6/23/08

Video and the WP Blog On the Late George Carlin Ripping Apart Religious Doctrines

Claire Hoffman over at the Washington Post reminds us that George Carlin was a sacreligious comedian, especially skewering religion with his barbed humor.

God loves you - and he needs money!
George Carlin, Adherent of Frisbeetarianism

While it is sad that someone as hilarious as George Carlin is dead, it is a little fun to think about what his afterlife looks like on this fine June morning. Is it a place, as he once speculated, where Joe Pesci might rule with a baseball bat and fine acting skills?

Carlin was one of the great living satirists of religion and in particular what happens to us when we die. Carlin consistently called bullshit on religion, accusing organized belief systems of being the ultimate hustle/fairy tale? "When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told," he said.

Carlin grew up Roman Catholic in Washington Heights and from early on seemed to delight in mocking religion -- even going so far as to invent his own religion -- Frisbeetarianism -- for a newspaper contest, which he defined as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and cannot be retrieved. Here's Carlin on religion, full form and full throttle.

R.I.P., or on a rooftop somewhere.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"In the BS department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman."

Of course, Carlin meant:
/other/ clergymen.