I hated what I've heard Carlin say about feminism/feminists in his routines, like "Feminist blowjob/Pissing off the Feminists" (I have also heard him support feminist ideals, like in the above). [As mentioned last week, I'd probably spit my coffee if women like Margaret Cho or 80s era Ellen Degeneres said it.] I also hated his *deliberate* use of rape in humor as in "Rape can be funny", as part of his career championing the First Amendment. I posted on that just a couple of months ago.

That said, I consider Carlin to be the "thinkingest" comic I can name. He was a philosopher. I had just started to know him again after a 20 year absence, thanks to YouTube. Hearing the announcement of his death on a patient's television at work shocked me silent.

I will miss him:

"Saving the Planet is Bullshit"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml_-vmy9npA

I believe he understood the hypocrisy of privilege or self-interest and self-importance [of humanity] quite well. Try staying with him till after 5:01. Post 5:35 and 5:58 are Carlin gold. And when Carlin takes his audience from laughter into silence (possibly stunned - the hair on my ARMS stood up the first time he brought up "viruses"), to a standing ovation by the end? Priceless.

7:00 - I'll miss you, George.

His remark about how menstruation destroys fertilized eggs was *slightly* inaccurate ;) , But it was an amusing rant nonetheless.

That line about how pro-lifers come in their pants when they watch executions... I came up with that on my own before ever watching the video, which I guess makes me and George kindred spirits. Thanks for posting this video. I'd only ever heard him talk about how "rape can be funny" and was prepared to hate his guts for eternity.

I happen to think that his views were mostly pretty feminist, but he also liked getting a rise out of people. His use of seemingly anti-feminist topics (i.e. the "rape can be funny" bit) was most likely deliberately to offend as many people as possible. But once he gets seriously into political stuff, he sounds pretty feminist to me.

He balanced his beliefs with a love of pushing the envelope and purposely pissing people off. And he did it really well, which meant often you were pissed at what he was saying but laughing your ass off at the same time.

I'm very sad that I won't ever have the chance to see him perform live. He only came to Buffalo once while I lived there (and never to Savannah when I lived there - shocking, I know) and my parents said I was "too young" despite the fact that I had heard most of his routines unedited on HBO or CDs already. I feel compelled to go watch as many clips of him as I can in his honor.

RIP, George.

fucking hilarious.

" but he also liked getting a rise out of people."

Certainly. A deliberate effort since the time of my birth (late 60s). Brilliant. I'd probably consider his "conventional" mid 60s humor performed in a suit appearing on/hosting the Johnny Carson show (remember the guy before Jay Leno?) boring.

He's also slightly inaccurate about eggs being chicken abortions. They're never fertilized, so they're really more like a chicken's period.

But it was delightfully outrageous; thanks for posting it. I realized that some of the stuff in his monologue here is the same sort of stuff I spout about the hypocrisy of the antichoice.

He's wrong about the chickens, though. I've seen a lot of despicable behavior from roosters.

The business about giving a miscarriage a funeral is one I actually read from a biologist -- this biologist pointed out, among other things, that if we're really going to consider everything from a fertilized egg onwards to be a "human being", then any woman who has a heavy period would be obliged to save it in a tiny coffin and mourn it, because that might have been an early miscarriage.

Thank you for posting this! I am CONSTANTLY referring people to this skit. Like you said, he might not have been a poster child for feminism.. but sometimes people who won't listen to you about feminism will listen to it said in a hilarious, in-your-face kind of way. So much of what he said in this one little skit was eerily on point... and he was truly, truly, brilliant.
I too was not happy with his "rape is funny" skit, but like Liza's Profound Sarcasm said, it was mostly to get a rise out of people... when in reality his views were very feminist. (This isn't to excuse anything that truly offended others, I'm just saying).

And Lydia, he wasn't saying that menstruation destroys fertilized eggs... he was saying that very often, women's eggs are fertilized, but never make it far enough to be implanted in the uterus, and are just flushed out with menstruation (not BECAUSE of menstruation).

Thank you for posting this! I am CONSTANTLY referring people to this skit. Like you said, he might not have been a poster child for feminism.. but sometimes people who won't listen to you about feminism will listen to it said in a hilarious, in-your-face kind of way. So much of what he said in this one little skit was eerily on point... and he was truly, truly, brilliant.
I too was not happy with his "rape is funny" skit, but like Liza's Profound Sarcasm said, it was mostly to get a rise out of people... when in reality his views were very feminist. (This isn't to excuse anything that truly offended others, I'm just saying).

