George Carlin has died of heart problems in the Santa Monica hospital last night. He was 71 and not nearly old enough. If you want to read the usual epitaph, you can read this article at the LA Times. George was one of the single most influencial elements in fomenting the early days of my cognizent life. When I was young, and living in Knoxville, TN. I would go to the UT library with my sister and while she was off studying, I was listening to Carlin in the AV department. He was very funny and sometimes very dirty, but even more importantly, he was a critically important look into the depravity, hypocrisy, and general stupidity of we Americans. Not that we were listening, of course. We were too busy laughing to realize that we were being made fun of. If I had to guess, I’d say that George wanted very badly for us to get our shit together and, “Be excellent to each other.”

For more Carlin on YouTube, go here.

written by Tyler Regas