Left In Lowell

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June 23, 2008

We Need You Still, George Carlin

by at 8:54 am.

Irony. It was Carlin’s stock in trade. He found it in the English language, in politics, in human existence. He was a smart man in a dumb world which doesn’t always reward intelligence.

He was the consummate libertarian (without taking on the label) because he always found the hypocrisy in every situation, and in politics it’s pretty rampant. (Though I doubt even cynical George Carlin could have seen the Bush administration coming.) He fought the good fight with sarcasm, swearing and ranting. You couldn’t trick Carlin, bamboozle him. He saw straight through you.

He was sometimes the mirror which we hate to hold up to ourselves, but should and must. His humor, his sense of an innate human truth which he always sought, his rebellion, his crass attack of our sensibilities - we will miss it all. We need that still, and George, wherever you are, I’m certain it ain’t heaven. Heaven would have bored you to death, anyway. But you leave a lifetime of verbal revolution behind - and we are grateful.

3 Responses to “We Need You Still, George Carlin”

  1. Tom Says:

    I, too, thought Carlin was funny until I saw him perform at the Lowell Auditorium about 6 years ago. He was ill prepared, actually reading jokes off notes. He was insulting for the sake of being insulting. He harassed a couple of women in the front until they got up and left.
    I don’t think he ever came back to Lowell after that.

  2. Prince Charming Says:

    Carlin was cutting-edge, a comic genius. While fighting (?) his own personal demons he helped a lot of us laugh through the sixties and seventies. I think he just hung around a little too long.

  3. Link Says:

    Tom, I’m pretty sure he’s played Lowell a few times since then. And he’s always played the area. He was scheduled to play Hampton Beach a month from tomorrow.

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