Poop Shute

George Denis Patrick Carlin

May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008

As I get older, many icons of my youth have passed away. I didn't cry when Frank Sinatra died. I didn't shed a tear when Christopher Reeves passed on.

I cried today.

George Carlin was an inextricable part of my youth. A great deal of my own sense of humor is based directly on my father's sense of humor, and a great deal of my father's sense of humor is based directly on Mr Carlin's.

I remember watching stand-up specials with my Dad as a kid. The Hippy Dippy WeatherMan, A Place For Your Stuff, and Dirty Words were among my favorite comedy bits I've ever seen.

George Carlin was the Godfather of a whole generation of stand up comedy. Many young comedians today directly credit him with inspiring them to do what they do.

He got in your face and said what he knew needed to be said, and he made sure he said it in a way that made you laugh while you thought about it.

George spoke in pure music. He spoke in rhythms that were funny on their own, they flowed like water and his words danced a jig on a raft. A gruff, and cynical music, for sure, but a music that tickled your mind, whether you liked it or not.

I was lucky enough to see him in concert when I was about twenty years old. Some lady near the back yelled out something unintelligible, interrupting his joke. Without missing a single beat he casually called out "someone shove a cock in that woman's mouth" and returned to his joke as though he had never left it.

A great man has left us today. No moment of silence for this man though. Have a beer and a good laugh. It's the only way he'd have wanted it.

I will leave you with one of my favorite Carlin moments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac&feature=related

Enjoy.