Published: June 28, 2008 10:20 pm         

George Carlin’s barbed wit will be missed

George Carlin is famous for “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” (or, for that matter, print in a community newspaper). His seven decades yielded more than Seven Words, though.

Carlin, 71, had a history of heart trouble, and his heart finally gave out June 22. With his passing, comedy lost one of its leading lights, a man who was both icon and grumbly iconoclast.



The comedian was hard to take in certain quarters, and no wonder. Religion was one of his targets, and he didn’t have a problem working blue.

Disagreeable? Yes. Funny? Quite often.

Like the best comics — Chris Rock comes to mind as a standard-bearer — Carlin’s barbed wit worked thanks to his insight. Carlin challenged his listeners to think differently about themselves and everybody else.



Here’s a family-friendly Carlin sampler, taken from his book “Brain Droppings” (copyright 1997, Comedy Concepts Inc.)

• Questionable expressions — In the privacy of your own home. “As opposed to what? The privacy of someone else’s home?” Or “meteoric rise.” Meteors don’t rise, Carlin noted, they fall.

• “If lobsters looked like puppies, people could never drop them in boiling water while they were still alive. But instead, they look like science fiction monsters, so it’s OK.”



Throw in the relative definition of “stuff” and countless riffs on what ails society and it adds up to career of comedic gems.

George Carlin thought humans could do things smarter and better. His genius was in making us laugh while pointing out our many shortcomings. We need more people like him. He’ll be missed.