A Piece of My Mind: The Day the Laughter Died
     Bennet Pomerantz

On June 22, 2008, George Carlin was admitted to St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, California complaining of chest pain. He at 5:55 p.m. that day of heart failure at the age of 71. He had a history of cardiovascular issues, including several heart attacks

Over the last 40 years, I have enjoyed writer/actor/comedian George Carlin. I was shocked at his death when I read the words from my Yahoo news.

He was a writer and a comedian. Most comics tell stories, Carlin made you think. Carlin, who wrote all his stuff, including the seven words you can’t say on television and three best selling books (Brain Droppings, Silly Putty and Napalm and When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?). Language, from the obscene to the innocuous, had always been a focus of Carlin's work. Euphemisms that seek to distort and lie, and generally the use of pompous, presumptuous and downright silly language are often the target of Carlin's works.

When I did Rising Star Science Fiction convention in the early 1990's, someone asked me “Mr Pomerantz, who do you like as a writer?”

I said “I love the works of Ray Bradbury, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe and George Carlin.”

This young man at the workshop retorted “Carlin is not a writer.”

I replied, “He is America’s modern-day humorist. Listen to his words, his voice is what America is thinking. He is Will Rogers, Mark Twain and Archie Bunker thrown together”.

I became an adult at such a young age, planning and trying to execute a career. I never got to act out the stuff they were acting out. So I was made for them, and they were made for me. It was an easy choice. Once the culture had begun to swing, and I had a haven, it was an easy choice to make. It was not made cynically, and that just isn't the kind of person I am. I would feel very useless as a human if I were to be that kind of guy.
   ~ George Carlin

...it's not so much anger. People read it that way, and that's the convenient word to go to. I understand that. Here's why it seems that way. There is a certain amount of righteous indignation I hold for this culture, because to get back to the real root of it, to get broader about it, my opinion that is my species—and my culture in America specifically—have let me down and betrayed me. I think this species had great, great promise, with this great upper brain that we have, and I think we squandered it on God and Mammon. And I think this culture of ours has such promise, with the promise of real, true freedom, and then everyone has been shackled by ownership and possessions and acquisition and status and power.
   ~ George Carlin

Carlin’s greatest written word was Those Seven Words You Can't Say on Television. Look on the net, you can read them yourself.

I'm in a lot of articles that are even more serious, about obscenity and indecency. It's nice to be a kind of footnote in legal history. That's how I think of myself. It's kind of interesting and fun. It's a perverse badge of honor to be the only comedian whose routines were the subject of a case in the United States Supreme Court.
   ~ George Carlin

One of the last things he wrote about was getting old:

'Older' sounds a little better than 'old,' doesn't it? Sounds like it might even last a little longer. ... I'm getting old. And it's OK. Because thanks to our fear of death in this country I won't have to die — I'll 'pass away.' Or I'll 'expire,' like a magazine subscription. If it happens in the hospital they'll call it a 'terminal episode.' The insurance company will refer to it as 'negative patient care outcome.' And if it's the result of malpractice they'll say it was a 'therapeutic misadventure’.

Carlin won four Grammy Awards for best spoken comedy album. He was to be awarded the 2008 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the fall. You know he will be there in spirit and in laughter.

Until next time, keep reaching for the stars.

****
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About the Writer:

Bennet Pomerantz is a media review columnist in 175 newspapers with his weekly column AUDIOWORLD. His fiction and reviews have appeared in the pages of Affaire De Coeur, Gateways, Mystery Scene, Power Star, The Hot Corner, Washington Entertainment Magazine, and many others. He is also known for his review appearances on the MCN Forum. View his web site at Audioworld.