George Carlin
From Philosopedia.org
Carlin, George Denis (12 May 1937 - 22 June 2008)
Carlin, born in Manhattan to an Irish Catholic family, is a comedian who has appeared on numerous major television shows and been in many movies. In 1972 he received a Grammy award for best FM/AM comedy recording. Many still remember his statement,
- "Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can’t say on television." He explained in a style he has made famous, that our rights are rights, not to be taken away, and that the seven are Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, Cocksucker, Motherfucker, and Tits, wow. Tits doesn't even belong on the list, you know. It's such a friendly sounding word. It sounds like a nickname. 'Hey, Tits, come here. Tits, meet Toots, Toots, Tits, Tits, Toots.' It sounds like a snack doesn't it? Yes, I know, it is, right. But I don't mean the sexist snack, I mean, New Nabisco Tits. The new Cheese Tits, and Corn Tits and Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits Onion Tits, Tater Tits, Yeah. Betcha can't eat just one. That's true I usually switch off. But I mean that word does not belong on the list."
The author of Sometimes A Little Brain Damage Can Help, he is often critical in his humor of the devoutly religious. “Religion is just mind control,” he has stated. In a 1995 appearance on Tom Snyder’s CBS talk program, Carlin defended his non-belief in a “man in the sky” who tells you “where you shouldn’t put your hands.” To The New York Times, he confirmed that although he attended Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, “They gave me the tools to reject my faith. They taught me to question and think for myself and to believe in my instincts to such an extent that I just said, ‘This is a wonderful fairy tale they have going here, but it’s not for me.’ ”
In one of his acts, Carlin included the following:
- One of the things humans did wrong was to believe in this guy God, to believe that there’s really a man in the sky who cares about any of this, and who directs our feelings or thoughts or has a report card or a scorecard on our behavior. This is really a crippling belief. And what religions do is to use it to control people and scare them.
In Brain Droppings, he further develops his freethinking:
- I’ve begun worshiping the sun for a number of reasons. First of all, unlike some other gods I could mention, I can see the sun. It’s there for me every day. And the things it brings me are quite apparent all the time: heat, light, food, a lovely day. There’s no mystery, no one asks for money, I don’t have to dress up, and there’s no boring pageantry. And interestingly enough, I have found that the prayers I offer to the sun and the prayers I formerly offered “God” are all answered at about the same 50-percent rate.
During a 1999 HBO special, “You Are All Diseased,” Carlin said,
- In the Bullshit Department, a businessman can’t hold a candle to a clergyman. ’Cause I gotta tell you the truth, folks. When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told.
Carlin, in a 1999 interview with James A. Haught, told of his positive views about feeling connected with the universe, said of the Vatican that it “is up to its ass in political troublemaking and deal-making,” called Opus Dei “another semisecret organization,” and compared the Bible to “The Three Little Pigs,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Humpty-Dumpty”:
- There is no Humpty-Dumpty and there is no God. None. Not one. No God. Never was.
In a 2001 interview with Stephen Sherrill, he was asked about the statement in his book that people are too willing to die quietly, then was asked how he would like to go. “I’d like to explode spontaneously in someone’s living room. That, to me, is the way to go out.” Anybody’s in particular, Sherrill asked. “Just a friend,” Carlin replied, “so they can be there to describe it to the press.”
For "telling it like it is about religion," Carlin became the first recipient of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “The Emperor Has No Clothes Award”.
Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, died of heart failure at the age of 71 in Santa Monica, California. The previous weekend he had worked at The Orleans in Las Vegas. He had been named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center in November, 2008. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”
External Links
• Wikipedia lists Carlin only as one in the category of "Former Roman Catholics." The entry does include the following:
- “ If God had intended us not to masturbate he would've made our arms shorter.”
- Although raised in the Roman Catholic faith, Carlin often denounced the idea of God in interviews and performances, most notably with his "Invisible Man in the Sky" and "There Is No God" routines. In mockery, he invented the parody religion Frisbeetarianism for a newspaper contest. He defined it as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and cannot be retrieved.
- Carlin also joked that he worshipped the Sun, because he could actually see it, but prayed to Joe Pesci (a good friend of his in real life) because "he's a good actor", and "looks like a guy who can get things done!"
- Carlin also introduced the "Two Commandments", a revised "pocket-sized" list of the Ten Commandments in his HBO special Complaints and Grievances, ending with the additional commandment of "Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.
• The New York Times obituary fails to mention Carlin's atheism.
{CA; Stephen Sherrill, The New York Times Magazine, 3 June 2001; FFRF}
