Remember when you woke up?

That point in life where consciousness shifted from childhoods’ self-centric view to a more self-aware worldly view of life, where the centre of all things migrated from inside oneself to about 6000km below your feet?

For me this was around the age of 12 or so.

EDIT: Kevin Smith puts it much better than I did (you jerk!) and i must heartily agree, Carlin at Carnegie was what seriously started it all for me (as well as the radio bits, they coincided that summer)

however…

My parents had given me their old ghetto blaster to have in my bedroom, and I had that year taken to leaving it on all night long, tuned to whatever radio station I could happen to pick up over the air. I would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night to some rad song (Scorpions’ Still Lovin You still gives me chills, silly as that sounds). On my favorite nights I’d wake up to the local FM radio station playing stand-up comedy, from Smothers Brothers to Air Farce to Bill Cosby… and George Carlin.

George stood out. He was talking about things that no other comedians would touch. And his language was blunt, harsh, no pussy-footing allowed. Compared to Cosby and Bob Hope, he was evil incarnate, and I loved it. Most thankfully, George Carlin was there telling me not to listen to bullshit.

He may have saved my life. His commentary, observations, and colorful anecdotes appealed to the young, dormant cynic in me. He showed me that people were allowed to speak out against authority, against those who would use naivete and your good conscience for their own gain, or their own amusement. You could speak out and still live to talk about it the next day.  That people only have power over you if you let them, and that no one can make you think anything you can’t live with.

I took his words and his ideas for granted, packaged up as they were in the guise of ‘comedy’ and show business, but in the end I was better for hearing them. Now that he is gone, I find myself thinking about what I liked most about his influence on my life, and his strongest impression on me was during the wee hours of the night, in a darkened bedroom lit only by the bouncing LED which pulsed to the cadence and rhythms of his words (and the laughter which supported them).

I thank you, George Carlin, for your work, your words, and the wisdom you emparted to me and those others like me. Those who can’t stand bullshit and the bullshitters who try to feed it to me. Thank you for waking me up. Sleep well, and sleep peacefully. You earned it.

Selected Clips

Adult Language and Concepts Warning - don’t click these links if swearing or irreverence offends you

Some people are stupid
Pro-Life is anti-woman
Religion is Bullshit
7 words you can’t say on television
Drugs