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Well, Jess woke me up Monday morning with the sad news–George Carlin died.  I remembered the first time I saw him perform on HBO.  It was the Jammin in New York concert.  He was incredible.  His political commentary was edgy, his situational humor was great, and he spoke with rhythm and energy and used the full plate of words in the English dictionary.  People my age always liked that he swore in his routines as much as he did.  With me, it wasn’t so much that, it was the way he said it.  Jon Stewart described the holy trinity of comedy as being “Bruce, Pryor, and Carlin”.  I never got Lenny Bruce.  I never found him to be all that funny (with what little of his routines I can find).  Richard Pryor was terrific.  His comedy was edgy, no-holds-barred funny but he hit his peak before my time and so he always seemed detached to me.  Carlin?  Carlin was a guy you could walk down the street and shout “Hey, George!”  He was one of us.  He observed the things that we all knew but didn’t realize was funny until he brought it up.  He was terrific, he was the best, he’ll be missed.

Here’s my list of top 5 routines by George Carlin–if you haven’t seen his stand up routine, google these or find a YouTube video of them and be ready to laugh.

5–Seven Words You Can’t Say on Television–I never found it to be his funniest stuff but its the one that started it all and for that reason alone it needs to be on the list.  His suggestion of juxtaposing the F-word with the word “kill” in movies makes for some pretty hillarious dialog.

4–Cars and Driving–George drives kind of recklessly, he doesn’t repair his vehicle and he doesn’t believe in traffic laws.  Just like any driver you’d meet on the Capital Beltway.  This is one of those routines from “What am I Doing in New Jersey?” where you realize that George is one of us.  I realized this when he says “Do you ever get so f’in mad that all you want to do is drive up along side this car just to see what the f*#k he looks like?!”

3–The Ten Commandments–From “Complaints and Grievances”.  I think this is George’s last great routines.  In 10 minutes takes the 10 Commandments and turns them on their head, reducing them down to two somewhat nebulous and flexible rules and the logic he uses to break them down is either so funny, true, or insightful that you have to agree with him.

2–Baseball and Football–One of my all time favorites.  George compares and contrasts the two sports and you kinda get the idea that ol’ George is kind of partial towards one by the end of the routine.

1–Al Sleet your Hippy Dippy Weatherman–Comedic gold.  This is what I’m saying about George.  I understand that he went counter culture and his persona was to be edgy but this routine shows just how funny he could be with out uttering even one of those seven words you can’t say on television:

• “Tonight’s forecast–dark.”
• “The radar is picking up a line of thunderstorms…….however the radar is also picking up a squadron of Russian ICBMs, so I wouldn’t sweat the thundershowers.”
• Al’s final forecast:  “The weather will continue to change on and off for a long, long time.”

Joe Bless Al Sleet and Joe Bless George Carlin.