Jerry Seinfeld on the death this week of George Carlin:

You could certainly say that George downright invented modern American stand-up comedy in many ways. Every comedian does a little George. I couldn’t even count the number of times I’ve been standing around with some comedians and someone talks about some idea for a joke and another comedian would say, “Carlin does it.” I’ve heard it my whole career: “Carlin does it,” “Carlin already did it,” “Carlin did it eight years ago.”…

I know George didn’t believe in heaven or hell. Like death, they were just more comedy premises. And it just makes me even sadder to think that when I reach my own end, whatever tumbling cataclysmic vortex of existence I’m spinning through, in that moment I will still have to think, “Carlin already did it.”

It takes a comedian to deftly eulogize another comedian’s death, comedically. Well done.

Incidentally, NBC will be rerunning the very first episode of “Saturday Night Live” from 1975 this Saturday, in honor of inaugural host George Carlin. It’ll be the first time I’ve set aside a Saturday night to watch “SNL” in many a moon.