In writing this post, I could easily post a lot of video clips, because if George Carlin was anything, he was a prodigious producer of material, but I thought better of it.
Yes, he wrote and performed some of the most iconic and recognizable routines in modern comedy, from his early standup on The Ed Sullivan Show to the Seven Words you Can Never Say on Television to litany of HBO specials he filmed at roughly 2 year intervals since the late 1970's. He was also the first host of Saturday Night Live, so there is quite a lot of footage out there.
George Carlin had one of the longest comedic careers of relevance in the modern history of that discipline. Now, I am not talking about just having career longevity, because clearly men like George Burns and Bob Hope had him beat in that regard. No, rather I mean that even up to the time of his death, he was continuing to poke and prod at sensitive issues. He didn't rest on his laurels. He was a fearless comic who inspired multiple generations of comedians, and for that alone, he should be cherished.
But his continuing excellence as a standup after so many years, that was beyond admirable, it was astonishing. Usually the renegades burnout or fade from view, but Carlin was nearly ever-present through the past 40 years. He was one of those iconic people that seemed like they would always be around, commenting on our social foibles, our consumerist culture, the oddities of our language and the collective car wreck of the modern political system and the men and women who inhabited that sphere. He was a pioneer, and I am sure there will be a lot of tributes from his peers in the coming days and weeks.
Now, I know that there was some general disappointment about certain episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno which featured George Carlin and Ann Coulter where he did not engage her in any meaningful way, but he later explained that he was showing her some professional courtesy on an entertainment program, and it was neither the time nor the place for such a discussion. Plus, in his words, she was a zealot that doesn't respond to nuanced arguments. So even in explaining that situation, he still got in a good zinger at her expense. Bravo.
Of course, I am fully expecting a eulogy from Fox News like this, because he certainly poked at the interests and values they represent with vigor and wit, and if they choose to attack him in death, well, it certainly shows a lot of class on their part, doesn't it?
Now when I was looking into that appearance on the Tonight Show with Coulter, I came across another quote which seemed to sum things up nicely:
"Look, comedy is very much what it always was for stand-ups like me: a person with some jokes and ideas to share. I do this to show off and to satisfy my left brain, because I am a show off. But I don't think of comedy as ``going" anywhere, except maybe to the beach on a hot day."
I couldn't have summed it up better myself.
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