Talk:George Carlin

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This page is not a forum for general discussion about George Carlin. Any such comments may be removed or refactored. Please limit discussion to improvement of this article. You may wish to ask factual questions about George Carlin at the Reference desk.

Atheism

The note of Carlin's atheism being questionable is ridiculous. This is weakly backed up by a quote of him noting that he essentially does not reject notions of the spirit. Atheism is the lack of a belief in god, not the lack of subscription to spirituality altogether. I am sorry, I am a wiki-noob an am unfamiliar with the etiquette of signing posts.

I agree with you in theory, but this is Wikipedia, and we have to go with facts which can be backed up with external citations; given what evidence we have (and more importantly, what evidence we don't have) we don't know for certain what Carlin actually believes or doesn't believe, so we have to go with what he's said. Yes, he had that bit called "There is no God" on You Are All Diseased. In interviews he's qualified that by stating that he's specifically referring to the Judeo-Christian "invisible man in the clouds" version of God, and that he doesn't really know enough about the various other religions' deities to authoritatively say that they're all bullshit. Remember, what a comedian says when they're on stage isn't always the whole story, since the whole story isn't always good comedy. He goes out of his way to not identify himself speficially as an atheist. While it's true that him avoiding that label doesn't tell us what he does believe in, but we have to have the article reflect what he's said, not what we think he means. Oh, as for signing posts, all you need to remember is four tildes. - Ugliness Man 08:20, 12 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's common knowledge that Carlin considers all religions as superstition. This by his statements both on and off stage.--BMF81 09:50, 12 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Uglinessman - you misunderstand the meaning of the word 'Atheism' - it simply means a lack of belief. 61.91.35.101 (talk) 13:14, 28 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, but no. "2 a disbelief in the existence of deity b : the doctrine that there is no deity" [1]. a-theo = no-deity. It is also worth noting that religion is not entirely about belief in a deity; a great deal of it is about ritual and conformity. (Yes, i'm a bit pessimistic in that regard.)

I think it would be a fair assessment to consider George to have been agnostic. I think he would be ashamed of himself to assume that he was in a position to know one way or another. His outlook seemed to be that it was pointless (even ridiculous) for us to worry about it.

The bottom line is that he apparently never outright declared his position, publicly. So we can't put anything more definite than that in the article.
—überRegenbogen (talk) 06:34, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

So, do you think he's telling God his atheist jokes now? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.163.29.2 (talk) 14:32, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Was that trolling really necessary?24.187.134.112 (talk) 16:12, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

George Carlin, jewish?

Is george carlin jewish? His surname is jewish so I was wondering if anyone knows if he has jewish ancestry? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.69.76.35 (talk) 19:04, 24 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not that I know of. If he is, he is an Atheist Jew, because of his satire of bullshit. Candle^{of Hope} 17:35, 17 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

George Carlin was an Irish Catholic. In fact, he had to quit the Catholics, because they were after his soul. They had announced it to him, "All we want... your mortal soul." And he had heard about soul... long before he had heard about Catholic, he had heard about soul... and all they ever kept saying was, "Save it! Save your soul... save your SOUL!" And the Catholics were after his! So he said, "No good man! I'm savin' my soul. Shine it up... use it on the weekends..." Famartin (talk) 18:02, 17 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Lolwut? 2k6168 (talk) 12:03, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

He is an Atheist. He will always be one too.

From the article: Carlin was born in New York City,[21] the son of Mary (née Bearey), a secretary, and Patrick Carlin, a national advertising manager for the New York Sun.[16] Carlin was of Irish descent and was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.[22][23][24] Billy j844 (talk) 15:46, 23 June 2008 (UTC)billy June 23, 2008[reply]

Death?

It's being reported that Carlin has died. Anyone have more sources to substantiate this? faithless (^speak) 05:09, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

__ Sorry I'm not exactly sure how to use the talk pages or the right markup or what have you but here is another source http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25322638/ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.236.124.169 (talk) 05:13, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

FoxNews and New York Times have confirmed as well.--Bedford ^Pray 05:35, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I'm afraid it's confirmed, Mr. Carlin passed on June 22, 2008. --/Mendaliv/^2¢/_Δ's/ 05:36, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

(oc):Yep, looks like I asked this just as all the other media outlets were rushing to get the story out (apparently E! was the first to get it out). faithless (^speak) 05:38, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I just went to Google News and that's one of the top stories thereSmiloid (talk) 08:33, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

:(  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 2k6168 (talk • contribs) 12:04, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Death - Sources

I'm less than thrilled with the citations for his death. There is obviously no doubt, but none of the articles compares to a number of obituaries I've read. The best of those being one I read in the The New York Times

My problem is, I'm really lousy at adding/changing these types of citations. Could someone do it for me? Here is the article I think should be included (or better yet, replace one of the others - like the AP one (on msnbc) for example.

