I spent the weekend on the ridiculously nice part of the Jersey Shore working on burning my pearly white skin so Gaudio won't make fun of me any more. I completely avoided the news for three days so I could drink, swim and bake in peace.
Then this morning I find out George Carlin passed away at 71.
As a spry young lad, I ordered a Carlin CD from one of those music club ripoff places that sends you 12 albums if you buy one. I did this because I knew I could never buy the CD in a store because I needed my parent's permission and I'd never get it.
When this prized comedy finally came, I remember thinking that he was funny, but pretty tame by our standards. Later I realized his stand-up was 20 years old by the time I heard it.
You see young children, you couldn't always go on a stage (or on a website) and make fun of soul-sucking politicians, crack boner jokes or kid about the paradigm. For his act Carlin was booed off the stage, jailed, fired or ostracized.
If you're glad comedy has progressed past slipping on banana peels or complaints about airline food, thank Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, or, of course, George Carlin.
Here's something on YouTube that's both fitting for the occasion and hilarious. His stuff is just as funny and intelligent now as it was back in the day, even if you can say most of the words on TV that he wasn't allowed to say 30 years ago.
"You know the 7, don't you, that you can't say on television? ‘Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits!'" – George Carlin