Entertainment Tonight is reporting (oh, NYT now, too) that George Carlin has passed away at the age of 71. As a comedian, he followed in the footsteps of Lenny Bruce, confronting audiences with taboo language and rattling the cage of the status quo. I should probably have been his publicist, rattling the cage of the status quo, what am I talking about? He also appeared regularly on the Tonight Show, and was the first host of Saturday Night Live. Perhaps most notably he played the time-traveling mentor Rufus in the Bill and Ted movies.

“All we are is dust in the wind, dude.” Goodbye, George Carlin.