George Carlin was a man who loved to curse. The vulgarity of it intrigued him you could hear it in his voice whenever he said fuck, or shit, or anything that would fearlessly come from his lips with conviction, confidence. He was truly a fearless comedian, one of the greatest who will have ever lived. He was even fearless regardless of any topic, nothing was out of touch of George's idealistic vision of reality. I think it was his ability to analyze people, and fearlessly assess the situation with hilarity will be the reason he will be remembered for a long time.
Few comedian's have the presence that Carlin had when he was on the stage. His voice was enchanting and he looked like the crotchety old man, working that to his advantage. Age didn't stint his comedy if anything it became more verbose in it's topic matter, more in your face with language. He never hesitated to speak his mind and it was always funny. Speaking not only the truth but speaking it with such relentlessness that you laughed not just because it was outrageous. It was funny, truly funny but because it was the stone cold truth. He's as perceptive as anybody and he used that to his advantage.
His Comedy was definitely the epicenter of his fame. In the 60's Carlin was most notable on The Ed Sullivan show. Releasing his first comedy album, Take-ff's and Put-On's. During this period his popularity emerged as he was a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. In the 70's George created the routine that would make him a sensation. The "Seven words you can never say on television" skit was on his third album, Class Clown and it was this where he would propell himself to the next level.
Making his own road, George sported long hair and a full robust beard, an appearance that was uncharacteristic with the clean cut commedians of the era. He was arrested in 1972 for performing the act and violated obscenity laws. Controversy from this would only propel his fame. In 1976 George unexpectedly stopped doing stand-up shows, and for a period of the next five years he rarely did shows despite that he was doing HBO Specials it was around this period he suffered the first of three non-fatal heart attacks during his life.
In the 80's Carlin re-established himself with a plethora of HBO Specials, also garnering some fame. In 1989, he would play the aforementioned roll of Rufus, the mentor of Bill and Ted during their excellent adventure through time. Throughout the 90's he appeared sporadically througout popular culture as the narritive voice for the American version of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends. As well as appearing in Prince of Tides in 1991. In 1995 he got his own television show on Fox titled simply, The George Carlin Show, it ran for 27 episodes. 1999 would mark his appearance in Dogma as Cardinal Ignatius Glick, the brains behind his new "Catholoscism Wow!" campaign.
In 2001 George was given a Lifetime Acheivment award at the 15th Annual American Comedy Awards. George performed in Las Vegas for many years before he was fired from headlining at the MGM Grand Hotel after an altercation with his audience in the wake of cracking wise about beheadings and suicide bombings. He furthered on to attack Las Vegas in general, he was immediately fired and entered Rehab for drugs and alcohol. In 2006 he would voice Fillmore in Cars. His last HBO Special, titled "It's Bad For You" aired March 1st 2008.
He was one of my favorite commedians and he will be surely missed. I will be surprised if we see any comedian of his calibre ever again.
RIP George Carlin May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008
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