Idea of the Week: An Orgy of George
March 10th 2025 | Humour
Dearest Being,
The Idea of the Week is live:
IDEA | HUMOUR
The work of George Carlin embodies everything that led me to fall in love with humour. How it can be intelligent, insightful, stupid, spiritual, political, prophetic, ridiculous, rebellious — all at the same time and without ever needing to dilute the truth to be funny.
If there was ever a Being who single-handedly encapsulated the philosophy of Nothing Serious, it was George Carlin.
Carlin’s comedy ranged from short takes that you’d type into your notes app at 2am to grand esoteric literary masterpieces. His tremendous ability to not only write these modern shakespearian soliloquies, but also perform them, distinguished Carlin as the go-to all-knowing comic voice of his generation.
When you think of the term ‘humour,’ what do you imagine? A stranger on a stage in a suit half-sitting on a stool telling a small crowd that society has gone too far this time? Your Dad telling some brilliantly dumb fart joke at the dinner table? Your best friend doing that one impression they do so well?
Humour can mean many different things to many different people. And what I love about this three book collection of Carlin’s work is how it spans this infinite cosmos of comedy almost effortlessly, as though the man’s mind was built only to observe and translate our human existence into humorous bits.
When people talk of comedy as an art form my mind goes to Carlin. Not many comedians, if any these days, come out with books of their material in literary form. Whereas, with Carlin, the poetry of it all came first. The love of the language.
So, I implore you, if any topic has been weighing on your mind lately, look it up after the words “George Carlin’s take on…” More often than not you will find an eloquent and hilarious piece of performed prose that will undoubtedly make you feel less alone.
SHORT TAKES | EXTRACTED FROM BOOK
“I haven’t eaten an ice-cream sandwich in forty-seven years.”
“I don’t think we should be governing ourselves. What we need is a king, and every now and then, if he isn’t doing a good job, we kill him.”
“Spirituality: The last refuge of a failed human. Just another way of distracting yourself from who you really are.”
“In the expression topsy-turvy, what exactly is meant by turvy?”
“Everything beeps now.”
STAND-UP | GEROGE CARLIN
George Carlin
George Carlin was a comic wordsmith disguising truth as humour.
For more on George Carlin, absorb Judd Apatow’s documentary:
NS Library
Nothing Serious Library is an archive of recommended literature. Ideas in paperbound form. A store of all genres, from the philosophical to the profane.
Take a book off the virtual shelf. Absorb a passage. Scan a quote. Get to know the author. Find your way into their ideas before a full plunge is made.
Books demand more of our time than most other art. But it should always be a two way conversation. Consciousness engaging consciousness. It can help to date a long-form idea before we marry it. This is Nothing Serious Library.
Love this guy, feel like he'd burn a dolla note on stage 💵🔥