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George Carlin Dead of Heart Failure

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday June 23, @08:50AM
from the true-original dept.
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ashamanq was one of many who noted that comedian George Carlin has died of heart failure. Most famous for his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine which resulted in a landmark supreme court ruling, he was a true voice against censorship, and also one of the funniest men ever. He was 71.

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Firehose:George Carlin Dead of Heart Failure by ashamanq (1077889)
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  • Smiling down. (Score:5, Funny)

    by davidpack01 (580365) on Monday June 23, @08:51AM (#23902033)
    I think he's up there now, smiling down at us.

  • Sad :( (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TimeForGuinness (701731) on Monday June 23, @08:55AM (#23902071) Homepage Journal
    A philosopher who was funny...he will be missed. (lifts glass) Cheers, TFG

  • We'll see him again (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nursie (632944) on Monday June 23, @08:56AM (#23902077) Homepage

    He's just gone into the future to the time when the Wyld Stallyns music forms the basis of society.

  • A great man is lost (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegrassyknowl (762218) on Monday June 23, @08:57AM (#23902089)

    We held a little ceremony here before. Carlin was a truly great man. A voice against censorship and generally against rampant stupidity as well.

    May his memory live long and someone crop up and continue on in his great tradition of telling the 'system' to go fuck itself.

  • Best Summary of Religion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by copponex (13876) on Monday June 23, @08:58AM (#23902111) Homepage

    You will be missed, pal.

    "In the Bullshit Department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman. 'Cause I gotta tell you the truth, folks. When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims: religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told.

    Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!

    But He loves you.

    He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!"

    -George Carlin

    • Re:Best Summary of Religion (Score:5, Insightful)

      by elrous0 (869638) * on Monday June 23, @09:15AM (#23902273)
      One of the few comedians who stayed completely relevant over the span of many decades. He was also able to reinvent himself on several occasions, and each time very effectively. In the early 60's he was part of a vanilla Lewis and Martin-type comedy team, in the late-60's/early 70's he became a cutting edge counter-culture comic, and in the 80's he became a great comic actor. Truly amazing.

      I was watching him in Dogma [imdb.com] just this weekend. That opening with him introducing the "Jesus Wow!" campaign still cracks me up.

      He'll be missed.

  • Semantics (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Darth_brooks (180756) <chico@wccne[ ]rg ['t.o' in gap]> on Monday June 23, @09:01AM (#23902135) Homepage

    "Get 'on' the plane, get 'on' the plane..."

    "Fuck you, I'm getting *IN* the plane."

    I started listening to "Class Clown" in 3rd or 4th grade. I always liked his insight, even if he did seem to get quit bitter over the past few years. I always liked his take on growing up in Morningside Heights. He always said that saying you were from a place like Morningside Heights would get you beat up, so he liked to say he was from "White Harlem."

    His routine on "Shell Shock vs. Post Traumatic Stress-Disorder" rings very true.

    • Re:Semantics (Score:5, Informative)

      by Alzheimers (467217) on Monday June 23, @09:13AM (#23902255)

      Good choices, though I was always a fan of the Baseball vs. Football [baseball-almanac.com] routine.

      And he's right on about Hockey: [boredatuni.com]

      Hockey comes to mind. People think hockey is a sport. It's not. Hockey is three activities taking place at the same time: ice skating, fooling around with a puck, and beating the shit out of somebody.

      RIP man.

  • God Damnit! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by squarefish (561836) * on Monday June 23, @09:07AM (#23902195)
    I had to convince my girlfriend a few weeks ago that we should get tickets because he's one person I would really like to see before he, ahmen, dies. So we spent ~$160 for great ticket to see him at the Chicago theater on Oct. 11. I have no more words for this.

  • In vein of the man himself... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 23, @09:08AM (#23902203)

    With nothing but contempt for modern humanity and politics, I highly doubt he'd want anyone to mourn.

    So I'll tell it like it is.
    Today an great man died.
    He was a foul-mouthed rat-bastard hippy conspiracy theorist.
    May his soul be blessed by whoever gives a damn.

      • Re:Stern (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Soporific (595477) on Monday June 23, @09:09AM (#23902219)

        I think when his wife died it really changed him and his routines. I still found him funny, but he came off very angry.

      • If I were in charge of the networks (Score:5, Interesting)

        by 0100010001010011 (652467) on Monday June 23, @09:11AM (#23902235)

        I'm tired of television announcers, hosts, newscaster, and commentators, nibbling away at the English language, making obvious and ignorant mistakes. If I were in charge of America's broadcast stations and networks, I would gather together all the people whose jobs include speaking to the public, and I would not let them out of the room until they had absorbed the following suggestions. I'm aware that media personalities are not selected on the basis of intelligence. I know that, and I try to make allowances for it. Believe me, I really try. But still ⦠There are some liberties taken with speech that I think require intervention, if only for my own sake. I won't feel right if this chance goes by, and I keep my silence.

        The English word forte, meaning "specialty" or "strong point," is not pronounced "for-tay." Got that? It is pronounced "fort." The Italian word forte, used in music notation, is pronounced "for-tay," and it instructs the musician to play loud: "She plays the skin flute, and her forte [fort] is playing forte [for-tay]." Look it up. And don't give me that whiny shit, "For-tay is listed as the second preference." There's a reason it's second: because it's not first!

        Irony deals with opposites; it has nothing to do with coincidence. If two baseball palyers from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father's it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence. Irony is "a state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result." For instance:

        * If a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck, he is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.

        * If a Kurd, after surviving bloody battle with Saddam Hussein's army and a long, difficult escape through the mountains, is crushed and killed by a parachute drop of humanitarian aid, that, my friend, is irony writ large.

        * Darryl Stingley, the pro football player, was paralyzed after a brutal hit by Jack Tatum. Now Darryl Stingley's son plays football, and if the son should become paralyzed while playing, it will not be ironic. It will be coincidental. If Darryl Stingley's son paralyzes someone else, that will be closer to ironic. If he paralyzes Jack Tatum's son that will be precisely ironic.

        I'm tired of hearing prodigal being used to mean "wandering, given to running away or leaving and returning." The parable in the Book of Luke tells of a son who squanders his father's money. Prodigal means "recklessly wasteful or extravagant." And if you say popular usage has changed that, I say, fuck popular usage!

        The phrase sour grapes does not refer to jealousy or envy. Nor is it related to being a sore loser. It deals with the rationalization of failure to attain a desired end. In the original fable by Aesop, "The Fox and the Grapes," when the fox realizes he cannot leap high enough to reach the grapes, he rationalizes that even if he had gotten them, they would probably have been sour anyway. Rationalization, that's all sour grapes means. It doesn't mean deal with jealousy or sore losing. Yeah, I know you say, "Well many people are using it that way, so the meaning is changing." And I say, "Well many people are really fuckin' stupid too, shall we just adopt all their standards?"

        Strictly speaking, celibate does not mean not having sex, it means not being married. No wedding. The practice of refraining from sex is called chastity or sexual abstinence. No fucking. Priests don't take a vow of celibacy, they take a vow of chastity. Sometimes referred to as the "no-nookie clause."

        And speaking of sex, the Immaculate Conception does not mean Jesus was concieved in the

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