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Article: Getting the Last Laugh; Funny Thing Is, George Carlin Couldn't Make It To His Big Night [Correction 11/20/08]
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- November 11, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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The late George Carlin, whose sense of irony was world class,
would have appreciated last night's Mark Twain Prize for American
Humor ceremony at the Kennedy Center, though it's not clear which
rich irony he would have liked most.
Surely, he would have gotten a kick about being too dead to pick
up the prize himself, as more than one presenter noted. Carlin died
in June at 71, a week after learning that he'd won the 11th annual
prize.
Perhaps, as a lapsed Catholic (and an extremely amusing atheist),
Carlin would have dug the whole Irish wake aspect of the ceremony:
Jokes were not just permissible, they were mandatory, in honoring
the recently departed.
As a stand-up comic whose career ranged ...