Celebrity Death Thread

[King Cole]

Wow that sucks. He was a very entertaining man from his standup to head of the class (lol, man that was a long time ago).

RIP George

Head of the Class? Are you thinking of howard hessman?

RIP George. Another shocking death...

Well they do look sort of similar

[YT]

RIP Mr. Carlin!

[gjdodger]

Saw him live at U of M...my gosh, 34 years ago. The line I remember is, "You ever notice how a cat will walk straight into a plate glass window, then stroll away like he's been practicing for weeks?" RIP

[Nick Pappageorgio]

Carlin will be missed.

RIP

No offense to MR. Russert, but Carlin is the guy the media should be doing hour-long tributes to.

[Newbomb Turk]

Baseball is different from any other sport, very different. For instance, in most sports you score points or goals; in baseball you score runs. In most sports the ball, or object, is put in play by the offensive team; in baseball the defensive team puts the ball in play, and only the defense is allowed to touch the ball. In fact, in baseball if an offensive player touches the ball intentionally, he's out; sometimes unintentionally, he's out.

Also: in football,basketball, soccer, volleyball, and all sports played with a ball, you score with the ball and in baseball the ball prevents you from scoring.

In most sports the team is run by a coach; in baseball the team is run by a manager. And only in baseball does the manager or coach wear the same clothing the players do. If you'd ever seen John Madden in his Oakland Raiders uniform,you'd know the reason for this custom.

Now, I've mentioned football. Baseball & football are the two most popular spectator sports in this country. And as such, it seems they ought to be able to tell us something about ourselves and our values.

I enjoy comparing baseball and football:

Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game.
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle.

Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park.The baseball park!
Football is played on a gridiron, in a stadium, sometimes called Soldier Field or War Memorial Stadium.

Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life.
Football begins in the fall, when everything's dying.

In football you wear a helmet.
In baseball you wear a cap.

Football is concerned with downs - what down is it?
Baseball is concerned with ups - who's up?

In football you receive a penalty.
In baseball you make an error.

In football the specialist comes in to kick.
In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody.

Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting and unnecessary roughness.
Baseball has the sacrifice.

Football is played in any kind of weather: rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...
In baseball, if it rains, we don't go out to play.

Baseball has the seventh inning stretch.
Football has the two minute warning.

Baseball has no time limit: we don't know when it's gonna end - might have extra innings.
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end even if we've got to go to sudden death.

In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling; emotions may run high or low, but there's not too much unpleasantness.
In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you're capable of taking the life of a fellow human being.

And finally, the objectives of the two games are completely different:

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! - I hope I'll be safe at home!

[DeanUK]

Bogus

[King Cole]

I thought it was well kinda of ......(what's the word)....cute

[Rocky Bleier]

Absolutely loved George Carlin. Saw him at the Ford Auditorium in Detroit in either 1976 or 1977. I am truly sad today. Tim Russert, on the other hand, was an average news guy. His whole style was "gotcha." He asked tough qusetions of some, but was deferential to power and spread many of the myths leading up to the Iraq War. Seemed like a good son and father, but I was shocked at how much attention his passing received. He was certainly no Walter Cronkite.

[FVD]

I never had the pleasure of seeing George Carlin live in person, but I did get to see countless HBO specials he did, along with appearances on the Tonight Show. George was one of my favorite comics. I have a considerable library of his material on my ipod, and in fact, I was listening to Life is Worth Losing last night on my way home from work, when I found out about his passing.

It wasn't so much that George used such foul language, he just understood the language and its nuances and was able to manipulate it to prove his points. George, thank you for the many laughs you've given me in the past, and the knowledge that your material will give me more in the future.

[Washington Lions Fan]

Carlin was probably the best of the "smart" comedians...like Lenny Bruce or Robert Klein...much of what he covered was topical and always made you stop and think...he swore for effectivness, not just for the shock value.

I thank George for all the times I heard his albums and watched him on HBO...I passed up the one opportunity to see him in Seattle a few years ago...

[NewOrleansLion]

I love this bit:

"Human beings are kind of interesting from birth until they reach the age of a year and a half. Then they are boring until they reach fifty. By that time they're either completely defeated and fucked up, which makes them interesting again, or they've learned how to beat the game, and that makes them interesting too."

[L-kxng]

Carlin had so many great shows, Baseball and Football is classic. I remember him talking about the side affects of drugs and alcohol once, how they are lower when your young and get higher as you grow older.

[L-kxng]

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[gjdodger]

I also liked a routine he did about "stuff". You've always got to have some of your stuff; you go on a trip, and you bring along a whole lot of your stuff. Then maybe you visit a friend while you're there, and you bring a smaller amount of your stuff. Then the two of you go somewhere, and you bring just a little bit of your stuff. But your stuff is stuff; your friend's stuff is junk. "I don't want any of your junk in with my stuff!"

[L-kxng]

And when your in the air on an airplane looking down you see all the houses with everyone's 'stuff' in them.

Another good one is when the lady at the cash register tells you to 'have a nice day',

"well maybe I don't want to have a nice day"!