Operation Foole with an "e"

EDITOR'S NOTE: Most ideas here are George Carlin's ideas.

He's dead now, but like he always said, "Fuck the dead! Hey you're dead, what do you give a shit?"

From all the things that George Carlin taught me in his lectures about life (yes, they were lecture about how to live), the one thing that always stood out for me were his rants about death. He always had a very peculiar view of death, one that I like the legion of his fans took to be their own.

I can't help feeling sad that the man who introduced me to stand up comedians died, but I also want to do the man justice for the things that he has taught me.

Thirty years ago, during his 1978 special in Phoenix he talked about death, as he usually did. But when I devoted two long nights watching the body of his work again on HBO, I caught something that I previously didn't. That's because when he talked about death he was alive. But now he is gone and so is his soul. And he knew where it would go, too.

"I think your soul goes to a garage in Buffalo," he said. Hey you go where you think that you are going to go, that's what he said. I still think about where he actually did think his soul would go.

I hope that it went into the people's collective minds since he was a beacon of truth in America. When you understood Carlin beyond his love of the language and human potential, you understood what life was about. It was far from superficial for him. In fact, he was like the sheepherder who led his cattle into whatever foray his mind felt like leading you to.

Sometimes he felt dirty, as in his Carlin "Back in Town" special when he took on feminism and said that it is easy to piss off a feminist. "Hey cupcake make me something to eat and give me a blowjob."

"I know I'm a pig," he said. Then he said that he is a twisted evil fuck and that he accepts it.

But from most of the media reports that I've read about Carlin and the legion of comedians and fans voicing their take on him, they always talk about his relevance today.

They talk about the 7 dirty words and the Supreme Court case and his ties to Lenny Bruce.

But nobody talks about the fact that he was one of the only mainstream comedians who could say the foulest shit on the stage and get away with it.

He made it in his life. He did it his own way.

Sure some will say he is a comedic martyr by now.

But I always viewed him as the grandfather that you always wanted to have. The one who would pull out the nudie deck of cards during Thanksgiving when the parents weren't watching and show you the ropes.

To listen to Carlin, it wasn't about being hip.

I think that what he did was the highest form of social commentary that could ever be. And he sailed through it, through the times, through his complaints and grievances, his people he could do without, his dog humor, his political humor and just plain ol' things that pissed him the FUCK off. And rightly so. He did it like a champion.

"It's a great country, but it's a strange culture." - George Carlin.

So I do hope his soul is somewhere in a garage in Buffalo. Maybe I'll visit one day. And he will be hanging out with all of his dead dogs and cats that he frequently talked about and he still would be shaking his head at the world that he left behind.

SHIT, PISS, FUCK, CUNT, COCKSUCKER, MOTHERFUCKER and TITS.