Jerry Seinfeld: Dying Is Hard. Comedy Is Harder.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/opinion/24seinfeld.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Dying Is Hard. Comedy Is Harder.

By JERRY SEINFELD
Published: June 24, 2008



THE honest truth is, for a comedian, even death is just a premise to make jokes about. I know this because I was on the phone with George Carlin nine days ago and we were making some death jokes. We were talking about Tim Russert and Bo Diddley and George said: “I feel safe for a while. There will probably be a break before they come after the next one. I always like to fly on an airline right after they’ve had a crash. It improves your odds.”

I called him to compliment him on his most recent special on HBO. Seventy years old and he cranks out another hour of great new stuff. He was in a hotel room in Las Vegas getting ready for his show. He was a monster.

You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, “Carlin does it.” I’ve heard it my whole career: “Carlin does it,” “Carlin already did it,” “Carlin did it eight years ago.”

And he didn’t just “do” it. He worked over an idea like a diamond cutter with facets and angles and refractions of light. He made you sorry you ever thought you wanted to be a comedian. He was like a train hobo with a chicken bone. When he was done there was nothing left for anybody.

But his brilliance fathered dozens of great comedians. I personally never cared about “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” or “FM & AM.” To me, everything he did just had this gleaming wonderful precision and originality.

I became obsessed with him in the ’60s. As a kid it seemed like the whole world was funny because of George Carlin. His performing voice, even laced with profanity, always sounded as if he were trying to amuse a child. It was like the naughtiest, most fun grown-up you ever met was reading you a bedtime story.

I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell. Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, “Carlin already did it.”

:toast:

My favorite Carlin bit was the baseball vs. football analogy.

That is an absolute classic.

At one point, Carlin had a sitcom and it sucked. Carlin as a sitcom character would fail, cause he (like Kramer) needs to be taken in small doses as a CHARACTER.

As a standup, he was simply brilliant.

in a couple of episodes of "That Girl." I was having a nostalgia binge, and rented "That Girl" from the video store. I thought this guy's voice sounded familiar, and in the credits, it was George Carlin, sans any facial hair. I didn't recognize him.

And yes, Jerry's tribute is great. It's very hard to lose Carlin.

"The George Carlin Show was an American television sitcom that aired on Fox Broadcasting from January 1994 to July 1995<1>. It was created jointly by veteran TV producer Sam Simon and the show's namesake, comedian George Carlin.

The series centered around George O'Grady (Carlin), a taxi cab driver living in New York City. The show, for the most part, took place in The Moylan Bar, run by bartender Jack Donahue (Anthony Starke). The setting's real-life basis was the now-defunct Moylan Tavern, a young Carlin's neighborhood bar on Broadway between La Salle Street and Tiemann Place in the Morningside Heights neighborhood, and owned by the grandparents of TV Guide writer-editor Maitland McDonagh.<2>

As Carlin notes on his website: "January, 1994 - 'The George Carlin Show' premieres on Fox Television. Lasts 27 episodes. Lesson learned: always check mental health of creative partner beforehand. Loved the actors, loved the crew. Had a great time. Couldn't wait to get the f*** out of there. Canceled December, 1995".<3>"

from wikipedia

been Carlin's best milieu. He's better appreciated in full-out one-hour blasts of anger/truth/humor. How much
angry truth can be told in a sit-com?

I see more of Carlin in him than in any other comedian.

describes how Carlin crafted an idea and exposed all its implications.

Insightful eulogy by Seinfeld.
:toast: