Ever heard of him!?

I bought his first classic comedy album when it came out.

I had to look up the date. It was the summer of 1972, and I was nine going on ten years old.

I was already a rebel in school since the first grade. I was so notorious with teachers that years later, when they saw my sister's last name, they asked if I was her brother. When she said yes, the teacher made threats and said she would be watched closely.

I had the same kind of responses as him to school and authorities, who often called me a smart-ass. I think it was just the expected response of intelligent children to so much stupidity and blatant brain washing. Like Carlin, I was always asking questions the teacher didn't want to answer, but I wasn't a clown about it.

I was dead serious, and I wanted to question their sanity, their righteousness, their honor, their hypocrisies, their cowardice, etc. They didn't like a child talking to them like that. I knew class clowns. They were smart kids, full of piss and vinegar, who joked to deliberately provoke teachers, but they also had a way of being cute, and teachers often secretly sort of liked them.

I wasn't trying to be liked, and I was waging serious war against stupidity, hypocrisy, abuse of authority, cruelty, etc. and my intention was to deliver hard blows, verbally or physically. I wanted evil people to remember me by their pain.

Anyway, I understood the class clowns, and that's how I understood George Carlin. Sometimes he was too crude, but he needed attention for his jokes. He was too liberal, but a lot of performers took shelter under that umbrella. It was one of those things "everybody knew". You could get away with a lot as long as you mouthed the right liberal values.

Real intellectual courage would have been slapping Liberals in the face, and everybody else, but it would have alienated too many people to sell tickets.

I remember the culture at the time, the kids who listened to Class Clown over and over, while turning over the album cover. I remember the rumors of rolling paper in a Cheech and Chong record.

George Carlin was a big part of the Summer for nine year old boys back in the day.

I grew up listening to his humor, and marveling at his appearance on television and sometimes even in some freaky movies.