Shmegalamonga: January 2020

(Sent back in time from my future-self in 2023, cuz I was oblivious until I looked it up a couple days ago)

George Carlin's conscience.

IMHO.

So, I got to thinking about how 70% of the 80's/90's edge-lord standups, and 99% of the shock-jocks have edged themselves up to fucking Nazi, and how George Carlin avoided making that turn.

During the height of Andrew Dice Clay, when his pay-per-views were flat out Klan rallies, George even said in a Larry King interview, "I think he has the freedom to say whatever he wishes, but he also needs to remember that his type of punching-down comedy appeals to a certain audience, and that audience has a list of people they don't like, and as a Jew, he's on that list".

Carlin also considered himself a "free speech absolutist" but all the other people who stick that label on their chest never would make that "punching down" "punching up" distinction.

They even think punching down is punching up, because something, something, protected class, something, something.

Bullshit. That's just the "we're the minorities!" speech from the Dennis Hopper neo-Nazi episode of Twilight Zone.

Why didn't Carlin fall into that trap of becoming a CHUD-y fucking bigot?

Jack Burns.

When George started out, they were a comic duo called Burns & Carlin.

Jack Burns was a full-on secret commie, and got ahold of George at the right time in his life, and explained to him how "conservatives care about things more than people" and gave him some commie literature.

Read about it right from the horse's mouth in Carlin's "Last Words".

I've got a weirdly long memory for this shit.

I think that planted the right seeds to keep the fascism at bay in Carlin's soul.

The pot helped, the LSD helped, but Burns's influence is not to be underestimated.

The picture becomes more clear to me the more and more "edgy rebels" from my youth turn fucking Trump-sucker and/or swastika kisser.

No man is an island, not even Carlin (in spite of his stage persona), and you need that Jiminy Cricket in your life to keep you on the right path.

Jack Burns was Carlin's; Margaret was mine.

Anyway, thinking of all of that made me curious about whether Jack was still around, and what he got up to after Burns & Carlin.

As to the latter, he wrote for "The Muppet Show" and co-wrote "The Muppet Movie".

And remember Vince and Larry the talking crash test dummies from the 80's-90's?

Jack was the one that wasn't Lorenzo Music.

As to the former, he passed of "respiratory failure" in 2020.