TDT: George Carlin

Source:Wikipedia- perhaps America's greatest political satirist George Carlin, in 1975.

"George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, and author. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comics of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of counterculture comedians".[1] He was known for his dark comedy and reflections on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and taboo subjects. His "seven dirty words" routine was central to the 1978 United States Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a 5–4 decision affirmed the government's power to censor indecent material on the public airwaves.

The first of Carlin's 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. From the late 1980s, his routines focused on sociocultural criticism of American society. He often commented on American political issues and satirized American culture. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. His final comedy special, It's Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death from cardiac failure.[2] In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2004, he placed second on Comedy Central's list of top 10 American comedians.[3] In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him second (behind Richard Pryor) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comedians of all time.[4]

His film roles included a taxi driver in Car Wash, Frank Madras in Outrageous Fortune, Rufus in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Eddie Detreville in The Prince of Tides, Cardinal Ignatius Glick in Dogma, Architect in Scary Movie 3, and Bart Trinké in Jersey Girl. He did voice-over roles as Zugor in Tarzan II, Filmore in Cars, and narrated the first four seasons in the American dub of the British children's television show Thomas & Friends. " 

From Wikipedia 

This page on this blog is about George Carlin, obviously (otherwise I would have to pick someone or something else to name the page after) and the reason why this blog has a page devoted to the great comedian George Carlin is because I believe he perfectly represents what comedy should be about, regardless whether it's political satire (which Carlin was obviously an expert on) or life in general. (Which Carlin was obviously very knowledgable about) That you don't look at what you're talking about and making fun of with any agenda. That you instead go where the humor is, wherever it is, whoever it is and then talk about as objectively, honestly, and truthfully as possible about those people and subjects.

I'm sure George Carlin had his own political philosophy, but unlike today's partisan comedians whether it's John Fugelsang on the Far-Left or Greg Gutfeld on the Right, Carlin's comedy wasn't partisan and it wasn't about partisanship. Carlin's comedy wasn't about nailing the other side and making his side look as great as possible to advance a partisan political agenda. Carlin's comedy wasn't partisan, it wasn't bipartisan, it was nonpartisan. Like I said, he went wherever the comedy was and whatever he was personally seeing in his own life, especially things and people that he believed were funny (especially in an ironic sense) and making fun of those things and people as best as he could. 

If George Carlin had any political and life philosophy at all behind his comedy is that it was antiestablishment. He didn't want politicians and other public officials or private elitists telling him and other people what think, how to think, and how to behave. His theory was probably something like: "Those elitists have already screwed up the country and world all by themselves: why should we listen to them about anything?" 

George Carlin was a free thinker and free doer and believed that everyone else should also be free thinkers and free doers. He was the individualist of individualists and believe someone that even Ayn Rand could respect, at least for that reason. 

George Carlin