George Carlin Dead of Heart Failure 583
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.
In the immortal words of George (Score:1, Insightful)
he said it best:
first post
well, actually:
the Earth isn't going anywhere. We are.
Re:Smiling down. (Score:4, Insightful)
Um, I think you mean. May his body decay into the earth as nicely as fucking possible.
Anyone who mentions "up there", "god", or "soul" in this article should be modded down.
Re:Smiling down. (Score:4, Insightful)
Excepting for the fact that he would have called you a fucking moron for even suggesting that there is an "up there".
Sad :( (Score:5, Insightful)
A great man is lost (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
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:Smiling down. (Score:4, Insightful)
In vein of the man himself... (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
I think when his wife died it really changed him and his routines. I still found him funny, but he came off very angry.
Re:Stern (Score:3, Insightful)
I think he discovered he could make just as much money by making fun of government (which, let's be honest here, doesn't take much effort) and rehashing his best bits as he could by writing tons of new material at considerable effort. And I think he was just cynical enough to laugh at that fact, and exploit the hell out of it.
Re:Best Summary of Religion (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Stern (Score:5, Insightful)
Cock-Sucker (Score:3, Insightful)
Well fuck. Who's going to call everyone on their bullshit now?
Re:If I were in charge of the networks (Score:5, Insightful)
And exactly why the Mark Twain award is so fitting for George - Twain has long been for me the model for precise usage of language - and Carlin was a modern example.
I'm sad to see him gnoe - one less funny (and wise) fucker in the world.
Re:de mortuis nil nisi bonum but ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Carlin's classic material tended to rant about things he hated, with the implication that he - and those who agree with him - are superior.
Only the insecure feel the need to apologize for other people's inadequacies.
Re:de mortuis nil nisi bonum but ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Farewell, Sir... (Score:2, Insightful)
A great light among us has gone out.
Words to live by (Score:5, Insightful)
He's moved on, departed from the Big Electron. He was a giant and will be missed. I have taken one of his phrases to heart:
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that."
RIP Mr Carlin.
As, I think, Mark, George and gods would say ... (Score:4, Insightful)
"Greetings my excellent friends!" Rufus
"George and Sam exceeded my expectations of simple humans." GODDDD
The 4D GoDDDD will always be greater than the parochial 3D GoDDD, never as shallow as the 2D GoDD, and really the 1D GoD is just a human word/acronym sort of thing meaning Go-Dogma and totally open to local interpretation/spin.
"Dogma affected never reason effective." Oldhawk777
Final words: "Party on and be excellent to one another." George
George was one of the best of US with the "Right Stuff". %~G
Sanity by mandate is highly over-rated by US.
Re:Cock-Sucker (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Stern (Score:3, Insightful)
You and your buddies are the 25% who are stupid enough to still believe in the Bush Administration. My guess is that you're the kind of person who think never changing one's opinion is somehow a virtue. Good luck with that, fool
Re:Best Summary of Religion (Score:1, Insightful)
Actually he looks pretty smart saying such things. The person that looks stupid is the idiot that stands up and says, "It's not believing in imaginary things for no reason that is the problem, it's just some individuals ruining it for the rest of us! Jebus doesn't need money, just his child-molesting followers do!"
The people that are most enraptured in religion are the ones that don't know very much about what they are following; they are just the ones gathered together to tell each other how awesome Santa Claus is. Oh yes, plead about your special knowledge. Cling disparately to superstition you only follow because of where you were born and who you were born to. It impresses us greatly.
Re:The unfortunate corollary... (Score:4, Insightful)
What fucking world do you live in that you don't have an alternative?
Re:If I were in charge of the networks (Score:3, Insightful)
And if you say popular usage has changed that, I say, fuck popular usage!
Don we now our gay apparrel
Tra la la
Tra la la
la la la
"Is deck the Halls about a transvestite, Grandpa?"
celibate does not mean not having sex
Only if "hacker" doesn't mean "cyburgler"
You wouldn't say, "as welcome as a turd in the proverbial punchbowl
You would if the phrase had become a cliche'.
Momentarily means for a moment, not in a moment.
momentarily [reference.com]
1. For a moment or an instant.
2. In a moment; very soon.
3. Moment by moment; progressively.
Healthy does not mean "healthful." Healthy is a condition, healthful is a property. Vegetable aren't healthy, they're dead. No food is healthy. Unlesss you have an eggplant that's doing push-ups. Push-ups are healthful.
1. possessing or enjoying good health or a sound and vigorous mentality: a healthy body; a healthy mind.
2. pertaining to or characteristic of good health, or a sound and vigorous mind: a healthy appearance; healthy attitudes.
3. conducive to good health; healthful: healthy recreations.
Race, creed, or color is wrong. Race and color, as used in this phrase, describe the same property. And "creed" is a stilted, outmoded way of saying "religion."
So in other words, it's perfectly literate buit don't say it because religion pisses the bar code guy off?
Don't you just hate it when you show your ignorance when ranting about other peoples' ignorance? Sorry, but I'll take the dictionary's word over yours any day.
