Maybe this isn’t timely, but the guy is still dead, so to me it is.  I never saw Greg Giraldo live.  I don’t see all that many comedians live, but Greg Giraldo was definitely one of the ones who was on the list.  I’ve seen Louis CK, and the Viking and I already have tickets to see Doug Stanhope in Chicago at the end of the month.

We may not be able to see him (because we won’t be in Chicago), but “No Refunds” is a show I can see over and over and over.  That’s a big deal for someone who gives her books away after she reads them once.  I know “No Refunds” by heart, which is one of the reasons it may be really annoying to watch it for the first time with me.  I start to laugh before the punchline.  Hell, I start to laugh before the setup.  One of the smartest, most fucked up, funniest comedians.

One of the most fucked up.  While I’ve not seen a whole lot of stand-up comedians live, I know about them.  Silly, I know, but I follow careers via podcast.  If you want to check some of ‘em out, look over there on the right.  I also know about movies via podcast, but very rarely go to see movies in theaters.  People annoy the shit out of me, and comedy clubs and movie theaters are where especially annoying fuckwads seem to congregate.

So I’ve figured out that most – if not all – good stand-up comedians are fucked up.  There’s something about the need to make people laugh that goes along with being self-destructive.  I get it.  I’ve got it, to a degree.  I’m not funny enough to do stand-up, but I put myself out there (hello, you’re reading this) in a similar – albeit much safer – way.  I’ve even been on stage, when I’ve done Bawdy Storytelling.

Greg Giraldo was not only funny, but also smart as hell.  He went to Harvard Law School, and because he was smart, didn’t practice law for all that long.  Maybe y’all don’t put much credence in that, but know that getting into, and graduating from, Harvard Law is no small feat.  Our most recent former president couldn’t get into law school in a state where his family had significant influence (that’s the latter Bush and University of Texas Law School for those of you who don’t know).

It was his smart, topical, biting humor that I loved.  The kind you can hear in “Underwear Goes Inside the Pants.”  Yeah, he was on Comedy Central roasts, and even “Last Comic Standing,” but I tried to ignore that.  He was smarter than that, and it was obvious he was doing those things because he needed to make a living.  Hey, we’re all sellouts in some way; we all have to sell a little of our souls in order to eat.

Also, I thought he was hot.  There’s something about a smart, cynical, funny, fucked-up Latino guy that’ll get me every time ….

He died of a prescription drug overdose.  I’ve seen (on Twitter) people joke that it’s pretty hard to accidentally die of a prescription drug overdose.  I’ve heard (on podcasts) that it must have been illegal drugs on which he overdosed.  No, you fucktards, it’s easy to take prescription drugs in a manner not prescribed.

Prescription drugs are still drugs.  Just because they’ve been prescribed does not mean they’re safe.  Alcohol is a legal drug and I’ve overdosed on it.  My friend Jesús died of a prescription drug overdose.  In the past I might have taken prescription drugs in a manner not prescribed and had blackouts of the kind that made me thank the powers that be that I ended up in my own bed either alone or with someone I actually knew.  And made me glad I had woken up at all.

Thing is, we don’t really know what the various prescription drugs can do.  We know what the commercials say.  We know what the prescription inserts say.  But none of those give us a clue as to what happens when we swallow the pills with a couple of Jack and Cokes.  How many people – famous and otherwise – have died because of the wrong combination of drugs (sometimes including alcohol) that they had taken many times before?  Off the top of my head I can think of Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, Jesús Vargas, Anna Nicole Smith, Anna Nicole Smith’s son, and Michael Jackson.  There are countless others.

Doug Stanhope has an excellent point in his post about Greg Giraldo.  We know what a couple of drinks will do to a person, but we have no clue what a couple of drinks plus a combination of prescription drugs will do to a person.  Or just the prescription drugs taken in a manner not prescribed.  Or taken in a manner prescribed, but with side effects.

Shit happens.  And shit happens to smart people.  Smart people may have it worse because they know how stupid it is what they’re doing.  A (somewhat former) friend with whom I went to law school was smart, which is why she was so ashamed of how stupid she was to stay in an abusive relationship.  The kind of abusive that found her spending the night at my house more than once because she was worried for her personal safety.  Jesús was smart.  He just did something so stupid that he didn’t wake up, ever.

Greg Giraldo was smart.  He just did something so stupid that he won’t wake up, ever.

I swear.  True story.

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