And Lydia, he wasn't saying that menstruation destroys fertilized eggs... he was saying that very often, women's eggs are fertilized, but never make it far enough to be implanted in the uterus, and are just flushed out with menstruation (not BECAUSE of menstruation).

wow hes really good. i never really watched him. I like him. thanks for posting.

Naturally, if a woman/couple chooses to mourn a miscarriage (my mother calls a formless thing she found on her toilet seat in 1966 her second child, and says if that had been born, I might not have been here, because my parents' limit was two - I was not offended - she also imagines that it would have been a girl, to provide balance to my older brother), that is their choice. I see graves for miscarriages. If someone wants the products put into the biohazard waste bag, that is how staff will handle it.

It's a matter of choice, and we at the hospital will act accordingly. You want us to call your family and spiritual advisor? Done. Want time alone, or simply to go home after your condition is stable? Done. Want to be discharged now AMA (against medical advice)? Sign the liability release because the hospital wants to cover its ass, and go in peace.

Small nitpick - in a barnyard where roosters have access to hens, or in facilities where chickens are bred, there certainly are fertilized eggs which if incubated, would likely become chicks. The hens probably do not consent to the eggs being taken or eaten, thus they are not "abortions."

Honestly, I'm listening to the "Rape Can Be Funny" on YouTube right now. Really, most of what he's doing is decrying victim blamers. Also, he's proving a point - that comedians are supposed to push the envelope and not listen to critics who try and tell them what they should and shouldn't say.

He launches right into how groups shouldn't tell him what to say. He starts with feminists because of what he was talking about but immediately goes into other groups as well. He's one of those people who takes on pretty much everyone.

"I like to piss off any group that takes itself too seriously." As do I.

He also explicitly says that he agrees with feminist theory.

I've always kind of liked George Carlin.

However, I expressly remember a skit he did where he basically claimed that anorexic women are whiny (I don't wanna EAT), rich, white women with nothing better to do than complain.

Having watched my sister bravely overcome anorexia after coming within a hair's breadth of dying, I have a hard time forgiving him that skit.

Overall, his message is fine. It's just not good when people think they can joke about things they have no clue about.

"he's proving a point - that comedians are supposed to push the envelope and not listen to critics who try and tell them what they should and shouldn't say."

If we believe in others' freedom of speech, why is it such an issue here, as in the "vintage" sexist cartoon? Why can Carlin get a pass, and other, obviously sexist, misogynist people (like Imus whom people want fired, etc.), not?

Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig (as animated characters) are funny. Rape is not funny. Neither was using WB characters in racist WWII propaganda (or a lot of classic material I grew up with, with racist elements like explosion in face = blackface with white lips and kinky singed hair).

A Male, 95 percent of eggs for human consumption come from hens who live in battery cages and never ever meet a rooster.

And from what I've read, the hens and roosters in the barnyard is just so much fiction. They're in hatcheries, where the baby male layer chicks are killed at birth because they can't lay eggs.

At any rate, would we be correct in saying that there was more pro-feminist stuff from George Carlin than sexist.

I've never seen any of his stuff before...But I thought he hit the nail on the head.

VeggieTart, it's not always fiction. I grew up on farm where the chickens (and roosters) ran around as they pleased. Looking for local eggs always helps. The eggs are better, too.

However, abortion/omelet is clearly a nonsensical comparison, as several people have pointed out.

I like some of the stuff I've seen from Carlin, and I don't like other stuff; I think in general he had good points and a good heart and just didn't believe in drawing the line so as not to offend people. And honestly, since he seems to have had that policy about EVERYONE, I'm coming to terms with it. I don't like that he calls the disable 'cripples', I don't like the suggestion that rape can be funny, and I don't like anorexia being compared to whining. And I don't like his heavy-handed anti-religion stance. But I can appreciate what he was doing and how he was doing it, while not overlooking all that.

I was sorry to hear that he died. I've always been a fan. I saw him in the 1980s at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. The stage was right next to the water, and people in yachts pulled up to the pier to listen to his act. He commented - right on, too! - that "all of you paid for your seats, and these rich people in their yachts - the ones who can most afford to buy the tickets - are getting the show for free." He took something happening right in front of him and brought it into his act in a very insightful way.

RIP George. I miss you.

I think we should over analyze the chicken joke a little more.