I was exposed to George Carlin in middle school. My folks would take me to Half Price Books and I was usually allowed to purchase one item per visit. On one outing, I picked up a George Carlin album for some reason (I think it had “Baseball and Football” on it). I’m sure my mother didn’t know who George Carlin was or what kinds of things he said or she wouldn’t have let me keep it. The cover art was innocent enough. Well, when I found out who George Carlin was and what kinds of things he said, you can be sure that I didn’t let her find out either. Turns out I really liked his routines – a lot. I didn’t realize it then, but I think I was attracted to the clever wordplay. As I grew older I was attracted to his social commentary and his refusal to yield to censorship.
Carlin is often identified with his “[NSFW]Seven Dirty Words You Can Never Say On Television” routine. I think a lot of people who are aware of this routine have never listened to it and assume it’s just this filthy comedian saying naughty words for the sake of uttering them (here’s the related lawsuit). It’s clear that even while getting laughs for saying naughty words, he loved word play. Heck, he starts off “Seven Dirty Words” with this:
“I love words. I thank you for hearing my words. I want to tell you something about words that I uh, I think is important. I love…as I say, they’re my work, they’re my play, they’re my passion. Words are all we have really.
We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. You know, [humming]. And, then we assign a word to a thought, [clicks tongue]. And we’re stuck with that word for that thought. So be careful with words. I like to think, yeah, the same words that hurt can heal. It’s a matter of how you pick them.”
His routines exposed me to semantics. I didn’t start to think about how important, or just cool words can be while sitting in English classes and being forced-fed “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Perhaps this is sort of a non sequitur, but I link my interests, and ultimately my attraction to law school, to hearing George Carlin at an early age.
I think Carlin’s death is the first celebrity death I’ve ever been kind of sad about. I would say something like “He’ll be floating around with Lenny Bruce,” but Carlin did perform monologues like “There is no God.”If there is a God, he just struck Carlin ([NSFW]or expired like a magazine) dead at age 71.
Posted by WK 