Remembering George Carlin

In December 1962, when Lenny Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Gate of Horn in Chicago, the police broke open his candy bars, looking for dope. They checked the IDs of audience members, including George Carlin, who told the cops, "I don't believe in IDs." Then they arrested him for disorderly conduct, dragged him along by the seat of his pants and hoisted him into the police wagon.

"What are you doing here?" Lenny asked.

"I didn't want to show them my ID."

"You schmuck," said Lenny.

Lenny and Carlin had similar points of view -- for example, they were both outspoken about the decriminalization of drugs -- and they were both self-educated, but their working styles were different. Lenny didn't write his material, it evolved on stage, whereas Carlin did write all his routines and then memorized 'em. Although both were unbelievers as far as religion was concerned, Lenny came from a Jewish background, and Carlin came from an Irish Catholic background.

Susie Bright, who first heard Carlin when she was in 7th grade, recalls playing his Class Clown album for her mother, "a woman whose first twenty years were entirely dominated by the Irish Catholic Church -- and it was a comic exorcism for her. She peed in her pants! She was cured in one LP [long-playing vinyl record]!"

Carlin was a generous friend, and such a sweet man. When I performed in Los Angeles, he sent a limousine to pick me up at the airport, and I stayed at his home. More recently, when I opened for him at the Warner-Grand Theater in San Pedro, California, we were hanging around in his dressing room, where he was nibbling from a vegetable plate. I watched as he continued to be genuinely gracious with every fan who stopped by. If they wanted his autograph, he would gladly sign his name. If they wanted to be photographed with him, he would assume the pose. If they wanted to have a little chat, he indulged them with congeniality.

"You really show respect for everybody," I observed.

"Well," he responded, "that's just the way I would want to be treated."

As a performer, Carlin was uncompromising, knowing that his audience trusted him not to be afraid of offending them. Who else would have posed this rhetorical question: "Why are there no recreational drugs in suppository form?" I was pleased to inform him that teenage girls have been experimenting with tampons dipped in vodka as a way of getting intoxicated without their parents detecting booze on their breath.

Carlin provided an introduction to one of my books, Murder At the Conspiracy Convention. Referring to the 1960s, he wrote:

As America entered the Magic Decade, I was leading a double life. I had been a rule-bender and law-breaker since first grade. A highly developed disregard for authority got me kicked out of three schools, the altar boys, the choir, summer camp, the Boy Scouts and the Air Force. I didn't trust the police or the government, and I didn't like bosses of any kind. I had become a pot smoker at 13 (1950), an unheard-of act in an old-fashioned Irish neighorhood. It managed to get me through my teens....

My affection for pot continued and my disregard for standard values increased, but they lagged behind my need to succeed. The Playboy Club, Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and the Copacabana were all part of a path I found uncomfortable but necessary during the early 1960s. But as the decade churned along and the country changed, I did too. Despite working in 'establishment' settings, as a veteran malcontent I found myself hanging out in coffee houses and folk clubs with others who were out-of-step people who fell somewhere between beatnik and hippie. Hair got longer, clothes got stranger, music got better. It became more of a strain for me to work for straight audiences. I took acid and mescaline. My sense of being on the outside intensified. I changed.

All through this period I was sustained and motivated by The Realist, Paul Krassner's incredible magazine of satire, revolution and just plain disrespect. It arrived every month, and with it, a fresh supply of inspiration. I can't overstate how important it was to me at the time. It allowed me to see that others who disagreed with the American consensus were busy expressing those feelings and using risky humor to do so. Paul's own writing, in particular, seemed daring and adventurous to me; it took big chances and made important arguments in relentlessly funny ways. I felt, down deep, that maybe I had some of that in me, too; that maybe I could be using my skills to better express my beliefs. The Realist was the inspiration that kept pushing me to the next level; there was no way I could continue reading it and remain the same.

You can imagine how incredibly honored I felt.

Carlin once told an audience of children how to be a class clown as a way of attracting attention. "I didn't start out with fake heart attacks in the aisle," he explained. Ah, if only that's what he was doing this time. But a reporter did once ask him how he wanted to die.

"I'd like to explode spontaneously in someone's living room," he replied. "That, to me, is the way to go out."

And, through his CDs, DVDs and books, George Carlin does indeed continue to explode spontaneously in living rooms across the country.

Originally posted on Arthur.com.

Follow Paul Krassner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Zen Bastard

Comments

[auramac]

The world is a lonelier place. George Carlin was irreplaceable- I too remember reading the Realist, llistening to Dylan, the Beatles, people like George Carlin who reminded me of Paul Simon's line "I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce."

Hard to figure out the truth anymore... I'm still searching. I look at Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann, never really sure. Does any musician nowadays come close, or are they simply naive? Am I naive? It's like looking for God- what do I know? I know nothing.

I had so much respect for George Carlin that I felt better about that.

[lbarnett]

I think back on those day and all those who broke ground, the names have all become legend:

George Carlin
Lenny Bruce
Dick Gregory
Richard Pryor
Paul Krasner
& Bill Hicks...later

I'm so fortunate to have lived during that time.....Thanks, Paul

[hudsuckerproxy]

Thank you for that beautiful appreciation. I've always looked to George Carlin to call out the BS and will miss him more than I can say. Needless to say, his brilliant body of work will continue to stand the test of time.

[MelFamy]

You are truly in their pantheon, Paul. Keep on rockin' in the (not so) free world!

[normathumb]

'Tis all a Checquer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces Play:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

There were, for us, of a time, the giants who rode the wave of that time and showed the breaks and bows and broke the ice with glee and force and strength and carved a vision of life to be lived with joy without compromise. No less human or frail then any other, but with the courage to stand up above the grain and be counted apart in spite of those frailties. There are always people of this type in all periods of history who proclaim "Here I am. This is what I stand for. Warts and all, like it or not". It is the margins that define the mainstream, not the other way around.

[JustifiablyParanoid]

You know, it's quite rare that I ever feel true sadness at the loss of one of society's icons. It certainly wasn't ever good news to hear of the death of a legend, but, c'est la vie, as they say.

Carlin is one of the few that I will dearly miss -- and that I am genuinely upset over. His comedy has been like a dose of the best medicine whenever I was feeling down, and I'll continue to watch his specials and laugh at his descriptions of dogs, cats, people -- of life.

He reminded us that we had to laugh at the absurdity of it all -- no matter how much it pissed us off. After his most recent HBO special, I remember thinking that I couldn't wait for the next one. If there's a heaven, I hope some day I'll be front and center at Carlin's next stand-up.

[wilso127]

This is the best "appreciation" I've read for G. Carlin of all that have appeared anywhere this week.
I thank the Big Guy that I've had the chance to see Lenny, George AND Paul (albeit, Paul at a meeting in the West Village where a group of us gathered to talk about effective ways to 'fight the system') at least once in my lifetime. George will always be with us.

[joebhed]

Thank you, Lenny Bruce.
Thank you, Paul Krassner.
Thank you, George Carlin.
Still crazy, and laughing, after all these years.
Wherever we are.

[dubop]

When as it is said that once in a generation someone comes along and truly impacts life, attitudes and peoples thoughts processes enough so that when they are gone you know that the world isn't as nice a place as it was when they were here.You would have to put George at the head of that list. I will miss him very much....