This is a couple of days behind, but the beloved and renowned comedian George Carlin died at age 71 of heart failure at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica, California at 5:55pm PDT on June 22, 2008. Carlin was best known for the radical topics he used for his stand-up routines. His style often involved outrageous satire of the human species, as well as focus on American and Western Culture, such as obsession with fame and celebrity, consumerism, Christianity, political alienation, corporate control, hypocrisy, child raising, fast food diet, news stations, patriotism, and sexual taboos, among many others. Perhaps most famous for his “Seven Dirty Words” monologue, Carlin shocked America by using seven highly inappropriate and unsuitable words that were and are still censored on public airwaves.

Despite Carlin’s choice of negative topics, his satirical style was used to enlighten his audience and the general population to realize what kind of world we are living in. Many networks are holding tributes to George Carlin this week, including Apple iTune’s page of George Carlin standup. Saturday Night Live is paying tribute by re-airing the episode Carlin hosted in 1975 this Saturday, June 28 11:30pm EST. HBO is also running a special Wednesday through Saturday (June 25-28), featuring more than 11 of his standup routines. I suggest tuning in to some of these specials if you’ve never seen George Carlin perform before. His routines can make you both laugh until you cry and turn on a light bulb upstairs.

I’m going to leave with one of my favorite George Carlin quotes for some inspiration because it makes the most sense: “Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.”