George Carlin, RIP

The comedian, author, and social critic George Carlin died of heart failure yesterday at the age of 71, as Jamie reported earlier. One of the top stand-up comedians of all time, Carlin's most popular bits were "Seven Dirty Words" and my personal favorite, "A Place for My Stuff."

The latter routine talks about how our homes are nothing more than places to put our stuff: "If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house. You could just walk around all the time. A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it."

Later in the monologue, Carlin talks about how people need to come up with a different, smaller version of their stuff when they go on vacation. "You get down to the hotel room in Honolulu and you open up your suitcase and you put away all your stuff. 'Here's a place here, put a little bit of stuff there, put some stuff here, put some stuff--you put your stuff there, I'll put some stuff--here's another place for stuff, look at this, I'll put some stuff here...' And even though you're far away from home, you start to get used to it, you start to feel okay, because after all, you do have some of your stuff with you."

Then when a friend on Maui invites you to stay the night at his house, you need yet another smaller version of your stuff: "Only the stuff you know you're gonna need. Money, keys, comb, wallet, lighter, hanky, pen, smokes, rubber and change. Well, only the stuff you HOPE you're gonna need."

Watch the Youtube video of "A Place for my Stuff" here.

And RIP, George.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, News