Maher and Shandling honor George Carlin at service

Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:13 AM EDT

us-news, entertainment, memorial, george-carlin, carlin

LOS ANGELES — He was the comedian who actually said the seven words you can never say on television, but close friends and family members remembered George Carlin as a man who, when he was off stage, had only a kind word for everyone he met.

At a private memorial service Sunday attended by some 150 people — "That was as small as we could keep it," chuckled Carlin's daughter, Kelly Carlin McCall — her father was memorialized by comedians Bill Maher, Garry Shandling and others as someone who had no enemies, in part because he was nice to everyone he spoke to.

"What everyone said tonight is if you spent time with my father, whether it was five seconds or five hours, he was kind, attentive, very connected to you, compassionate," said Carlin's daughter.

Among those who spoke at the service, which was closed to the public and news media, was Shandling, who told of being a teenage college student when he sought out Carlin nearly 40 years ago.

"My dad read his material and encouraged him to continue on, which was a life-changing moment in Gary's life," McCall told The Associated Press after the service.

Overall, Carlin's daughter said, the service was a happy event, one presided over in part by her father himself, who spoke from a montage of video clips assembled from his 51-year career.

Carlin, who died June 22 of heart failure, recorded nearly two dozen albums, 14 HBO comedy specials, wrote three best-selling books and appeared in numerous movies and TV shows.

"It was a very, very light event, as he wanted it," McCall said of the two-hour service. "He wanted a lot of laughter. I'd say 90 percent of it was laughing and just remembering what he brought to us in his funny way."

Although his standup routines were often filled with four-letter words — so many that early in his career Carlin was sometimes hauled off stage and taken to jail — his dead-on ability to highlight the absurdities of everyday life, and do so in such comical voices and faces, made his humor come across as anything but harsh.

And although famous for four-letter words, Carlin, 71, did not always use them. He was also Mr. Conductor on the children's show "Shining Time Station," Fillmore the hippie van in the 2006 children's movie "Cars," and the guest host of the first "Saturday Night Live" episode ever broadcast. That 1975 show was replayed by NBC on Saturday night in his honor.

There also was more to Carlin than just the comedian, said McCall, and that too was reflected at her father's funeral.

He loved music, and his service was attended by Kenny Rankin, who sang "Here's That Rainy Day," and Spanky McFarlane of the 1960s pop group Spanky and Our Gang, who performed the song "Coming Home."

Other speakers included Carlin's older brother, Patrick, his partner, Sally Wade, and his former standup partner, Jack Burns. Carlin's wife, Brenda Hosbrook Carlin, died in 1997.

Carlin and Burns had met in 1960, and although they worked as a comedy duo only briefly they remained lifelong friends.

In an earlier AP interview, Burns recalled Carlin calling him several times a year to remind him of such things as the anniversary of the day they met, the day they did their first show together and, in one less-than-joyful incident, the day they were jailed for armed robbery in Texas in a case of mistaken identity.

That's just the sentimentalist he was, said McCall, who is Carlin's only child.

"He went out of his way to make sure friends and family members, if they needed anything, he was there for them," she said. "He was a complete man. He was more than just the seven words you can never say on television."

___

On the Net:

http://www.tjcenter.org

http://www.americanheart.org

(This version CORRECTS spelling to McFarlane from McFarland.)

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6.2

2.7

{"commentId":2084394,"authorDomain":"Rixar13"}

Rixar13

What a wonderful Man who I looked up to, laughed at, and learned from. A fellow Irish, Catholic, American man who I loved from afar. God Bless you George Carlin, rest in peace my friend.

{"commentId":2084394,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"Rixar13"}

2 votes

#1 - Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:54 AM EDT

{"commentId":2084415,"authorDomain":"wickenden"}

wickenden

As a boy, I knew the heroes of my generation would die, and I've been watching them go for that last ten years with such speed! But, among them, who was a greater hero than George Carlin? He pointed at the absurdity and did it in a way that changed my attention. What a lovely man.

