quote:

ORIGINAL: cjan

As Carlin once said. "Scratch the skin of a cynic and you will find a dissillusioned  idealist".

For peeps that found Carlin less funny in his maturity, or even see him as a ranting bitter man, please consider this. It happens and is , perhaps, an inevitable process for idealists, particularly active ones, to become more cynical as a result of dissapointments in human nature. It happened to Samuel Clemens and many others. That is not to say that they are not witty cynics. Imo, Carlin was  witty up to the end. Check out some of his last work and have some empathy for  a dissapointed idealist . And remember, he was not just a comedian whose sole purpose was to make us laugh and feel good. He was a satirist and social observer with a bigger goal.