Re:Stern (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Having just seen "George Carlin: Again!" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Smiling down. (Score:3, Insightful)
Even in all his rantings (he got a little less jovial after his wife died) he really didn't mock the individual specifically for believing something... he mocked the powerful, the privileged, and those who wanted to make a buck off the spritual nature of man... (the Pope included.) In other words, he poked holes in the pompous blowhards who think they know better than we do about ourselves and our own lives. If I got anything from his comedy (besides a sore side from laughing so hard), it was this: You are the individual... stop following others and looking to others to answer the questions _you_ have to answer. "Eyes on your own paper..."
It was posted earlier w/r/t Joe Pesci... "Pick your supersition and enjoy yourself..."
If you didn't, he probably would have fun at your expense, I guess. ;)
Re:Stern (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought he was funny 20 years ago when he was topical. In his recent stuff, I just saw him as a bitter old hippy, taking cheap pot shots at the Republican establishment. I saw no humor or insight, just a bunch of cursing, whining, and hypocrisy. The early stuff, the routines that made his reputation, were outstandingly funny.
But yes, he became cankier as he aged. IMO it suited him.
Bad news to wake up to. (Score:5, Insightful)
Along with Bill Hicks, George Carlin was my absolute favorite comedian. What they did was much more than just comedy, though. The reason I loved George so much, just as with Bill, was because, in the process of making you laugh so hard, they also made you think. George had the ability to make you see how ridiculous certain things really were, even if you didn't want to.
So long, George. You're irreplaceable.
Re:Smiling down. (Score:4, Insightful)
First, i recognize that the GP is joking and that George Carlin was an athiest. Anyway, if this article was about a christian, would you say that "Anyone who mentions "decaying into the earth" in this article should be modded down"? Or if it was a buddhist would you attack athiestic or christian beliefs? I'm actually agnostic, but my point is that what happens after death is not decided by the beliefs of the dead, it's in the mind of the living, as no one really knows...
Re:And now for something completely different... (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope you're not serious. You realize the word "fuck" is as much a word as is the word "existentialism."
If I was visiting a tribe in Africa where no one spoke English and I went up to the chief with a basket of various gifts, and offered this basket to the chief while smiling and saying in a calm polite voice "I hope you fucking choke on a bucket of cum you worthless pile of shit" the chief would not take offense. He wouldn't know what I said and would only be able to guess that it was something nice, since I said it with a smile, in a calm polite voice, while offering a basket of gifts.
Now, if I went up to the same chief, screaming to the point where my face was red "Hello Sir! I hope you live a long and prosperous life!" He would take great offense to that, he would think I was angry with him.
Swear words are just words, they aren't magical, they don't bring down society. If a 5 year old boy never heard the word "fuck" before, hearing it isn't going to turn him into a mindless degenerate. He's only going to know the meaning of the word based on who said it, the context, and how they said it.
Re:And now for something completely different... (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that curse words evoke primitive emotional responses in people is exactly why they're so important and powerful. Like it or not, people are primitive emotional beings, and appealing to that side is often, no, usually the best way to communicate with them.
Sure, you can try communicating calmly and rationally with people, if you like getting ignored. But if you want results, you've got to hit them in the old lizard brain.
Re:Lighten up Francis... (Score:2, Insightful)
And a prostitute can be delayed.
To those who say "grumpy old man"... (Score:3, Insightful)
...and enjoyed his past material should look at themselves. Maybe you've become the very thing George satirizes?
Re:And now for something completely different... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:AtlasAxe (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd take it, but I'd have to move some of my stuff, or, buy bigger place to put my stuff and his stuff together.
Re:Smiling down. (Score:3, Insightful)
Carlin's religiously inspired angst is not just some sideline. It's a
key part of his personality and his work. Ironically enough, the
Catholic institutions that he despised so much probably did him a
remarkable amount of good considering his personal background.
In the Carlin spirit.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Carlin always wanted us to look differently at life, so in the Carlin spirit..
"Today was the best day of George Carlin's life... he died."
Re:Maybe he needed to die (Score:3, Insightful)
I actually think that George Carlin was also a man of faith and integrity who loved his family.
I also think that Tim Russert probably enjoyed George Carlin's humor. Russert came across as a fairly intelligent, well-rounded individual. Carlin's humor was all about getting people to think. I think Russert appreciated anyone who made him think.
Re:And now for something completely different... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, your point is that how people react to words depends on how they are said. It's also true that what a word means depends on how you say it. Some ways of using a word don't require assigning any meaning to it.
The German language has words like "doch" or "mal" which play a kind of grammatical function but don't mean anything specific. The word "fuck" is used by many people in English much the same way. Using "fuck" is not, objectively, any morally less worthy than "doch". It's just that using "fuck" as a kind of rhythmic grammatical filler is not an educated style of speech, whereas those peculiar German words are part of the mainstream dialect. Because it is an uneducated style of speech, "fuck" filled language is often found traveling in the company with stupid, mindless, and ignorant speech. Still, it is neither here nor there in itself.
Things get interesting when "fuck" is used as a curse. "Bad" language is called "cursing", but it almost never is cursing. "Fuck you" is the rare example of an actual curse. Its emotionally powerful because the sexual connotations of the word give the curse humiliating overtones. "Suck" is sometimes used in "you suck" the same way.
