Greg Giraldo died today, four days after being hospitalized following an accidental overdose of prescription medication. He was 44.



The news was first reported by fellow comic and longtime friend Jim Norton, who tweeted a photo of the two and the message, "RIP Buddy."

That was followed by a message from The Improv comedy club: "R.I.P. Greg Giraldo ... - One of the funniest MFers every to grace a comedy stage! Will be missed by all. So sad."

And one from Sarah Silverman: "Belly-laugh hilarious, prolific, good & kind. A thousand oys can't express"

A judge on NBC's Last Comic Standing, as well as a frequent guest on The Howard Stern Show and a fixture on the Comedy Central Roast circuit, Giraldo was actually a Columbia and Harvard Law School-educated attorney who strayed from his original path to school himself in the art of insult comedy.

"How cheesy is this dais? It's not a roast, it's a melt," he said during the recent David Hasselhoff roast.

"Have you ever not been drunk?" Giraldo asked the man of the hour. "You used to have a car that started when you talked to it, now you have a car that won't start when you blow into it."

The comic struggled with alcohol addiction over the years, ultimately revealing on the Stern show in September 2005 that he had been sober, minus one slip-up, for five months.

Giraldo made more than a dozen appearances on The Late Show With David Letterman and Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and did regular stand-up at the famed Comedy Cellar and Gotham Comedy Club in New York. His Midlife Vices was voted the No. 1 comedy album of 2009 by Punchline magazine and he was a guest on Jerry Seinfeld's The Marriage Ref last season.

In a 2007 interview with Cornell University's Daily Sun, Giraldo was asked why he abandoned the law to pursue comedy.

"Jesus," he deadpanned. "It's a very complex issue, but, you know, if you really read the New Testament close, I think you'd understand."

Giraldo, who was divorced, is survived by three children.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/...today-entertainment/

A very funny man.
R.I.P.

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 09-29-2010).]

Thats really to bad, i always liked him...

So sad. Prescription overdoses are the new killer.

quote Originally posted by WhiteDevil88: So sad. Prescription overdoses are the new killer.

But I just don't know how that happens.

I have pounded HUGE fistfulls of all kinds of hell down my throat.

I guess most people don't know that the secret is to NOT go to sleep......

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 09-29-2010).]

sad
with a 2 day beard he always reminded me of Dane Cook

Sad. Way too young.

Personally, I didn't enjoy watching him, but that's too young to go. I'm shocked by this news.

quote Originally posted by Boondawg: But I just don't know how that happens. I have pounded HUGE fistfulls of all kinds of hell down my throat. The guess most people don't know that the secret is to NOT go to sleep......

...or mix alcohol with it. Way too young to die.

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: ...or mix alcohol with it. Way too young to die.

Oh, I have mixed like there was no tomorrow.
EXACTLY like there was no tomorrow.

I agree, though.

It was funny how at every roast people would make fun of how long he has been in comedy and how his comedy career STILL hadn't taken off.
Now it's just sad.

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 09-29-2010).]

Too bad, I always found him really funny. R.I.P.

Iv never really understood the "accidental overdose" thing.. Why is it when a celebrity dies from taking to much drugs weather it be perscription, or street drugs, its always "accidental" but when a regular everday person dies they are just junkies and took to much..

Plus wouldent any overdose be accidental, unless the person is trying to kill themselves.. As far as i know a druggie isnt gonna get wasted on drugs with the intention of killing themselves.

Wow.....this is sad news. I liked him on those Roast shows....never really saw his work anywhere else. Definitely way to young to die.....he wasn't a whole lot older than I am.

Really too bad, great guy and a very talented comic. Never knew about his legal background. His rants on the Roasts and Lewis Black's "Root of All Evil" immortalized him. So many of these celebrities drugging themselves to death really isn't that sad, but this one hits me like Heath Ledger, it really is a loss. The Roasts will never be the same without him, now we're really stuck with Jeff Ross and Lisa Lampanelli.

quote Originally posted by Jonesy: Iv never really understood the "accidental overdose" thing.. Why is it when a celebrity dies from taking to much drugs weather it be perscription, or street drugs, its always "accidental" but when a regular everday person dies they are just junkies and took to much.. Plus wouldent any overdose be accidental, unless the person is trying to kill themselves.. As far as i know a druggie isnt gonna get wasted on drugs with the intention of killing themselves.

That is a pretty messed up viewpoint. There are people, such as myself, who are prescribed pain medications that could potentially stop the heart. If someone is taking that kind of medication, it is easy to forget if a dosage has been taken, and then repeated. Instant overdose, not always a fatal one but it is a scary prospect. It doesn't make them a junky, celebrity status aside. I have an invention that could prevent this kind of tragedy, if only any more accidental deaths from prescription narcotics could be prevented.

As far as intentional overdoses, I can assure you that those exist. I lost an older brother almost 20 years ago to an intentional overdose of prescription anti depressants. Not everyone who takes drugs is a "druggie". That is a bit off base.

quote Originally posted by WhiteDevil88: Not everyone who takes drugs is a "druggie".

I think that's what he's trying to say. His gripe is the media only seems to draw the line at celeb = accident, nonceleb = druggie.

quote Originally posted by kwagner: I think that's what he's trying to say. His gripe is the media only seems to draw the line at celeb = accident, nonceleb = druggie.

Yep, He and Jeff are pretty much saying exactly the same thing as I read it. Celebrities get cut a lot of slack that everday people would not get.