This news was a little weird to me. A friend of mine and I were just talking about some of his stand up Saturday, and then he up and dies at 71. That’s life I guess, and an ironic end to a man who thought that “humanity is a cursed, doomed species.” You gotta love that epithet. Well, whether you think Carlin’s funny or not you have to give him some kudos for appealing to the common person’s absurdest and nihilistic experience on this chunk of shit we call planet earth.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Carlin:
“The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I’m concerned, and I’d love to watch it spin itself into oblivion.”“I don’t have any beliefs or allegiances. I don’t believe in this country, I don’t believe in religion, or a god, and I don’t believe in all these man-made institutional ideas.”“May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house.”“Honesty may be the best policy, but it’s important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.”“By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.”“People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think.”“Some people see things that are and ask, Why? Some people dream of things that never were and ask, Why not? Some people have to go to work and don’t have time for all that.”
With enough searching on YouTube you will find an abundance of Carlin clips spanning his whole career. Consequently, it would take a lot of time to understand the full scope of his comic genius. Having said that, here are a few highlights. Cheers.