George Carlin - RIP, Man

The forecast for today and tonight is going to be... Dark, because George Carlin passed away yesterday from heart failure. No, sorry, he didn't pass away. We didn't lose him. He died. And he was only 71. That sucks, Man.

Maybe you knew him for his notorious Seven Dirty Words. Or maybe as the Hippie Dippy Weatherman. I knew him as the man who was in some way, either directly or through my father who is a HUGE fan of Carlin's, almost totally responsible for me having a mouth like a trucker.

Thanks a fucking lot, George.

The effect George Carlin had on my father is profound. Listening to my dad talk is like listening to a Carlin show, and it goes beyond blatantly stealing lines from his act. Even the way my dad talks, the cadence of his speech and the rise and fall of his voice is a rip-off of George Carlin. It used to bug me, I used to wish my dad would get his own shtick, but now I know it was the highest form of flattery. Imitation to the point where he didn't even know he was imitating the man any more. He was trying to become the man whose opinions he greatly respected, and through that it shaped the way I thought too.

So in honor of the man who should have been making us laugh well into his 80's and 90's, I'm going to use the word Cocksucker as much as possible today. Maybe I'll poke fun at religion in mixed company. At the very least I can say things as they are and not use any soft language. The world is fucked up but there's a lot of humor to be found in it and we have George Carlin to thank for that.