rev. AJB | June 23, 2008 11:23 AM
doyle-It was my Catholic friends who loved the Sister Mary Elephant bit the best-forgot about her! Now everybody together, "Class.....class.....CLASS!!!"
Posted by: Rev. AJB | June 23, 2008 11:26 AM
Hey George, if you're up there, could you toss back my frisbee? ;-)
Posted by: Abby Normal | June 23, 2008 11:37 AM
Abby's comment reminded me of, I think it was his last HBO program, where he talked about death and how you never hear people gathered around after the funeral saying "Well, he's down there now, screaming up at us". I loved his routines, and his bits on religion and the 10 commandments were priceless. "There's an invisible man. And he has a list of 10 things you can't do. And if you do them he'll send you to a place of fire and torture and burning and smoke and agony......but he loves you!"
Posted by: John | June 23, 2008 11:50 AM
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits.
That is all. RIP, George.
Posted by: Skwee | June 23, 2008 12:13 PM
Hell's getting a great show tonight, a combination of Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks and Carlin. Hicks and Carlin were two very important influences upon my development since turning 18 and now both of them are dead. Pretty much all my heroes seem to have died, Heinlein, Hicks, Carlin...
Posted by: Dragonfire | June 23, 2008 12:45 PM
A sad day indeed.
For what it's worth I have my own little 'Carlin story', and I just blogged on it. His genius was in shaking people out of their comfort zones, and witnessing that first hand is something I'll always cherish.
Posted by: Vic | June 23, 2008 1:01 PM
.... and all we're left with is the emptiness, nothingness and moral void called Sarah Silverman.
May God Bless You and Rest Your Soul, Mr. Carlin. You are an American Original of the Highest Order and I will miss you.
Posted by: little peanut | June 23, 2008 1:01 PM
When I heard the news, I could only think no!!! He was and shall remain one of my heroes. I am saddened by the loss.
Posted by: Donna | June 23, 2008 1:08 PM
Sister Mary Elephant was a Cheech and Chong bit.
Goodbye, George, and thank you.
Posted by: H.H. | June 23, 2008 1:29 PM
Posted by: khan | June 23, 2008 1:34 PM
I heard it on our local fluffy celebrity-heavy news show today and they interviewed Jackie Mason about George.
I might be clueless about Jackie, but it seems that using one of the ancient borsht-belt comics to comment on George Carlin is ... inappropriate.
Posted by: KeithB | June 23, 2008 1:42 PM
Jackie Mason? Good lord. One of the all time no-talent hacks.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | June 23, 2008 2:49 PM
And tits? Tits don't belong on that list! Thank you George.
Posted by: Stephen Llewellyn | June 23, 2008 3:00 PM
And tits? Tits don't belong on that list!
Tits was indeed one of Carlin's original 7 dirty words. Skwee got them all correct.
Posted by: H.H. | June 23, 2008 3:21 PM
And remember, you can prick your finger, but you can't finger your prick.
Just curious, Ed. How do you rate Carlos Mencia? Another in the line of great social-commentary comedians? Or one of the all-time no-talent hacks just playing on tired stereotypes?
Posted by: James Hanley | June 23, 2008 3:24 PM
Agreed Stephen. Perhaps the FCC should consider updating it. I'd suggest the current seven sins of broadcasting be replaced with the dirty dozen:
rusty trombone
dirty sanchez
dirty raccoon
frothy walrus
donkey punch
Cleveland steamer
Cincinatti bow tie
raspberry beret
golden shower
teabag
salad tossing
snowball
(Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if you get fired for looking any of these up at work.)
Posted by: Abby Normal | June 23, 2008 3:26 PM
Further disclaimer, I really have no idea what words the FCC currently forbids.
Posted by: Abby Normal | June 23, 2008 3:36 PM
Posted by: Skwee | June 23, 2008 4:11 PM
Well, that was very educational!
I guess Zappa was right - one's mind IS the dirtiest part of one's body. ;D
Posted by: Gingerbaker | June 23, 2008 4:17 PM
I was raised in such a strict fundie background, that I was shocked that Carlin could be so profanely funny and not immediately get struck by lightning! He definitely helped me on the road to enlightenment, especially his ability to perceive reality in an abstract manner that often illuminated how delusional the status quo perception was.
Posted by: Michael Heath | June 23, 2008 5:13 PM
James Hanley:
Carlos Mencia is not the guy's real name - and he's not Mexican, either. Also, he comes from an upper middle-class background. Or so I've read.
His working-class Mexican schtick is an act.
