George Carlin's 'View': Wildfire Victims 'Get What's Coming to Them'

Comedian George Carlin blames the victims on the Southern California wildfires. Appearing on the October 24 edition of "The View" Carlin said, because many of these home owners "overbuild" and "put nature to the test," "they get what’s coming to them."

This rant was too much even for noted left-wing co-host Joy Behar who felt his statement was "a little harsh." Carlin continued that he "can’t wait for the sea levels to rise" and "for some of these cities to disappear." Carlin added that these people who "do all this moron stuff" are selfish and "want their toys."

Carlin should note that these homeowners who "do all this moron stuff’ were let down by their government who did not properly manage their own forests.

The transcript is below.:

GEORGE CARLIN: The planet is fine. The people are [bleeped out]. Because everyone is trying to save the planet. The planet doesn’t need that. The planet will take care of itself. People are selfish. And that's what they're doing is trying to save the planet for themselves to have a nicer place to live. They don't care about the planet in theory. They just care about having a comfortable place. And these people with the fires and the floods and everything, they overbuild, they put nature to the test and they get what's coming to them. That's what I say.

JOY BEHAR: Well, that's a little harsh.

CARLIN: That's what's happening, and I can't wait for the sea levels to rise. I can't wait for some of these cities to disappear.

SHERRI SHEPHERD: I can't swim, George.

[Laughter]

CARLIN: There are places that are going to go away. The map is going to change and that's because -- people think nature is outside of them. They don't take into them the idea that we are part of it. They say, "oh, we're going for a nature walk. We're going to the country because we like nature." Nature is in here. And if you're in tune with it, like the Indians, the Hopis, especially, the balance of life, the balance, the harmony of nature, if you understand that, you don't overbuild. You don’t do all this moron stuff. There are too many people-

BEHAR: What about the polluters? Let's go after them, the polluters, the corporations that pollute.

CARLIN: It's a symphony. Everybody is in the band. You know, it's not just one group. People are, people want their goodies. They want their toys. Everybody wants the newest gizmo. We're, we’re slaves to gizmos and toys.

Earlier in the show, Joy Behar echoed the erroneous Democratic talking point that the firefighting has been hampered by the national guard deployments in Iraq.

"Anyway, there was a guy on television on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC. Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, okay, and he was on, he’s in the middle of all of this. And he said, they asked him, ‘Bush is coming.’ They said ‘President Bush is coming on Thursday,’ and, you know he really has this reputation of screwing things up, Katrina, as well as other people who were involved in that. So he’s going to make an appearance this week, Bush. So he said ‘do you think it’s public relations rather than action?’ Chris Matthews asked this lieutenant governor, Garamendi. And he said ‘it’s public relations, of course.’ And he doesn’t even want him to come because it takes the focus out of the hard working fire fighters. So, you know, he basically said ‘stay home.’ But then he goes, listen to this, he goes ‘okay President Bush comes out. We’ll be polite. But frankly that’s not the solution. How about sending our national guard back from Iraq, so that we have those people available here to help us?’ [applause] Okay, well, just let me finish this. What happened was on Joe Scarborough and other sort of right wing personalities. They thought that, that was just disgusting. And my question to the panel is, is it disgusting or is it timely?"