RIP George Carlin – whoosh!

Posted on June 24, 2008 by

Since George has been “acted upon by nature”,and we’ll miss him, I thought this video of his “saving the planet” sketch might be a fitting epitaph. My favorite line of his, from the “hippy dippy weatherman” act was: “Why on TV do they always give the temperature at the airport? Nobody LIVES there!” (Warning: some adult language)

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28 Responses to RIP George Carlin – whoosh!

  1. Miles H. says:
    June 24, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Fantastic, long live King George!

  2. statePoet1775 says:
    June 24, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    My favorite George Carlin line: He was complaining about some LSD not having any effect on him when he suddenly grabbed his throat and gasped “I forgot how to breath!”. ROFLMAO!

    I will never forget that.

  3. Atmoz says:
    June 24, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    “Some” adult language? That doesn’t sound like Carlin to me. :-)

  4. Steve Moore says:
    June 24, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    I sent that same link to a dozen people yesterday.
    It’s George!

  5. Mike Bryant says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:02 pm

    Carlin was a very opinionated man. He was a poet. He used words to entertain, shock and outrage his audience. I did not agree with most of his opinions, but I was always entertained and never shocked or outraged by him.

    This rant on environmentalists is very typical of his honest and hard-headed “take” on things. If you listen carefully you can hear boos in the bakground. He made sure that his audience always knew how he felt, and what he believed. How different than those keeping silent while our country suffers.

  6. Jeff Alberts says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:19 pm

    Always loved George. Though I question the “25 species a day” disappearing thing.

  7. doug w says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:20 pm

    Thanks, I haven’t seem this in a while. Great remembrance piece for George. Gonna miss his self-effacing ironic humor.

  8. Brent Matich says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    I’ve actually watched this one several times over the last year , always coming back to this when I hear ludicrous statements in the media about global warming. It puts everything in perspective and so does this blog . Thank you Anthony and George ( RIP ) for your common sense.

    Brent in Calgary

    Reply: Brent in Calgary, jeez is in Calgary one last night. Any ideas or suggestions? Should I email you?

  9. linda says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    George, It was so nice to meet you in 2004. Would you mind coming back for your Oct. appearance here in Chicago? I have tickets. Please give him back Lord. I’m sorry, he didn’t believe so he may not be with you. Wherever you are George, could you please come back? I can dream can’t I?
    Love you, Linda

  10. Sella Tucica says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:43 pm

    Usually I don’t care much for old guys with pony tails. I’ll have to make an exception here.

  11. statePoet1775 says:
    June 24, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    linda,

    George apparently believed in the truth so I would not worry about him. George has probably had a pleasant surprise by now.

  12. Videodrone says:
    June 24, 2008 at 6:26 pm

    as a person who did not buy in to idols and who “was tired of being told who to admire in this country” – his reply to the notice that he was being honored this November with the Mark Twain Prize is a classic

    “Thank you Mr. Twain. Have your people call my people”

    gonna miss his take on life

    totally off topic – but is it just me or did the Weather Channel and USA today change the color coding for the temp maps – since when did “60′s” become yellow and 70′s become hot Orange?

  13. Mike Bryant says:
    June 24, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    videodrone, if the color changes are real, it sounds like a post to me…

  14. Brute says:
    June 24, 2008 at 7:15 pm

    Reminded me of Al Sleet, “the hippie dippie” weatherman. I’ll have to go dig through the old, dusty record albums in the basement……………..

  15. Mike Sander says:
    June 24, 2008 at 7:51 pm

    Here’s a link to Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman!

  16. Vadim Tropashko says:
    June 24, 2008 at 8:02 pm

    Another classic: “Free the air!”

  17. Videodrone says:
    June 24, 2008 at 8:16 pm

    do not want to hijack this thread

    Brute – that’s exactly what I was thinking as I was formulating the search criteria – no luck so far – I’m on the road this week and this MaryRot keeps dropping my connection and wanting to charge me another 9.98 for 24 hours, so don’t expect any quick posts

    Anthony, I’m appealing to you as both a weather geek (minor – me, that is – you Da man!) and a (“Live TV”) Broadcaster (although I make every effort to stay on the correct side of the camera) – color coding is all important for visual impact – what sort of chroma values did you use – (if any) for temp trends, I don’t have access to my style book library at the moment, but please delete if my neurons are misfiring, I seem to recall that the weather map didn’t get in to the ‘warm’ colors until it was above the mid 70′s (yes, I think in inches and degrees F – however, I can do the math – can you?) sorry – road time sarcasm is starting to show – not meant to be insulting – question stands – what colors (colours) are used for “temp maps”

    REPLY: I’ll look into it, see my temp maps at the right, which use a sliding scale, perhaps wxchannel has moved to that.

  18. Ken Westerman says:
    June 24, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    He’s a partial intellectual entertainer. His character and way of story telling, explaining, imitating, and punchlining his points across! A realist, against the mainstream thought…and I agreed with him on almost everything he conveys!

    Let’s see what thoughts we share: religion, environmentalism, mainstream stupidity, dirty words, english language and expression, etc.

    Great man, wil be missed! Damn his material will never get old. Hah.