{"commentId":2084415,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"wickenden"}

2 votes

#2 - Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:58 AM EDT

{"commentId":2131762,"authorDomain":"timcord2"}

timcord2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTyzTJTNhNk&feature=related

pass the tits?

{"commentId":2131762,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"timcord2"}

1 vote

#2.1 - Mon Jul 7, 2008 6:22 AM EDT

{"commentId":2084704,"authorDomain":"greenpagan"}

greenpagan

"If God had intended us not to masturbate he would've made our arms shorter." – George Carlin

Although raised in the Roman Catholic faith (which he describes anecdotally on the album Class Clown), Carlin often denounced the idea of God in interviews and performances, most notably with his "Religion" and "There Is No God" routines as heard in You Are All Diseased. In mockery, he invented the parody religion Frisbeetarianism for a newspaper contest. He defined it as the belief that when a person dies "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there", and cannot be retrieved.

Carlin also joked in his first book Brain Droppings that he worshiped the Sun, one reason being that he could actually see it. This was later mentioned in You Are All Diseased, along with the statement that he prayed to Joe Pesci (a good friend of his in real life) because "he's a good actor", and "looks like a guy who can get things done!"

In his HBO special Complaints and Grievances, Carlin introduced the "Two Commandments", a revised "pocket-sized" list of the Ten Commandments ending with the additional commandment of "Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself."

[ Source: Wikipedia. ]

====

{"commentId":2084704,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"greenpagan"}

3 votes

#3 - Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:45 AM EDT

{"commentId":2084985,"authorDomain":"sonnetizer"}

Gnostix1

Another day, another dead celeb.

This time, it's personal. Did your fam-

ous timing fail you in your heartbeat's ebb,

Mr. Carlin? Did you choose this lame

bit that's now stolen your encore? Too many

dead too soon, too fast these funerals come,

the vault of platitudes is bare and any

further words are empty words. We're dumb

and blinded now. Perhaps it's right and true

you shock us yet again, that we're accosted

by your final play on words: how to

express our naked grief when grief's exhausted.

When Tricksters, at long last, use up their chances,

Coyote laughs, and Kokapelli dances.

{"commentId":2084985,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"sonnetizer"}

5 votes

#4 - Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:23 AM EDT

{"commentId":2085434,"authorDomain":"firsty"}

firsty

in honor of carlin, i've linked to this article from my blog, in a clear violation of AP's copyright rules.

@!$%# em.

rest in peace, george.

{"commentId":2085434,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"firsty"}

3 votes

#5 - Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:13 AM EDT

{"commentId":2085664,"authorDomain":"savingideas"}

miser

the week before he died I was on vacation, and for some reason decided to watch youtube George Carlin beginning with "Religion is BS" and found hrs and hrs from there

I saw old stuff, new stuff, and classic stuff that made me wish I had met and thanked him for being honest and witty and bold to speak his mind, which encouraged me to begin to think more independently

I regret his passing...but know that I have a finite life too and can only "sieze the day" for now and hope to make a difference in the world

after realizing just how much religion was BS, I was depressed for a while and bittered at my betrayed trust in parents and friends who supported it just like Santa and Superman is to a child

now over that, I can be wiser and a bit witty in my dealings with people in such a way to make a point without pushing all away

by the way, he didn't believe in resting in peace...the believed it was over and that's it

depressing, but that's what the facts point to

he lives on in all of us

{"commentId":2085664,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"savingideas"}

1 vote

#6 - Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:40 AM EDT

{"commentId":2194592,"authorDomain":"adventurebooks"}

Robert Blevins - AB of Seattle

Remember the 'butter warmer'?

That was the device Carlin mentioned (battery powered) you kept in your REFRIGERATOR to keep your butter soft for spreading.

Think about it...

Damn. We're going to miss the guy. He was like Lenny Bruce, but smarter and without the drugs.

{"commentId":2194592,"threadId":"302464","contentId":"1624577","authorDomain":"adventurebooks"}

1 vote

#7 - Tue Jul 15, 2008 1:35 AM EDT

{"canLink":false,"threadId":"302464","isPrivate":false}

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