George Carlin

George Carlin was the most original, out-of-the-box, courageous comedian of our era. And yet the one time I met him it was when he was doing a sitcom. He was soft-spoken, friendly, and quite unassuming...until he opened his mouth and you realized immediately that this was a brilliant very special man.

The gift of humor is being able to see things in a different, slightly askew way. Carlin's view of life, society, politics, and the human condition was unique and yet so recognizable as true.

We have lost a genius -- comic and otherwise. We have also lost our greatest Bullshit Detector.