George Carlin

Disclaimer: Like most commedians, George Carlin can be vulgar and offensive. Watch his stuff at your own discretion. You have been warned.

Speaking of deceased people who I wish I could have met while they were still alive, (Isn't that redundant? "Met while they were still alive"? Can you really meet dead people?) I love George Carlin. As I write this (back to being ahead of schedule, thankfully!), I've just been watching videos of his old stand-up routines on YouTube. His segments on cats, stuff, and airplane safety will always be my top three. I've made it a rule to always watch his bit on airplane safety before going on a plane and insist that anyone else travelling with me watch it before too. It just makes airplanes much more enjoyable, because everything is just so much more ridiculous.

But George Carlin had a lot to say about our society, from our obsessions with "stuff" or our material possessions to the flat-out arrogance in thinking we are superior to even the planet on which we reside. To think that humans, who aren't even capable of caring for each other, can care for every living thing on our planet and in existence is just insane. We can't even care for our own children. Animals all seem to have their systems worked out, and they work without any issues nearly all of the time, but us humans can't even figure out whether to use breast milk or formula, how much, and how long. Meanwhile, we're all just blowing each other up over our perceived differences.

But then he has things like his bit on the ways in which we're all alike. Like when it's Wednesday, but it feels like Thursday. Then you wake up the next day, and you're back to normal again. Or the mystery of the jumping pillow. You know, the way the pillow moves if you close one eye and then switch to the other when you're lying down in bed. Or when you fall asleep in the afternoon, and then you wake up, it's the middle of the night, and you have no idea what day it is. Or you walk to a room, and when you get there, you can't remember why you walked over.

I love George Carlin because he makes me think while making me laugh. That's something not many people can do. To both entertain and teach all at once takes much more than to do only one or the other, but when you're entertained, it becomes easier to learn, and when you're learning, it's easier to be entertained. Have you ever noticed that? Two people can try to teach you the same thing, and the more successful one is always the one who manages to entertain you and make it interesting. You could be talking about the dullest subject, but if it's presented right, you'll be engaged. And when your mind is learning, when your brain starts functioning and processing things, you appreciate the world so much more suddenly. You get the references, the allusions, the subtle things which make everything that much more enjoyable.

Maybe I should employ some comedy into my Friday posts.