Time Out

Those of you who have been here from the beginning know that I don't normally break character. Well today I'm going to. Today the evil overlord thing just doesn't seem as funny to me. Tomorrow I can be funny again and we can maybe try to go back to the way things were, but today I just can't do it, no matter how hard I try.

For those of you who have not yet heard, last night George Carlin, the legendary comedian, died of heart failure.

George Carlin was one of my earliest and most revered heroes; one of the very few people in the world that I'd be willing to label as such. Carlin was not merely a comedic genius; that in and of itself is common enough. He was a prophet; a social commentator without peer. His ideas literally transformed my entire world when I was young, and continued to do so all the way through today. The way I am today, the way i think, the things I do, can almost invariably be traced to his influence.

George was irreplaceable. His unique brand of comedy, philosophy, thoughtfulness, and outright anger will never be duplicated. For many years now I thought that Carlin would live forever. Even despite hearing of his heart problems and knowing that he was getting old, the idea that he could die simply never occurred to me. He was immortal in every meaningful sense of the word.

In talking to my friends this morning, I realized that Carlin is only the third person who's ever died in my lifetime that I will really and truly miss, who wasn't a member of my family. The other two being Douglas Adams and Hunter S. Thompson. I won't say that all of my heroes have died, because that's obviously not true. There will always be heroes, as long as there are people for them to inspire. But I will say that most of the people who truly inspired my childhood and changed the way that I look at the world have now gone away. The only ones left of the five giants that shaped my worldview are Roger Waters and Tom Waits. I guess Rock and Roll really does make people live longer.

I know that whatever I say about George will be hollow and meaningless. His work is his own greatest monument to his genius. I like to think that every time I make someone laugh, or think about some small thing in a new way, that's a tiny tribute to George Carlin, a man who dedicated his life to changing the way people look at the world around them.

Like George, I'm not a religious person. At best I could be described as "non-religious", although I'd be more likely to use the term "Agnostic". So I won't waste anyone's time by saying that I'll "pray" for him, or that "I know he's in a better place", because that's not true, and even if it was it would be insulting to his legacy and memory to say so. All I know is that a bright, fiercely burning light has gone out of this world and for the moment, at least, everything seems a lot darker for it.




"I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately."

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck."

- George Carlin -
- 1937-2008 -