Comedy icon George Carlin dead at 71.

Sad day in the comedy world. One of the four funniest people ever, George Carlin, died last night of heart failure. He was 71.

The seminal comic was probably best known for his Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television bit and his propensity for not giving a shit about political correctness. (If I'd have said crap, I wouldn't really be honoring the spirit of Carlin right?)

For me, I knew George Carlin thanks to secret record-player sessions in 1989 and even more secretive VHS tapes in 1993.

Last week, in Ink, the funny and awesome Travis Fox had a comic about dealing with the death of a childhood icon and the death an adult icon. In his case, Mr. Hooper on Sesame Street and Tim Russert.

George Carlin was both.

I first stumbled upon his comedy at my friend Tony Smith's house when I was 10. Tony's dad had "FM & AM" on vinyl. When his parents went to sleep, we'd sneak it on. We mostly listened to his dad's records like Supertramp, the geography bands, The Eagles, Night Ranger and occasionally we'd sneak in a tape some other kid made us of Metallica's "Master of Puppets."

Carlin was the only stand-up comic we had access to. So, he was our baseline for everything that would come after.

Pretty decent baseline, huh?

We didn't really understand the bad language or the counter-culture vibe Carlin was developing.

But we'd laugh anyway. Mostly because he'd use words we'd never heard before that sounded funny — which we'd then use all the time, or until we'd run through our parents collective soap collection.

As I grew older, I would sneak upstairs and watch HBO. Or have a friend tape it for me after my folks disconnected HBO. (Thanks Real Sex #11.)

I started to understand the words a little bit better, but found that it was the exigence behind the words that I started to key in on. The words themselves as Carlin would say, weren't the important parts.

It was what they meant. The context. The humor derived from them.

And it was how he delivered it that made me smile. Eventually. I still laugh when someone says one of the seven words.

Didn't matter what format: Audio CD, HBO special, DVD, books, movies. Carlin worked on just about every level possible because he was funny.

His last special wasn't too long ago. March 1 in fact.

And, while he seemed to drag toward a place politically that I wouldn't dare follow (The Ron Paul Revolution), I still found him funny and sharp and biting. (Even if he may have lifted a Bill Hicks routine.)

Instead of being bummed and depressed that he's dead. I'm going to remember the good stuff.

Here are some things I've pulled from the INTERNETs. Enjoy.

:: Carlin's Seven Words You Can't Say on Television. Needless to say, this is highly NSFW.

:: An awesome A.V. Club interview from 2005.

:: The entire "Life is Worth Losing" special. It's the one he did post-9/11. Seems ironically titled now. But I'm assuming he thought of that.

:: UPDATED: My Ink alter-ego Momar Van Der Camp has an excellent (and maybe even better written) blog that excerpts some of Carlin's best jokes/observations. Another counter-culture icon gone.

:: Classic hippy dippy weatherman bit.

:: Talking about stuff in 1986.

:: Riffing on "Have a Nice Day" in 1982.

:: The trailer for "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."