George Carlin

The first time I ever saw George Carlin was when I was a kid. I guess he was on the Tonight Show. I remember he was clean-shaven, had short hair, and wore a coat and tie.

This was a long time ago, obviously. I Googled his name, hoping to find an image from that era, but no luck.

He did his 'Wonderful WINO' bit that night, but instead of WINO being a top 40 radio station, it was an easy listening/jazz FM kind of place, and he did the station ID by singing 'Wonderful WINOOOOOO' into a metal tumbler. (You have to be of a certain age, I guess, to even remember metal tumblers, let alone a clean-shaven George Carlin.)

I remember seeing him years later, probably on Tonight, and not even realizing it was the same guy until he did 'Wonderful WINO,' by this time updated to the Top 40 version.

I won't mention names, but I'm sure you can think of some comedians who, in their later years, got applause more in honor of what they had done thirty years previously rather than what they were doing at that moment. They weren't funny anymore, but you sat through their stuff, at least when they were on TV, mostly out of habit.

I appreciated the fact that Carlin was still funny right up to the end, and never seemed to coast on his reputation.

I hope I'm half that interesting when I'm 71. Hell, I'd be glad to be half that interesting now.