“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?”
Given that I make my living as a freelance writer, it should come as little surprise that I find great pleasure in wordplay. Puns can be fun, but dissecting the English language for all of its logical errors and subtleties can be even more fun. That’s comedy.
And George Carlin, while not always focusing on wordplay, was easily one of the best comics of all time. He is perhaps best remembered for the seven words routine (NSFW YouTube link due to language, naturally), but little jokes like the one above are very clever too. It doesn’t have to be crude to be funny (not to say that I am opposed to crude humor).
But does comedy really serve a useful purpose? Do we really need characters like George Costanza and Stephen Colbert in a purely utilitarian sense? Well, American psychologist William James once said, “We don’t laugh because we’re happy. We’re happy because we laugh.” And I think we’d all agree that happiness is pretty important.
Here are a couple of other gems from Carlin:
“Honesty may be the best policy, but it’s important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.”
“When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?”
In your quests to find fame, fortune and love, don’t forget to keep a sense of humor about things too. Smile and the world will smile back at you.
Great article, George Carlin was a funny man, I never listened to him, but followed the link, it was funny but a bit much for me. It all about personal preference. Comedy is one thing I couldn’t live without. Everyone needs a good laugh now and again.
By the way the NSFW YouTube link is interesting, I have never seen that. I don’t use youtube so much and didn’t even know you could access it like that.
You might also enjoy his routine on stuff. There is still some coarse language in there, but it’s to a much lesser degree.
I’ll check it out thanks!
I have been to one of Carlin’s concerts. I really enjoyed his thoughts and humor based on politics and rules. He was a very thoughtful man that just happened to be very funny.
If you didn’t know, he was also the narrator on Thomas the Train for a long time.
Carlin was a master of comedy no doubt. I am a big fan of Louie CK who I learnt was heavily influenced by Carlin.
Humor is an important part of life. We all go through bad times but it is important to always find something to laugh about. Watch an episode of your favorite sitcom, think back to some funny incident that happened in your own life, it could be anything that tickles your funny bone.
-Jean