Thanks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Angrykeyboarder (talk • contribs) 11:04, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Number of heart attacks

I've changed the reference to "the first of his his three heart attacks" to "non-fatal heart attacks" (since this final one makes a total of four). After the dust settles, we may want to change this to simply "four heart attacks".
—überRegenbogen (talk) 06:11, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

But his cause of death was heart failure. That is not the same thing as a heart attack. angrykeyboarder (a/k/a:Scott) (talk) 11:07, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Discography addition

I noticed this record was omitted from the discog:

Future Tour Dates

Call me crazy, but for some reason I don't think he'll be able to make these.--Dr who1975 (talk) 06:04, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Would definitely be notable if he does make them.--Bedford ^Pray 06:33, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

That would have to meet some kinda damn strict verifiability standard. - Yamara ✉ 13:43, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Humor Awards

It was announced on Tuesday that George Carlin would be the recipient of the 11th Annual Mark Twain Prize for American Comedy. Saxygator 07:18, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Which unit did Carlin serve with?

Does anyone know which unit George Carlin served with while he was stationed at Barksdale AFB? I was stationed there myself in the eighties, and I am curious if I was in the same unit he got kicked out of. --Baddogsprocket (talk) 08:08, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

You know, thinking back to when I was serving at Cannon AFB in New Mexico, I recall other saying that George Carlin was a "A-Shopper" on F-111s. I've no idea if F-111's were ever at Barksdale, but since the A-shop was for avionics, particularly RADAR (the article as is indicates that he worked radar), that could be.--200.41.2.144 (talk) 17:33, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

FUCK!

...and six other "dirty" words, that's what I feel like saying. Sure, this is an enclopedia's "discussion" section, but I just had to say it. We'll miss you, George, it's been a hell of a ride... PS: heart attacks suck. 96.52.130.129 (talk) 15:02, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

RIP. El_C 15:02, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Olbermann

I just found out he died and so I came to wikipedia to find out more. When I got to the page though, something kind of jumped out at me. Keith Olbermann was influenced by George Carlin? I don't discount it I guess, but it just seems odd that a sportscaster-turned-political-commentator would be influenced to that large of a degree by a stand up comedian. Anybody have anymore information on this one? Joel.a.davis (talk) 15:20, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I would hope that the coming days would see 10 minute tributes by people such as Kevin Smith and Bill Maher, and apparently Olbermann as well. Wait a week or so and Keith himself will reveal whether or not that's true. Wouldn't surprise me, though, since a LOT of Keith's style is biting satire along the lines of Carlin or Richard Pryor or even Lenny Bruce... who was the "wake up call" for Carlin. 199.214.27.32 (talk) 15:57, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Inclusion of Sally Wade

On Carlin's official web site, he mentions falling in love with Sally Wade in the year after Brenda Carlin's death. Some articles refer to her as his wife, though an actual marriage is unconfirmed. I recommend adding this information to the Personal Life section. Melissa Abernathy, Baltimore 16:22, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

R.I.P George Carlin -- now performing "Seven dirty words" in heaven

Now that I have your attention, I reverted the phrase stating he was a "Disciple of Lenny Bruce". I agree he's a definete successor, however, the reference given didn't even mention that, therefore it can't be here.

See ya on the flip side! Just say "NO" to WP:FUR 16:50, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It was the second line of the reference. "A disciple of Lenny Bruce, Carlin was arrested for violating..." --Onorem ♠Dil 16:51, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I stand corrected! Thank you Onorem!

Just say "NO" to WP:FUR 17:26, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

buried

george carlin would ask.. if we are cremated in a crematory are we buried in a buritory? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Murcia fluent (talk • contribs) 17:01, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the George Carlin article. --Onorem ♠Dil 17:10, 23 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]