12/21/24
June 23, 2008
George Carlin: (Late) Sports Authority: Mourning the passing of the ultimate arbiter in the "Is it a sport or not?" debate. Also reference his famous comparison between baseball and football.
posted by TheQatarian to culture at 07:09 PM - 39 comments
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posted by Spitztengle at 07:20 PM on June 23, 2008
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posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:38 PM on June 23, 2008
Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle. Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park! Football is played on a GRIDIRON, in a STADIUM, sometimes called SOLDIER FIELD or WAR MEMORIAL STADIUM. Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. Football begins in the fall, when everything is dying. In football you wear a helmet In baseball you wear a cap. Football is concerned with downs. "What down is it? Baseball is concerned with ups. "Who's up? Are you up? I'm not up! He's up!" In football you recieve a penalty. In baseball you make an error. In football the specialist comes in to kick. In baseball the specialist comes in to relieve somebody. Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting, and unnecessary roughness. Baseball has the sacrifice. Football is played in any kind of weather: Rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog...can't see the game, don't know if there is a game going on; mud on the field...can't read the uniforms, can't read the yard markers, the struggle will continue! In baseball if it rains, we don't go out to play. "I can't go out! It's raining out!" Baseball has the seventh-inning stretch. Football has the two-minute warning Baseball has no time limit: "We don't know when it's gonna end!" Football is rigidly timed, and it will end "even if we have to go to sudden death." In baseball, during the game, in the stands, there's kind of a picnic feeling. Emotions may run high or low, but there's not that much unpleasantness. In football, during the game in the stands, you can be sure that at least twenty-seven times you were perfectly capable of taking the life of a fellow human being And finally, the objectives of the the two games are completely different: In football, the object is for the quarterback, otherwise known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his recievers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line. In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! "I hope I'll be safe at home!" He made me really laugh.
posted by budman13 at 07:52 PM on June 23, 2008
rip, george. i hope you know now in death, what you didn't in life. and i hope you are with the great joe pesci as you wished.
posted by tnip23 at 07:59 PM on June 23, 2008
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posted by tommybiden at 09:19 PM on June 23, 2008
These are the 7 words we will all say: We Love You and We Miss You. Rest in Peace, George.
posted by dbt302 at 09:22 PM on June 23, 2008
Being a Sports related area and in tribute to George; let's not forget this nugget offered up as an adjunct to the "Seven Words": "You can't really say Balls on TV,,,unless, it's in the context of a sport...for instance... You might hear Curt Gowdy say..."Roberto Clemente has two balls on him!"... BUT, you'll never hear..."I think he hurt his balls on that play...don't you?...He's holding em' by God!" Thanks for the memories George and Rest in Peace.
posted by R_A_Mason at 10:26 PM on June 23, 2008
My jaw just dropped when I read this news yesterday. The man was a legend.
posted by Drood at 10:48 PM on June 23, 2008
. Nice link, I started to highlight my favorite parts, but I would have ended up copying and pasting over half of the article.
posted by MrFrisby at 11:41 PM on June 23, 2008
Thanks for posting all those bits. That was the best way to remember a truly unique voice and talent. One great thing about George is that he left us all with such a rich body of comedy. We only got short changed in the fact that he was taken before his time. I'll bet he had a bunch more stuff to make us laugh. .
posted by THX-1138 at 11:43 PM on June 23, 2008
He has to be my all time favorite comic and when i read the news i couldnt understand how it was possible he was gone. I can say that i dont remember a show I have seen where you didnt get your moneys worth. I know this a sports forum but to limit his work to just that would be a crime. He was truly a comic genius and will be deeply missed. Tnip touched on it earlier, I'm sure he is with Pesci.....Because remember....Pesci gets resaults. :)
posted by jda at 04:16 AM on June 24, 2008
A true comedic legend. He will be missed. .
posted by BornIcon at 05:19 AM on June 24, 2008
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posted by Sprdave32 at 05:42 AM on June 24, 2008
And here's a partial score,,, Notre Dame 6
posted by dbt302 at 06:20 AM on June 24, 2008
He reminded me so much of my late father with his opinion on golf. And I love the football/baseball comparison. My son just go into George about 6 months ago, hooray for Youtube! Deleted from our address books (in 6 weeks) but never deleted from our hearts. Rest well, George, where ever you are.
posted by steelergirl at 09:11 AM on June 24, 2008
Deleted from our address books (in 6 weeks).... I remember that line from his last HBO show. Funny stuff. He was definately a genius.
posted by BornIcon at 09:18 AM on June 24, 2008
About remarrying after a divorce, he said, "I'm never going to get married again. I'll just find some woman I don't like and buy her a house." Fortunately, I did not take his advice, but it is a great example of wisdom in his humor. RIP, George.
posted by Howard_T at 09:26 AM on June 24, 2008
Carlin was...well...I can't add much to what's been written here, but something happened yesterday at soccer camp I'd like to share. Of course we give all the kids new soccer balls for camp and one of the kids said "These balls are slick." I told him not to worry about it, that they would break in and besides, "You can't pick your balls during a game anyway." The double entendre hit me immediately and I just looked up at the sky, smiled and winked. A couple of 12 year old boys also got it and were doing there best not to bust a gut. .
