Perspective, use it or lose it

So long George, thanks for all the laughs

George Carlin has died of heart failure. He was the defining comedian of the late '60's and 70's. As the comedy boom of the 1980's exploded and brought us a stand up comedian in front of any stray brick wall, George remained not the most popular or best loved, instead he remained the comic who made us think and who challenged us the most.

Toledo Window Box was one of the first comedy albums that I listened to that I could actually identify with. His other comedy albums set the gold standard for other stand up comedians in the years that followed. Carlin made his name and kept it out there by touring and writing new material, he didn't do it by appearing in dumb downed sitcoms or by making crappy movie after crappy movie. He wrote books, did stand up, and in the early days of cable he hitched his star to a then unknown pay cable company called HBO and it propelled him to comic stardom.

Carlin will also go down in history as the first host of Saturday Night Live. His humor and comic style didn't mesh well with the show however and watching it today can be at times painful. But nonetheless he was the first to guest host that now comic institution. (Note to SNL: When people describe your show as an institution, it's time to leave the airwaves. You've out lived your welcome, unlike George.)
There were a few of his older HBO specials that I didn't care for but his last one I saw he was dead on the mark with most of his material. I loved how as he got older he got bolder, that is to say he kept hammering home the stupidity of electing corporate idiots to positions of power and how religion keeps us all down. Maybe now that he's gone people will listen to George's words and we'll stop believing in superstitions and stone age mumbo jumbo and start believeing in helping and working with one another to make things better.

Rest in peace George. I hope you come back real soon.