theFreshScent

George Carlin, one of the most prolific comedians of all time, has passed away died. I’m sure most of you are aware of this, and it’s not like we’re doing any original reporting here, but as a blog that focuses on Counter-Culture we would be totally remiss not to put something here.

Plus, personally, I thought he was an amazing comic.

First, let me link you to two New York Times articles. The first is your boilerplate life recap and the other is more of an opinion piece.

Now that’s done with, I can move on to the point of this post…

For me, watching George Carlin was eye opening. It was the first time that I recognized a comic could be more than either cynical or slapstick, but an extremely insightful agent of social commentary.

This man was able to observe everyday life and make incisive observations on how America (and our 20th century mentality) operated. More than that, he was able to convey them in a way that made us laugh and realize just how absurd life can really be at times.

Beyond the tricky wordplay or the foul language, he will always be one of the most intelligent and iconoclastic people in modern entertainment. For that we should all thank him.

Rest in peace George, you funny motherfucker.

Update: Thought I’d throw some extra stuff into this post. First, a couple of classic Carlin quotes:

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

I have as much authority as the Pope, I just don’t have as many people who believe it.

Electricity is really just organized lightning.

Is there another word for synonym?

If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him…is he still wrong?

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.

Religion convinced the world that there’s an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there’s 10 things he doesn’t want you to do or else you’ll go to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! …And he needs money! He’s all powerful, but he can’t handle money!

As a matter of principal, I never attend the first annual anything.

Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.

Next, there’s a great article by Jerry Seinfield about George and his mutual respect as a comedian.