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 12:51 PM on June 24, 2008
"You can't pick your balls during a game anyway." George would have been proud. RIP.
posted by giveuptheghost at 01:32 PM on June 24, 2008
I had to break the news to my children that Filmore had died. Some day when they are older, they can get to know Filmore's other side. .
posted by Monica Poland at 01:57 PM on June 24, 2008
And yet Dane Cook and Carlos Mencia still draw breath... This planet sucks.
posted by Drood at 02:51 PM on June 24, 2008
Good job Texas, I laughed my ass off! As a coach of the same age in baseball, and soccer, He could'nt have written it better> R. I. P. George. There will never be another.
posted by volfire at 03:14 PM on June 24, 2008
All the good ones are dead: Belushi Kaufman Pryor Hicks Hedberg and now Carlin The world is a less funny place now.
posted by HATER 187 at 04:33 PM on June 24, 2008
Hicks and Carlin were my personal heroes. Hicks especially. (Still depresses me that he died on my birthday.)
posted by Drood at 05:14 PM on June 24, 2008
(Still depresses me that he died on my birthday.) It probably didn't brighten his day either.
posted by tommybiden at 05:26 PM on June 24, 2008
Carlin, Hicks and Kinnison are gone. But Emo Phillips, Gilbert Godfrey and Judy Tuneutta are still hear plaugeing us. Maybe George was on target being an atheist after all.
posted by Bassbuster9 at 06:03 PM on June 24, 2008
Don't forget about Carrot Top!
posted by hawkguy at 06:07 PM on June 24, 2008
"I like sports because I enjoy knowing that many of these macho athletes have to vomit before a big game. Any guy who takes a job where you gotta puke first is my kind of guy." Carlin was my favorite comic, by far, a brilliant wordsmith. I was godsmacked hearing of his exit. I find it quite off-putting, though, that there are members here who would prefer the early demise of other people. To put it gently, that's very unsportsmanlike.
posted by bobfoot at 10:52 PM on June 24, 2008
And lest we forget, "shoot is just shit with two o's in it!" texan_lost_in_NY, I think if he would have been there, he would have laughed.
posted by steelergirl at 09:11 AM on June 25, 2008
Well, he was sure he wouldn't be up in heaven making that goofy-ass face as he looked down upon us, and I agree. The best way for one to become immortal is to create a body of work that will be remembered long after one's death, so...here's to one of the immortals!
posted by tahoemoj at 03:33 PM on June 25, 2008
See ya George. I miss you
posted by Ironhead at 09:25 PM on June 25, 2008
"All the good ones are dead: Belushi Kaufman Pryor Hicks Hedberg and now Carlin" don't forget Foxx!
posted by bo_fan at 07:39 AM on June 26, 2008
don't forget Foxx! Or Prinze.
posted by Texan_lost_in_NY at 11:59 AM on June 26, 2008
Or Bruce. Or Radner. Or Hartman. Or Farley.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 07:47 PM on June 26, 2008
For the past few days on HBO, they've been showing a Carlin stand-up marathon from 9-1. I don't know how long they are going to have this special but it's been bittersweet watching these classic routines.
posted by BornIcon at 07:12 AM on June 27, 2008
Who can forget "you can prick your finger, but don't finger your prick. Ohh no!"? George Carlin was a comic genius, the likes of which we won't see soon; maybe never again. His ability to disect the language of American culture was unsurpassed. The greatest accolade I have heard in the last three days was this: "George knew what the f&$% he was talking about, everytime he spoke.". A more true statement statement has never been spoken. Ode to a TRUE icon of America. Someone should copy this and send it to millions of Americas worldwide......
posted by knowsalittle at 05:54 PM on June 27, 2008
If any of you get the chance, there was a program on the History channel not long ago called, "The History of the Joke". It was hosted by Lewis Black and featured many of today's top comics. (Bill Cosby, Robin Williams, etc...) Quite frequently during the show, it would cut to an interview with Carlin about how he prepares his material. It was very interesting stuff. I don't think they broadcast that show often, so be on the look out for it. I enjoyed it, I hope you all do too.
posted by BoKnows at 06:00 PM on June 27, 2008
Introduced to Carlin through the Dr. Demento radio show. "A place for my stuff." The Baseball Football comparison. One routine concerning food in the refrigerator. Wordplay classics. Tonight "Saturday Night Live" is replaying their very first program from 1975. George Carlin was the host .
posted by Newbie Walker at 03:18 AM on June 29, 2008
"Gymnastics is not a sport because Romanians are good at it. It took me a long time to come up with that rule, but goddammit, I did it." We'll miss you, George.