ChadHastings.com: June 2008

I was starting a normal day on Monday when my wife called and told me George Carlin had died. It didn't hit me hard then. I started thinking about who I would call and how I might talk about it on the air. I had to call my parents. After all, they had allowed me to watch George at a pretty young age and didn't go on and on about how "bad" it was. They just hoped I knew not to use all the language at school and around most adults. And, of course, I knew. So I call my mom and start to tell her. And then it happened. I started to cry. You know that moment when the athlete starts to retire and realizes what he's about to say and it just overwhelms him? That's what happened. I could barely keep from crying telling someone a comedian had died. And from someone who never cries, what does that tell you about George Carlin? It tells you he was a lot more than a comedian.

Here's one of my favorites I still don't know the answer to: Why is prostitution illegal? By the way, these are George Carlin videos. They are unedited. So you will hear fully beautiful language. Click at the risk of opening your mind.

He took the things you weren't supposed to talk about, and then he talked about them. And then he made them funny at the same time. What a talent. Jerry Seinfeld was on Larry King tonight and talked about George's vast body of work. And that's the key. It could be argued this person or that person is funnier to you. But nobody has the resume of great stuff that George does. Nobody. His career spans 50 years. And some of his later stuff is his best. He didn't get old or stale or sell out. He went places no other comics would go right to the end. Like religion. Nobody dared hit it like George. The case in point is his brilliant take on the BS story of religion. It either makes you really upset or it makes you think. Either way, you have to react. See for yourself:

But that wasn't all he was about. My mom thought George was funny, too. And trust me, she didn't like George's religion stuff like I did. She loved when he looked at the world in a way you didn't. When he analyzed a word to the point of making it perfectly funny. Or maybe when he took apart the things you hear all the time at the airport and made it hysterical. This one is proof he just got better with age.

I could go on and on thanks to Youtube. But just one more for now. Since I do a sports show, the football/baseball deal is a must if you've never heard it.

I may put more up in the coming days to deal with the pain I felt today. I know I will be watching George stuff for a while and just soaking it up. Send me all your favorite George stuff if you like. And remember, you have the right to disagree with a Don Imus, or George Carlin, or Shaq if he's asking Kobe how his ass tastes. But we must never forget they have the freedom to say it. And George fought for that freedom. He went to jail for that freedom. He is the physical embodiment of that freedom for some of us. And maybe that's why I cried today. Not because the song is gone, but because the singer who first made me believe in the song is gone.

We'll miss you George. But we'll keep listening, laughing, and thinking.