George Carlin: My Favorite Lapsed Catholic Atheist Maven of Logic
I grew up watching tons of standup comedy with my family as a kid. My parents were smart enough to understand that hearing someone say the words fuck and shit weren't going to really do much harm against my upbringing, so really, I watched everything that they would watch. I was able to many of these shows "live" as they aired on HBO and Showtime, including Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, and of course, George Carlin.
Out of all of them, Carlin was the one I resonated with best. Even when I was 6 years old I loved corny, silly, and puny jokes that revolved around wordplay. There was no one better than George Carlin for that. I often found it stupid that people would get so upset over words that were just made up by humans, and that we had set rules for the right and wrong way to use them when they were just made up anyhow. I understand the need for rules, but making fun of it all was just that much better, and free speech is something we all fucking need.
Raised Catholic I found a lot of what he said about "God" and religion interesting, because even early on I started to realize that those ideas and beliefs were not my own. Laughing about it helped me realize how silly I really found all of it and as a teenager I could have no better influence or teacher on the subject than that same guy that made me laugh my ass off as a little kid.
As an adult I've become a bitter bastard of an atheist, however, with a very optimistic yet realistic eye for the future. I have major plans and goals that I want and need to accomplish and I will be starting my own family as of Oct. 25th, 2008. (That means I'm getting married, that doesn't mean that Rosa is pregnant.... yet!) Watching his last comedy special he talked a lot about things that I care about and am looking toward and it seems like every phase I enter in my life I can look back to some George Carlin comedy special that I saw right around that time. Too bad I won't be able to say that about the future.
As hilarious as I found George Carlin to be, I thought his best accomplishment was getting people to think, even just a little bit. People don't seen to do that enough or as often as they should, so even if watching one standup comedy hour made people laugh while stimulating some brain activity, he did more for it in one hour than most could do in their whole life.
With that being said, I'm not going to say "Hope you're out there somewhere watching blah blah bullshit" because Carlin and I both don't believe there is anywhere to go for that crap.
Instead, I'll just end it with my favorite George Carlin bit.
Out of all of them, Carlin was the one I resonated with best. Even when I was 6 years old I loved corny, silly, and puny jokes that revolved around wordplay. There was no one better than George Carlin for that. I often found it stupid that people would get so upset over words that were just made up by humans, and that we had set rules for the right and wrong way to use them when they were just made up anyhow. I understand the need for rules, but making fun of it all was just that much better, and free speech is something we all fucking need.
Raised Catholic I found a lot of what he said about "God" and religion interesting, because even early on I started to realize that those ideas and beliefs were not my own. Laughing about it helped me realize how silly I really found all of it and as a teenager I could have no better influence or teacher on the subject than that same guy that made me laugh my ass off as a little kid.
As an adult I've become a bitter bastard of an atheist, however, with a very optimistic yet realistic eye for the future. I have major plans and goals that I want and need to accomplish and I will be starting my own family as of Oct. 25th, 2008. (That means I'm getting married, that doesn't mean that Rosa is pregnant.... yet!) Watching his last comedy special he talked a lot about things that I care about and am looking toward and it seems like every phase I enter in my life I can look back to some George Carlin comedy special that I saw right around that time. Too bad I won't be able to say that about the future.
As hilarious as I found George Carlin to be, I thought his best accomplishment was getting people to think, even just a little bit. People don't seen to do that enough or as often as they should, so even if watching one standup comedy hour made people laugh while stimulating some brain activity, he did more for it in one hour than most could do in their whole life.
With that being said, I'm not going to say "Hope you're out there somewhere watching blah blah bullshit" because Carlin and I both don't believe there is anywhere to go for that crap.
Instead, I'll just end it with my favorite George Carlin bit.
Labels: dead, freedom of speech, george carlin, logic, religion, rip
posted by Evil Adam at
9:32 AM
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