George Carlin Was a Master Comedian and My All-Time Favorite

George Carlin was a master comedian and my all-time favorite. I grew up listening to his records in the 1970s. The first time I remember my parents playing LPs and hearing George do little skits. One particular funny line, especially for a kid: "Anyone can have bad breath Marge, but you could knock a buzzard off a shit wagon."

Anyone familiar with Carlin knows he went through a transformation over the years. His comedy grew from his DJ and sketch comedy background and evolved into the later persona that he seemed to own, the grumpy old George who worked biting social and political commentary into his standup through much of the 1990s and 2000s. I caught one of his last shows before he died in Boise, Idaho, of all places. He was prepping for what would become his last HBO special. When he walked out on stage he had a stack of papers with him. And he wasn't shy about announcing that he may have to have a look. Only once during that routine did he glance, for like 2 seconds at the sheet, before moving on seamlessly with his act.

I think many of his fans appreciated him for his often frantic bits and his ability to remember long tracks of words (see his "Modern Man" bit as an example). He wasn't one of those comics, at least later in life, who had to stop and pause for laughter too frequently in order to establish a rhythm. His delivery could be quick and detailed and the audience was forced to keep up. Part of the reason, I believe, was that he didn't dumb his audiences down when writing his material. He expected people to come around to his ideas in real time, even if the outrageousness was too much to digest at the moment. Carlin had the ability to persuade. And like a great comedian, he had the ability to make you laugh at the most absurd of premises. I would have loved to have seen his material had he lived through the Obama and Trump years.

"The very existence of flamethrowers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.”

--George Carlin.