First of all, I can't believe you had never heard of George Carlin! Likely one of the greatest comics/philosophers to ever live. (Mark Twain, in my opinion is THE greatest! He and Carlin would have been great friends.)

While Carlin was right on with some of his ideas and attitudes, he was as much a part of the system as the rest of us. The difference is that he knew he was part of it. How was he part of it? I don't know how many tiimes he appeared on HBO, but I can guantee he got paid a butt load of money, and HBO just keeps making more money because they can rerun his specials whenever they choose.

But at least he was awake enough to know it.

Yeah this is a classic. I don't think it keeps getting deleted for nefarious reasons though. It's HBO and HBO is tenacious about copyright infringement. I know because someone in my family runs that department

George is great. Our entire family are huge fans...have all the vids and books. We were actually at this show (same family member). Compared to his other shows, this one was what I would classify as pretty blunt and depressing overall, not your typical Carlin. Looking back, I often think he knew his time and ours was short when he did this show.

I miss him a lot, damnit.

If you liked this Carlin, also check out Bill Hicks.


[edit on 7/30/2010 by ~Lucidity]

Ahh, he was a treasure. I miss him. LOLing at the Religion one...and I'm a believer (in God, Jesus). In fact I'm laughing BECAUSE I'm a believer. He well and truly skewered the things that are absurd or seem absurd about religion. I don't agree with his ultimate conclusion but he stated his opinions well and with deft humor.

He certainly got the heart of the matter on how we are owned. I've seen these bits before on HBO and I'm glad they were reposted here. Thanks to both of you who embedded the clips. EDIT: More added since I started my post. Thanks to all!

Joe Pesci bless George Carlin! RIP, good man. RIP. (I wish he were one of the dead celebrities who has supposedly come back again, like Nelson Mandela, Billy Graham, and George Wendt allegedly have done!)

[edit on 30-7-2010 by SheeplFlavoredAgain]

I agree 100% with Carlin on politics I disagree with him 100 % on Religion.

Carlin grossly misrepresents God and Christian religion. He lumps all the bad things people do with religion into one basket and blames this on God.

He says he really tried to believe in God. He lied or listened to the wrong people and never learned what true faith in God is really about.

In every religion there will be people who abuse it and use it for their own gains. This is the same as Politics, and the same as Science. Those can be religions too. Does this mean that politics or science in itself is a bad thing? Of course not.

Anything can be misused. God gave Man free will. God is not to be blamed for everything man does in his name. God would hope that you had the intelligence enough to know these things and understand the difference. I guess as smart as George thought he was, he just didn't get it. On these matters George should have been a more critical thinker.