Comments on: George Carlin Cartoons

By: Teen Atheist

Teen Atheist — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 06:50:27 +0000

I like what God had to say about George Carlin:

What do you want from Me? He was old and had heart problems, ok? He also snorted a lot of cocaine in his day. It’s a miracle I could keep him alive and entertaining you for this long. But don’t worry, he’s not in hell as Satanus would have you believe. He’s up here with Me in Heaven. He looks really surprised. I know he was a staunch atheist his whole life, but he really makes Me laugh. He wasn’t exactly thrilled about being here at first (as everyone he was ever friends with is in hell and he’s surrounded by Bible-thumping Christians), but I brought up some of his pals from hell on his behalf and gave them a mountain of blow to do and everything else they could ever want. I also reunited Georgie with his first wife and his beloved dog Tippy. He’s adjusting well and has already started work on a new book of his observations and musings on Heaven.

By: James

James — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:07:44 +0000

For a “Carlin in Heaven” cartoon, I thought this one was pretty good: http://www.myextralife.com/archive.php?date=2008-06-25

By: Luther Weeks

Luther Weeks — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:25:27 +0000

Katherine Hepburn suffered the same “fate”.

It seems that the godfull cannot imagine a person they admire as godless.

Just like the godfull, atheists die. But before they die, most atheists truly live.

By: Joel Schlosberg

Joel Schlosberg — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:52:38 +0000

What I’d have liked to see is a cartoon where Carlin goes to heaven, and it turns out that, in contrast, everybody there is already cursing all the time. Now that would’ve been funny.

By: chris

chris — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:54:32 +0000

Gee, he was just here a minute ago!!!

By: Greta Christina

Greta Christina — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:37:37 +0000

Actually, the trope itself doesn’t bug me that much. It’s just a standard cartoonist’s trope, like psychiatrist’s couches and desert islands with palm trees.

What does bug me is the number of cartoonists in this set who used the opportunity of Carlin’s death to dis him. I see a distinct difference between the loving ones — “Thank God someone’s here to liven up the place,” “I asked for a transfer” — and the “You can’t use those 7 words in Heaven” ones, which are essentially saying, “Carlin can’t be himself if he’s going to get into Heaven.”

I mean, death is the one time that everyone has to say nice things about you. How many other public figures (apart from truly hated ones like Spiro Agnew) would get a “You’re not good enough to get into Heaven” cartoon on their death?

By: Dave Haaz-Baroque

Dave Haaz-Baroque — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:37:01 +0000

“So what do they all have in common?

They show Carlin in Heaven or Hell”

Well, that and they pretty much all have the exact same ‘7 words’ joke. Really, now… None of them could come up with anything better than riffing off a routine he wrote back in ‘72?

I personally take no offense at the heaven/hell thing because… well, it’s cartoon reality. I don’t think the writers were even thinking to make a statement about his atheism so much as they were just looking for a scenereo that would move along the punch line.

The same punch line.

Four times…

By: Metro

Metro — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:36:43 +0000

Cartoonists are in the business of plugging into common images. You only have a few seconds to establish that connection. These folks aren’t speaking to Carlin, they’re speaking to his fans, who all have at least some cultural awareness of the whole “fluffy-cloud-gates-dude-in-beard-and-halo” image.

Moore definitely had the right of it, though.

By: George Carlin Cartoon

George Carlin Cartoon — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:56:50 +0000

[...] this over on FriendlyAthiest.com today. Made me [...]

By: TXatheist

TXatheist — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:29:06 +0000

I came up with a different take. What I see strongly is the position god/devil is in. He’s behind a pulpit and up high. That’s a position of power and man is to look up to him. The perpetuated hierarchy of god being in a position of power is about fear and control…imo.