PhotoDude.com

Mon. Jun 23, 2008

Say Goodnight to the Hippy Dippy Weatherman

In 1972, I turned 14, and for Christmas I got [a] one of those fold-up “record players” and [b] three albums of my choosing. The first two I picked were “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath and The Fifth Dimension “Live.”

Yes, I was eclectic as a child, too.

But perhaps the most formative choice in many ways was the third, Class Clown by George Carlin. It contained the infamous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which spawned a lawsuit that ended up before the Supreme Court. I would also note that the word “never” turned out to be a bit strong, as many of those words can now be heard on “regular” cable TV, never mind HBO/Showtime, etc.

But it wasn’t those specific seven words that titillated my 14 year old brain, it was the way he played with words of all kinds, and the way he took simple observations and made them … profound. Or profoundly funny. His mind worked a bit like mine: oddly. The best example may be his bit about blue food:

I often wonder why there’s no blue food. Every other color is well represented in the food kingdom. And don’t bother me with blueberries; they’re purple. The same is true with blue corn and blue potatoes. They’re purple. Blue cheese? Nice try. It’s actually white cheese with blue mold. Occasionally, you might run across some blue Jell-o in a cafeteria. Don’t eat it. It wasn’t supposed to be blue. Something went wrong.

Carlin was a comedian I enjoyed for many years. Though recently some have thought he’d just become a cantankerous old man, well, let’s just say I could relate. Thus, my great sadness to find out that he passed away tonight of apparent heart failure.

Both his earlier lifestyle and heart troubles were well known. In 1983, he joked about it:

An update on the comedian health sweepstakes. I currently lead Richard Pryor in heart attacks 2 to 1. But Richard still leads me 1 to nothing in burning yourself up. See, it happened like this. First Richard had a heart attack. Then I had a heart attack. Then Richard burned himself up. And I said, ‘Fuck that. I’m having another heart attack!’

Well, I guess it’s time for a final update in the comedian health sweepstakes. George and Richard are likely now sitting around laughing at new jokes you and I can’t even understand, no longer worried about heart attacks or the lack of blue food. Or George is asking God, “So, I’ve been asking since I was a kid …. can you create a rock so big even you can’t lift it?”

Rest in peace, George, and thanks for all the laughs.

[Note: the article title is a reference to a Carlin character, Al Sleet]