Editor’s note: This is a special post from our Pop Culture Affairs Desk correspondent Joel Isaac Frady in memory of George Carlin. All the dirty words have been redacted. This is why.
On Tuesday, I got news of staggering magnitude in the way I’ve always dreamed of — through an e-mail assignment. Before I had gotten far enough along in my morning, which consists of cereal and ESPN followed by some news, I received an e-mail that contained the following sentence:
“We need a post to The Desk about George Carlin. You are the best person to write this”
“[Expletive].” I shouted loudly and apparently out of nowhere, according to the lady, who appeared a bit caught off guard by my random outburst.
“[Expletive]! [Expletive]! [Expletive]!” I shouted again, knowing that there was only one reason I could imagine receiving this e-mail.
“Maybe he’s doing a show in Charlotte,” I told myself. “He could be touring. He just did another HBO special.”
Even at the time I remember thinking that those were just lies I was telling myself. But turning on the news was like tuning into a game in which you know that your team is going to get crushed. I just kept thinking:
“I am really, really, really going to miss George Carlin.”
On Sunday, it wasn’t just a comedian who we lost. George Carlin was one of the few who defined what a comedian is. Fearless and articulated, Carlin perfected the calm, logical road to angry. He wouldn’t just outright slam the subjects of his rantings; that’d be too easy. Carlin instead chose the slow route that made perfect sense — and was usually pretty damn funny.
There’s a good reason the man was given the green-light for 11 HBO specials. Hell, anyone and everyone who likes to laugh tunes into a Carlin show. And though he rose to fame in the ’60s, he was timeless; he just got funnier and funnier as he went along.
But I know this is what everyone is probably saying at the moment, and I think my favorite Carlin moment still has to be the time he made me cry.
I didn’t even realize at the time that Carlin had a soft side. The idea that he would hit the right dramatic notes to inspire me to a tear would probably have made me laugh, and having seeing Carlin’s first two performances in Kevin Smith movies (in Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) I was expecting more of the dry humor perfectly written for Carlin.
Instead, Carlin stole several scenes in Smith’s Jersey Girl, a film that everyone did not enjoy as much as I did. And, in the last scene that he stole, I teared up. It was also significant for me because — having developed quite the tolerance to tearing up at movies — the ones that get me are few and far between.
And for George Carlin,
“George Carlin! George [EXPLETIVE] Carlin! There’s no way that I just teared up at something that came out of George Carlin’s mouth.”
But I had, and as I smiled at the accomplishment of Carlin in the film, which I thought deserved a best supporting actor nomination. He hit all the right notes and delivered a spot-on performance. But Carlin also taught me something more important in the process–that he pulled it off because he’s so lovably human.
He’s always been normal, just outspoken. I’m sure some would call him vulgar, but Carlin simply said what we were all thinking. He was self-deprecating like us. He was a more logical of a being than most of the people I know. Carlin was the kind of guy who everyone wanted to hang out with on a weekend day; who knew how to have a good time and could belt out something horrifically hilarious as soon as the right subjects are dropped.
And that’s why he never lost his popularity — he was impossible not to like.
The only people who don’t love Carlin are usually so prudish and self-righteous that Carlin wouldn’t have wanted them ruining the fun as his [EXPLETIVE] party, either. So it didn’t matter. You could watch his stuff with friends, girlfriends, parents, uncles, mentors, and it was always a loud room. George Carlin provided the laughter that they probably needed to get through some rough times — much like South Park and Dead Like Me saved me a time or so.
And that alone is utterly priceless.
I’ll admit it: it hurts in a way to know that no matter when I wake up, George Carlin won’t be doing anymore shows near me. No longer will I weigh the effects of spending this month’s rent to see one of his performances.
George Carlin was always one of the true Americans — a man who lived, respectfully, to the beat of his own drum. He verbally destroyed numerous trends, people and ideas in the name of comedy; never even looking back to see the destruction in his path.
I doubt he saw death coming for him, but I’m sure if he had a moment to object before he was caught, he would have destroyed Death’s hopes and self-esteem. And if you were able to hear what he said, you would have laughed you’re [EXPLETIVE] off.
– Joel Isaac Frady is the chief film critic for The Desk.
