Monday, June 23, 2008

R.I.P. George Carlin



Warning: The most bad words you'll ever hear in ten minutes

The original can be heard here. I have a story from my warped childhood when I lived in the suburbia south of San Francisco in one of the box houses:



I was 6 or maybe 7. My brother used to record stupid comedy stuff and play them back to us with his mini Panasonic ghetto blaster. One of the recordings he played back was George Carlin's 7 Bad Words You Can't Say on Television. The funny thing about... it was recorded off the radio so it was all bleeps for the bad words. And we'd hear these bleeps and laugh and laugh.

My brother had a paper route so he always seemed to have an extra couple of bucks for stuff. So he had gone out and bought the album with the routine on it, totally uncut. I remember the album cover and everything. This bearded man on a chair with what appears to be his middle finger up his nose. Any how, later on... I heard all those bad words... My parents had no idea.

So my brother tapes this thing and I went around the neighborhood the next day. I remember getting all my friends...like 7 or 8 of them down to our house on their Huffys. My parents were cheap and got me a purple Montegomery Wards bike with a banana seat so I looked like a fruitcake riding down the street.

I remember collecting all the kids. We all sat on our bikes while my brother sat on the bumper of my mom's 1974 Malibu Grocery Getter. I remember listening to all those bad words, not knowing what any of them meant to the point we were all repeating to each other at the park 15 minutes later. For days... We did this... Shit, piss, f---...... on and on and on.

28 years later... it's amazing the profound effect someone's comedy had on your life. Someone says, "Steve what are the 7 bad words you can't say on TV" and I will rattle them off without thinking about it.

So I guess this means no more HBO specials?



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