George Carlin: 1937-2008

“I am who I am, and was who I was—past tense of Popeye—and I’m happy with it and proud of it. I only wish I were two people, so I could’ve done twice as much.”
--George Carlin
Paste, Sept. 2007

The iconically acerbic, Grammy-award winning comedian George Carlin produced many lifetimes’ worth of work before his death Sunday evening. After 22 solo albums, 16 movies, 14 HBO specials and far more than seven dirty words, Carlin, who suffered numerous heart attacks since the ‘70s, passed away from heart failure in a Santa Moncia, Calif., hospital. He was 71.

Often punctuating his routine with sneers, smirks, exasperated shrugs and an admonishing point of the finger, Carlin’s delivery was that of astonished disbelief—and amusement—at what he felt were humanity’s greatest follies. Despite the pessimism that ran thick through his material, which largely centered on unyielding frustrations with consumerism, religion and “selfish, ignorant citizens” too busy “taking (their) credit cards out of (their) fanny pack(s) and buying a pair of sneakers with lights in them” to pay attention to the world at large, Carlin told Paste late last year that he was not as angry as many assume.

“Most things aren’t worth, to me, getting angry at,” he said, “so what you see up there is a disillusionment and a sense of betrayal on the part of my fellow humans and my fellow Americans—that they had such gifts they were given and squandered them in the interest of superstition, meaning religion, and material gain. … Life is too precious to be using your energy on stupid things.”

Carlin devoted his own efforts toward constant self-improvement, claming pride as an entertainer and seriousness as an artist. A career loudmouth who began as a DJ, created a routine banned by the FCC, became the first host of SNL, transported Bill & Ted through time as "Rufus" and conducted the trains at Shining Time Station on PBS, Carlin was an extremely versatile performer. Just last week, the Kennedy Center selected him to be the 11th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, previously given to Richard Pryor, Bob Newhart, Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, Lorne Michaels and others.

“Thank you Mr. Twain,” Carlin was quoted as saying. “Have your people call my people.”

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.