Carlin was the first comedian I ever saw. When I was a kid Nickelodeon the american childrens network would intercut short 2-3 minute comedy segments in between shows. I always laughed the hardest at Carlin. Later I realized how crazy it was that this kids network was using him - I mean using the clean parts of his routine but still. Ah the early days of cable. Not to tangent though - Carlin is awesome - the world is less with his loss.

Besides his standup -- he did other cool things, like he was one of the voices of the conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine (along with Ringo Starr and Alec Baldwin).