UdeMan: George Carlin

The UdeMan posts celebrate mature men, and with the death of this truly funny human on Sunday, honors those no longer here.

Carlin's style of humour was offbeat, provocative, shrewd, innovative. Inspired by Lenny Bruce (when he saw Bruce perform, he forever abandoned bland jokes), he then, as Jerry Seinfeld noted in his moving eulogy in today's New York Times, honed his material like a diamond cutter.

When smart comics like Carlin put the absurdities of life into their mental blenders ("Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Do they think someone might come along and clean them?"), they encourage us to ask Why? Why Not? To risk, turn on our BS meters, and stand for what counts.

"Women like silent men, they think they're listening." - George Carlin