George Carlin: Vicodin and Red Wine

Much of what has been written of the seven words that can’t be said on television, and about the fact that Mr. Carlin (age 20) was at the Lenny Bruce concert when Lenny was hauled off on obscenity charges. Because George refused to hand over his identification card, Carlin actually rode in the same car as Bruce to the police station. His arrest years later on obscenity charges at Summerfest in

Milwaukee are not be the only similarity that George Carlin would have with Lenny Bruce. Before his death, Comedy Central placed him above Lenny as a source of comedic inspiration to others. His rise to fame was tempered by his frequent outburst of self-loathing. Almost all interviewers who had the pleasure to talk to Carlin described him as respectful and kind to fans. Most of his venom was directed at systems of oppression, at the big brother mentality that has infused our national ethos. In 2004, shortly before he entered rehab for red wine and vicodine, Carlin left a four-year gig at the MGM in Vegas by telling his crowd that “people who go to Las Vegas, you have to question their fucking intellect…” Known for his affinity for the downtrodden, and seen as a spokesperson for the underdog, Carlin resisted easy definition. He wanted to be difficult to describe.He will be remembered for pushing people to stop being recipients of information or entertainment. Carlin’s work made you have to react to his ideas, to engage with him. When considering the flame thrower as an object, Carlin noted that it literally meant that at some point, somewhere, someone had thought, “I’d like to light that person on fire, but they are too far away.”

Under the humor was an engaged mind, an imagination that expanded other people’s imagination.It was not enough to passively ponder the obscenity-laced rants, Carlin required you to seek more and ask yourself why you behaved in certain ways or thought in certain socially acceptable ways. He bashed white fat cats who smoked cigars and wished mouth cancer on them. He bashed women who hoped to climb the corporate ladder because he argued that they were buying into the same system that had oppressed them.

Carlin’s blanketing anger at the system was flamed by his prodigious use of mind-altering substances. He described his introduction to cocaine as one in which he became an “instant abuser” and those substances including years of marijuana and LSD use probably contributed to his death at the relatively young age of 71. Carlin would have found his mild exit fodder. He claimed to hate it when stars died because the media was sure to drone on and on about them, and who needed it?

At least George Carlin was made it to a hospital, unlike Lenny who died while injecting heroin into the back of his knees, and collapsed behind a toilet. Carlin did attempt his own show, self-titled The George Carlin Show, and it drove him to distraction. He loved the writers and the work, but was happy when it folded. For a man who had made fun of corporate assholes, being a Fox employee must have, on some very basic level, chaffed. Carlin was raised by a single mom and eventually went to school in

Harlem followed by a stint in the military. His hatred of religion was well documented. Married to his first wife until her death from liver cancer, and dying two days before his tenth anniversary with wife number two, it wasn’t that Carlin believed in amoral behavior, he just resented those who felt they spoke on the authority of God. “If God didn’t want us to masturbate, he would have made our arms shorter.” Carlin observed.

The entire point of the seven words was that none of them, not cocksucker, or motherfucker, was as obscene as the word “religion” because no one had died in the name of tits. I will remember George Carlin every time that I think someone is talking out of their ass. Questioning authority was part of a citizen’s moral obligation. It isn’t wrong because someone tells you that it is wrong, it is wrong because inside you know it is wrong.

Letting others speak for God, or in the name of all that is right, begs to be pondered and resisted. George Carlin is dead. Long live George Carlin.

One Response to “George Carlin: Vicodin and Red Wine”

Comments

1. heather Dec 24 2007 / 10am

   hey, i love the look of the new lay out
   adult depends?, too f-ing funny
   going to read the gas article

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