  19. BUCKO36 says:
    June 24, 2008 at 9:02 pm

    Anthony
    This site amazes me. I received your posted Carlin “You Tube” video in an e-mail a few days ago and I considered posting it on your web at that time. I had second thoughts as I didn’t think it would ever pass “muster”. I did send it to all my friends.
    You had the guts to call a spade a spade and put it here. Good move! It’s a great vidio and George Carlin had more sense than most of the worlds population. May he rest in Peace.
    Thanks for all of your efforts and hopefully you will succeed in exposing the AGW “kooks for what they are.
    As George said. This planet will survive, in spite of man efforts.

  20. Jeff Alberts says:
    June 24, 2008 at 9:24 pm

    “Tonight’s forecast, dark. Continued mostly dark through the evening, with scattered light towards dawn…”

  21. Videodrone says:
    June 24, 2008 at 9:24 pm

    umm, I hate to be the one to be pointing out the obvious – but look at your temp maps vs USAtoday or the Weather channel – if only I weren’t a frail carbon based life form that requires a sleep state…

    REPLY: Point please? The temp maps I produce have been this way since 2001. They use a sliding scale for temperature colors.

  22. James Sexton says:
    June 24, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    Guys and gals, I need some help. I’ve been reading this blog for a few months now. For some time, I believed that there were only a handful of people willing to question AGW theory. I have been pleasantly surprised to see so many critical thinkers here. Please keep up the good work one and all. Special thanks to Anthony Watts. I’ve never claimed to be a scientist, and frankly some of the topics discussed here have sent me to the books and google simply to discern what was discussed. I’m fairly good with numbers but have little exposure to statistics. At any rate, the help that I need is that I have been challenged to find five “climate scientists” that have a peer reviewed published paper challenging the theory that anthropological CO2 is causing global warming. The caveat is that these “climate scientists” could have never had anything to do with the fossil fuel industry. I know this is a silly quest, yet, I feel that I just may help this person to understand that it may not be as black and white as he thinks. Any help would be appreciated.

    Thanks before hand,

    James

  23. Pierre Gosselin says:
    June 24, 2008 at 11:47 pm

    My respects to George.
    ——–
    Finally someone with an audience is preaching exactly what I’ve been advocating for months now: curbing the environmentally detrimental NEWSPAPER industry. The amount CO2 and litter produced by this industry is horrendous.

    Rush LIMBAUGH rants about out it (FINALLY!):
    http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_062408/content/01125114.guest.html

    These idiot editors think they can afford to save the world, while naively thinking they are somehow disconnected from the eveil foresty, chemical and energy industries.

    I’d certainly welcome ANTHONY WATTS, ICECAP, JUNKSCIENCE, PIELKE, SEPP and all the rest do much more to inform us readers about the “pollution” caused by the newspaper industry.

  24. retired engineer says:
    June 25, 2008 at 7:04 am

    In some cases, the content of the newspaper causes more pollution.

    IMAO, newspapers are an insult to the environment. A waste of good trees.

    Back OT, I think I’ll go out and accumulate more “Stuff”.

  25. Oldjim says:
    June 25, 2008 at 10:32 am

    If this gets through the moderation I apologise for the completely off topic post.
    Since going to Firefox 3 I have found a problem with this site which doesn’t happen in Firefox 2 or IE7.
    When I open the site the font and page width are larger than normal but when my cursor passes over a WordPress Preview it reduces to the page width and the font size to the same as with the other browsers.
    The linked picture shows the comparison with IE7 at the top and Firefox 3 below
    http://www.holtlane.plus.com/images/pagecomparison.jpg

    REPLY: Not much I can do about it, whatever the problem is, it is central to your setup.

  26. thegrip says:
    June 25, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    I’m only 25 and I was always such a big fan of his. I always had a soft side for the vulgar side of comedy.

  27. Oldjim says:
    June 26, 2008 at 2:53 am

    For information – I have identified and partially fixed the problem.
    In Firefox 3 there is an option for full page zoom which, if used, changes the whole page width and content and also it remembers the zoom level you set last time you visited the site. However hovering over the popup seems to set the zoom level back to default. I changed the zoom on this site back to default in the view menu and all is working as it should.
    Why this feature should cause the effect it does I have no idea but at least I know what caused it and how to stop it in the future.
    Thanks for your patience.
    As a separate comment I now visit this site every day and, although much of the mathematics is totally beyond me, I consider it to be one of the more open minded and least dogmatic of the blogs. Congratulations and long may you continue.

  28. Bill P says:
    June 26, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    RE: “He’s a partial intellectual entertainer. His character and way of story telling, explaining, imitating, and punchlining his points across! A realist, against the mainstream thought…”

    The Kennedy Center says Carlin’s material and style made him a perfect Twain recipient.

    As the audience yells back at him during his anti-environmental rant above, you can’t help but reflect on what kind of comedy this is, and why, if at all, it’s funny. It’s vitriolic. It’s misanthropic (shaking mankind off like a bad case of … whatever). Carlin defined himself when he said, “I think it is the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.”

    Some commonalities to Lenny Bruce and Richard Prior. And Twain himself, who “lectured” (early standup?) worldwide with a memorized conglomeration of his funny essays.

    Maybe the best wits have to be misanthropic. The acid in this makes for a stimulating visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.

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