"Fuck" as a word can only be called automatically offensive if you define "offensiveness" so vaguely it amounts to "anything that bothers me." Some people do think this way. But for me, it's the placing of mindless humiliation on another person that's offensive. Not all uses of the word "fuck" amount to this; not even all uses of the word in a curse do. The use of language to degrade another human being could be the very definition of offensiveness.
Never mind the fact that a notion of a curse has been lost on the masses, including the self-proclaimed elitists who see it as dirty instead of being an actual hex on one's own Self.
Re:A great man is lost (Score:1, Insightful)
Being what he was, a popular funny guy with a quotable amount of wisdom, he also leaves behind a horde of immature twits who parrot his thoughts and motions as a gesture of taking him way too seriously.
Which is somehow appropriately funny.
Re:And now for something completely different... (Score:4, Insightful)
The more extensive your vocabulary, the better you can fine-tune communication. Words are tools. A simple screwdriver is good for most jobs, but you often find yourself using different screwdrivers for different tasks. Sometimes you want a jewelers screwdriver to work on your glasses. Other times you want a large flathead with a strong grip so you can apply torque. A band saw is just as much a tool as a drill, and serves very different purposes - it all depends on your need.
Sometimes, though, the job can only be done with a good solid sledgehammer.
Swear words are effectively sledgehammers.
For example, it is often required that you express distaste or anger - they're everyday emotions that you can't hide from, and they often need to be declared. You have a wide variety of words to use. Simple direct "base" words, like "Angry" or "Mad" get the basic point across but are far too generic to have any real meaning beyond the basic concept. Being basic words, though, they have more emotional impact. There are better words in the core vocabulary, such as "Furious" or "Irritated" - these allow finer grades of meaning, but trade this for a bit of power. As you go up the ladder, you can achieve more and more precise meanings, such as "irascible", "choleric", or "perturbed". In civil communications, these can describe your feelings to a great level of precision. They also lose almost all of their emotional power.
Say you've done something to anger me, in a situation where it's appropriate for me to express that anger. Not only that, but you're threatening me - in many circumstances counter-intimidation is the only intelligent response (since an appeal will often simply fail, and a first-strike is usually not acceptable).
There are three basic routes you could follow.
Do as many well-educated verbose geeks will do, and respond with a well-spoken and wordy response that applies logic and fine shades of meaning to each and every word. In an emotional situation, this is generally useless and shows intelligence but very little understanding of real-world social interaction.
You can apply your vocabulary, abstaining from actual cursing, but choosing your words for effect. Phrases like "choking on your own blood" or "cripple you for life" keep the wording short and simple, and don't require degrading language. The problem is it's very difficult for most intelligent people to intimidate intelligently without being overtly threatening yourself. This is usually the best course, but it's also the most risky.
Alternately, a simple "Fuck you", or "back off asshole" will usually work much better. While cussing can fan the flames, once the individuals are already angry then a little cussing really doesn't add much to it. Quite the opposite - degenerating into schoolhouse taunts does a very good job of releasing tension (which is almost always what most fights are about) without actually hitting eachother.
Vocalization is a mammal concept (at least the way we use it). Speech is a purely human concept. Cussing, though, is most definitely a primate concept - chimps taught sign language invent their own forms very quickly. When you cuss, you tap into primal emotions, for better or for worse. Almost every association you have for any swear word is animal in nature.
That's why swearing is unacceptable. It has nothing to do with polite society, or problem resolution. It's for the same reason why nakedness offends (because a naked human body loses it's veneer of civilization - naked humans look like any other animal). For the same reason why many cultures dislike extensive facial hair or long scalp hair (it's a reminder that we're still just animals). It's why virtually all of our basic laws - both religious and civil - primarily focus on covering up for t
Re:If I were in charge of the networks (Score:3, Insightful)
Languages change. It isn't corruption of the language, it's just language doing what is always has and always will do. Be glad for it, if they didn't change we would still be grunting like our ancient cave dwelling ancestors.
Re:And now for something completely different... (Score:3, Insightful)
You're splitting hairs, so let me make another distinction, one which I think is more accurate.
I agree that fuck can never be a curse per se, but that's because of a category mistake. A curse is a kind of discourse, and fuck is just a word. But as a word, it contains the connotations you point out. Thus, it remains a curse word.
So fuck is not a curse simpliciter, but certainly a curse word.
My point is that you can't make the word as innocent as "doch" (I don't know about you, but I know German), and keep it at the level of a grammatical particle, or mere formless sound. Convention does in fact dictate that this word is taboo, or used to break taboos. To argue otherwise to change reality, not to describe it.
Of course, I remain open to the possibility that reality can and does change, and that the word may lose its taboo, but only when enough speakers think like you do. But that change will probably not come from native speakers. I have lived in non-English-speaking countries most of my adult life, and work with Dutch-speaking kids in my free time. They drop f-bombs everywhere, at school, at home, in front of me - for them, the word simply does not have that same force abroad. But it will take a long time before that affects us native-speakers (among whom I assume but don't know you number).