Carlin’s former longtime publicist and friend looks back on the life and influence of the revered comic
By Michael Levine
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/26/08 — The seven words you can never say on television were once uttered on air by a man named George Carlin. He went to jail for it. These very same words have long lived in literature, poetry, pornography, philosophy and personal correspondence, and their use has never hurt anyone. But it took a brave man, full of heart and bursting with insight, to go up against the Broadcast Establishment to use those words as a springboard for dialogue that forced us to examine ourselves and our values.
George Carlin died Sunday night. With the loss of this irreverent social commentator comes the loss of poignant observations on the absurdity of everyday life. Carlin was an uncommon man who used common language to say we must use words to empower ourselves, not to let them enslave us.
He was a linguistic Lothario who used words not to seduce sexually, but to entice us with humor to see the world through his eyes. He worked his magic on us in various ways, and once we fell under his spell, we were powerless to do anything but listen to his unique way of looking at a crazy world holding our sides as we laughed the laughter of recognition.
Carlin loved words. He wielded them like precision instruments, using them masterfully to point out our pettiness, highlight our hypocrisy, focus on our foibles and foolishness, skewer our seriousness, and empathize with our inability to be anything other than exactly how we are. But he strived to show us we could be better. Carlin regularly used his keen wit and razor sharp deadpan delivery to hold up a mirror to our idiosyncratic weaknesses in order that after seeing them, we might really see ourselves and change.
He criticized what he saw as wrong and was fearless in speaking truth to power. It is often said that there is much truth in humor. Carlin created material as if he were under oath the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
And just as the truth is not always pretty, much of his material was outright vulgar. Carlin truly pushed the boundaries of obscenity. But we loved it because, truth be told, sometimes it¹s good to be bad. We love to let loose and have a good laugh. And we loved him for giving us permission.
Carlin often riffed on the most commonplace experiences. He frequently used comparisons as a way to make a point. He would compare words. He would compare sports. He would compare how men and women do the same thing. He would compare how people of different ages react to something. When he would analyze our changing vernacular according to its literal meaning, we could never use some of the phrases again without smiling.
His outrageous observations of everyday inanity provoked the kind of hysterical belly laughter that many of us only share amongst our closest family and friends. We would let ourselves “go” when listening to Carlin because we always knew that in spite of the sarcasm or rebuke, the profanity or profundity, deep down he was one of us. And the embrace was mutual.
It is common knowledge that Carlin¹s life did not follow a straight and narrow path. This wizard of words shared his experiences with pain and suffering to help us see the common threads and humor in our own predicaments. He worked incredibly hard to transcend his own particular demons, which is no small accomplishment, especially when living in a spotlight. We loved Carlin because much of his powerful material was personal, but the real power came from an honest humility and gratitude for his own hard-won redemption.
George Carlin made a career out of reminding all of us that life is a complicated journey without customized road maps. And as long as we can laugh at each wrong turn, we¹ll arrive at our intended destination, or somewhere, just fine.
This perfect example of human imperfection celebrated the incongruities, the irregularities, the oddities of life, and in so doing, helped us see the beauty that lives outside of conformity. And thank God for that. George Carlin will, without a doubt, be regarded as one of the real pioneers of American humor. He lived a fast and sometimes dark life. His own road had some blind alleys, potholes (yes, yes) and occasional dead ends, but Carlin cleaned himself up and used his own lessons to help us appreciate more than one color in the prism we call life.
Michael Levine is the founder of the prominent PR firm LCO-Levine Communications Office based in Los Angeles (www.lcoonline.com) and is the author of 18 books.
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