1937 – 2008

Geoge Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain.  A few hours later he was dead at the age of 71.  His last concert was this past weekend, at the Orleans casino in Las Vegas.  It would be hard to understate how much George Carlin meant to stand up comedy.  He, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor pretty much defined what it could be.  When they started, comedy basically consisted of one person bonking the other one with something, then fiddling with their bowtie.  Carlin helped change all that.  The AP says…

Acerbic standup comedian and satirist George Carlin, whose staunch defense of free speech in his most famous routine "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" led to a key Supreme Court ruling on obscenity, has died.He produced 23 comedy albums, 14 HBO specials, three books, a couple of TV shows and appeared in several movies, from his own comedy specials to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" in 1989 — a testament to his range from cerebral satire and cultural commentary to downright silliness (and sometimes hitting all points in one stroke)."Why do they lock gas station bathrooms?" he once mused. "Are they afraid someone will clean them?"

I don’t know what my deal is lately, but 71 seems young to die.   Although I guess it makes sense in this case because Carlin famously and unapologetically did tons of drugs and abused his body.  71 in Carlin years would be like 198 in normal years, so when you put it in context he had a pretty good run.  The lesson here?  Everyone should do tons of drugs.  I’m gonna go get some right now!