Before learning this, I'd watched his show a number of times and found him to be "moderately" funny and sometimes seriously offensive, but after I learned more about him, I stopped caring. To me, he's just another pretender and phony - like Sarah Silverman.
Posted by: little peanut | June 23, 2008 5:47 PM
Today Gene Weingarten at the Washington Post is devoting his blog to people contributing their favorite George Carlin lines.
I gotta say this entry may be my fave:
So I say, "Live and let live." That's my motto. "Live and let live." Anyone who can't go along with that, take him outside and shoot the motherfvcker. It's a simple philosophy, but it's always worked in our family.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3aa8bc6fd8-cf9f-43ca-99a4-05fdb4342697Discussion%3ad491715e-6fcf-413f-bac9-49863e18c48e?hpid=topnews
Posted by: Lauri | June 23, 2008 6:07 PM
Abby Normal wins the thread for that comment. :)
I heard the news before going to work this morning, and it bummed me out all day. A lot of people are funny, but George Carlin was funny and fearless - not just using his comedy in a non-threatening way, but using it to push the boundaries of society, speaking truth through humor and making people recognize the absurdities around them in everyday life. That's the highest expression of the comedian's art, and no one did it better than him.
But most of all, he made us all laugh. We'll miss him.
Posted by: Ebonmuse | June 23, 2008 7:21 PM
I think Mencia has some funny stuff. Unfortunately, he almost certainly stole that funny stuff from someone else. I wouldn't let him carry George Carlin's colostomy bag (even if he had one).
Posted by: Ed Brayton | June 23, 2008 8:53 PM
"And tits? Tits don't belong on that list!"
uhhmm..i'm pretty sure it was carlin himself who insisted tits didn't belong on the list. ya know, sounds like something you eat, like new tits, from nabisco, or maybe like a nickname or something...tits meet toots. toots, tits. etc.
i didn't know i could miss somebody so much, so quickly.
Posted by: coreydbarbarian | June 23, 2008 11:17 PM
Give me re-runs of Carlin over Tim Russert's "hard question" interviews with Cheney, anytime. Carlin was funnier, and smarter, than about 90% of the "working press.
Posted by: democommie | June 23, 2008 11:30 PM
I am still deeply amused, and probably always will be, that the complete transcript of the Seven Words You Can't Say On TV can be found in the Supreme Court decision FCC v. Pacifica Foundation ( http://w2.eff.org/legal/cases/FCC_v_Pacifica/fcc_v_pacifica.decision ).
He may be the only man to curse his way to the Supreme Court, and that alone would make him worth remembering.
Truly, one of the greats, who will be sorely fucking missed.
Posted by: Matthew L. | June 24, 2008 12:31 AM
Carlin was not only a comic genius, but he was also absolutely unafraid to tell things how they really are. He will be missed.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | June 24, 2008 5:51 AM
This has nothing to do with George, except that he would have mined it for all it's worth:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/06/23/2008-06-23_dads_death_adds_to_odd_staten_island_fig.html
Add this to the other news about the Oregon political race where another "family value$$$" reptilican has been accused of paying for mistress' abortion. They just keep comin'!
Posted by: democommie | June 24, 2008 7:18 AM
Littlepeanut,
Carlos Mencia never claims to be a Mexican. He frequently states he is, if I remember correctly, Guatamalan. And he doesn't call himself middle class, he just has a shtick that pokes fun at everyone.
Ed, thanks for your comment--a bit graphic, but then, so are the comics we're discussin.
Posted by: James Hanley | June 24, 2008 11:52 AM
A talk radio show I listen to-Roe Conn-just played the latest post from Fred Phelps. And boy did they (and me) have a good laugh about it. Yes, you can guess that ol' George is in Hell-"deal with it!"
And they're going to boycott his funeral-what's new?
But the best was that he said two of his buddies who spoke after his death would soon be joining him in Hell.
Those buddies?
Keith Olbermann
And that filth monger.....no not Eddie Murphy....no not Dave Chapelle....no not Gallagher....no not Penn and Teller.....and (unfortunately) not Carrot Top.
That filth monger?
Jerry Seinfeld.
Thought y'all would like to know....
Posted by: Rev. AJB | June 26, 2008 4:03 PM
Carlin definitely has some funny stuff, but sometimes I think he went away from comedy and towards just complaining about political stuff he didn't like. I realize it's comedy and niceness isn't funny, but sometimes I think he went too far into the "everything sucks" territory.
Posted by: Matthew | June 29, 2008 9:27 PM