Ever wished that Jerry Seinfeld would have been more ironic to the point of being morbid? You probably haven’t seen one of George Carlin’s acts. Seinfeld’s routines are child’s play compared to those of the man which have been known as an icon for the American counterculture. George Carlin died last Sunday of cardiac failure, but his work has put America in a whole new light, for those who knew him well, and for those were vaguely familiar with the lines but are unsure of the persona of the man who spoke it. The days of men in tight suits, yapping jokes about men in bars and their mother-in-laws, were totally blown out of the water since Carlin took the stage.
His jokes are morbid and blasphemous, dirty and curse-ridden all at the same time, but there’s an undertone of truth beneath the lines. It speaks well to the human nature to understand; humor is the language of the wit, and Carlin hit the spots which hurt the most just to coax you to admit the truth. His most popular routine, “Seven Words” was a monologue of all that’s wrong with the American Dream in particular and the human instinct in general, and you’ll find it hard to laugh without feeling a bit of melancholy to go along with the effort. Many people, especially purist, think that the man gets laughs because of the sheer profanity of the lines, but they’re not getting the point.
Carlin’s motivation was to exercise his right to free speech, and it shows. When he’s on stage, you feel that is an upstream pastor preaching to a congregation of all denominations; shame on you if you don’t get the message. He can say anything he wants, as much as he wants to say it – one time he finished off his routine with a litany of all the synonyms for the male genitals – and you couldn’t help but admire a man who’s capable of doing that without shrinking at the consequences.
Religion and God were his favorite targets, and he pokes fun at both like the Greeks poke fun at the Olympians. Carlin was against the flow for sure, but he’s been that way all long, when he did away with the suit in favor a plain black shirt and jean ensemble, when he got booted out of the Air Force, when he quit school early on in the ninth grade, and when he smoked pot in the 50’s as a kid. He made faces that caused you to snicker, easing the obscene joke easier into your hesitating consciousness. Comedians don’t normally have the courage to pull off stunts like these if they haven’t gained the respect which gives them lease to do without it. Yet Carlin persists as an American icon despite the lawsuits and the legislative sanctions. He can even ridicule Muhammad Ali and get away with it; it just shows you how a man with an iron will won’t back down no matter what; Carlin surely hasn’t, and he probably still won’t, wherever he may be right now.
