A comedy icon passes at the end of a long and successful life.
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George Carlin
23 Jun 2008 09:40 am
Comments (28)
I have to say, the older I get the less "long" 71 seems. I suspect in 20 years, I will say "cut down in his prime".
Its a shame to see him go.
Uh, Matt. 71 is 4 years shorter than the average male life expectancy in the US. While he didn't die young, below average isn't a long life.
OH and RIP George. Shit, fuck, piss, tits, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker.
Among Carlin's many, many astute observations, " 'Tits' shouldn't be on the list."
Carlin is easily a first ballot Stand-Up Hall of Famer.
I've always though that this special, done comparatively late in his career, was his most amazing achievement, from beginning to end.
This really ruined my morning. Carlin was a comic genius and his death is a real loss because no one really can do the type of comedy that he does. I'm glad I saw him live a couple of years ago at the Beacon Theater. This is so much bigger than Russert dying, and if the press lets this pass without a quarter of the glowing tributes it gave to Russert, I will take a protest shit in the lobby of NBC studios.
Okay, maybe that's a bit extreme but you get my point. I have so many favorite Carlin lines, but to cheer the mood of anyone else depressed by this news, here's a nice positive one (to be read like an old-style college cheer":
"Rat shit, bat shit, dirty old twat;
Sixty Nine assholes tied in a knot;
Yeeaaayyyy, lizard shit, FUCK!"
RIP George. Irreplaceable.
I don't know: I think that his humor must have been generational. I just watched the first ten minutes of "Jammin' in New York" and I didn't even smile. Take out the swear words and Carlin's material isn't really that much different from Andy Rooney's. Carlin's mincing about reminds me a little of the comic that Woody Allen interviews in "Annie Hall."
I don't know: I think that his humor must have been generational. I just watched the first ten minutes of "Jammin' in New York" and I didn't even smile. Take out the swear words and Carlin's material isn't really that much different from Andy Rooney's. Carlin's mincing about reminds me a little of the comic that Woody Allen interviews in "Annie Hall."
At least Carlin didn't marry and fuck his daughter.
GeraldY said: "I think that his humor must have been generational."
I disagree. I turned 28 yesterday and I almost piss myself every time I watch a Carlin video or read one of his books (his book brain droppings is friggin hilarious. I didn't even know books could be that funny). I wouldn't say I am of Carlin's generation. Maybe you just have to be of similar background, temperament or humor. I wont go as far to say that you don't have a sense of humor, although that was my original reaction to your complete comment, but I do wonder what stand-up comedians you consider funny.
Oh and comparing him to Andy Rooney is just plain silly.
In one Carlin special I watched, his first line immediately following the opening applause was "You know what nobody talks about anymore? PUSSY FARTS!" I almost crapped myself. That has to be one of the funniest opening lines in the history of standup comedy.
PS - Not sure if this was part of the video posted earlier or not - my video is disabled at work.
The Andy Rooney + swear words comparison is certainly accurate; basically, they both did/do banal observational humor.
Carlin's trick was to create a bond with the audience by letting the members of the audience think that they were smarter than they actually were. This tendency is even more pronounced in Carlin's most obvious comedic heir, Dennis Miller.
BTW, I don't think that Allen's standup was funny either. He was at his best doing character-based humor in some of the good old movies. Then again, Allen's movies from the last 16 years have been virtually unwatchable.
"Carlin's trick was to create a bond with the audience by letting the members of the audience think that they were smarter than they actually were"
Not everyone can be as smart as you, GeraldY.
Reason has some good stuff up to: http://www.reason.com/blog/show/127136.html
as does Marc Cooper:
http://marccooper.com/all-hail-george-carlin-dead-at-71/
I'd put him up there with Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks.
'Passed'? That's the kind of bullshit he railed about. He's dead, RIP. And anyone who wants to play comedy connoisseur and wrinkle their nose at Carlin can fuck off.
I went to see Carlin on his tour last year. I found myself looking at my watch about 1/2 way through the show. I remember him from his early Carson days and the Hippy-Dippy Weatherman schtick. Then he progressed into the observational/political schtick. He had interesting things to say in the 70's. Then he just kept saying those same interesting things. Again and again and again. I remember as a child finding it fascinating that the male seahorse "gave birth" to young seahorses. Although still interesting a documentary film attesting to this oddity is a little stale after the 20th viewing. Kinda like watching George Carlin. How many damned times do you laugh at the thought somewhere on the planet is "The Mountain of Socks Lost in the Laundry"?
Gotta 2nd Carlin being a 1st Ballot Stand Up Hall of Famer...up there with Pryor, Bruce, Newhart, and Chris Rock...
In many ways he might be the best of all. Nobody did it so great, for so long....
RIP George!
Or should we say, Fuck Off!
Now he's down there, smiling up at us.
"By using this service you agree not to post material that is obscene" ha..haha....hahahahahahahahaha!!!!
Ha ha! Pseudonymous nails it on the head! The death euphemisms. As SOON as I read 'his/her' comment, I remembered Carlin's bit on dehumamizing language. (From 'shell shock' to 'PTSD', 'but you get to add a hyphen' etc)
I think as he aged he lost his edge, but he was still funny.
His rat shit bat shit shtick was amusing but not really funny, imho.
His early stuff, that Hippy Dippy Weatherman - that was just lame, awful dreck. I chalk it more up to the hideous constraints of network TV in the late 60's than to his limits as a comic.
As far as him making audiences think they're smarter than they are, that's probably true. But all entertainers want to create that sense of we're in on the bit with him, that everyone else is stupid. Carlin had a great line where he said that 'Imagine how stupid the average person is, now realize that half of them are stupider than that!"
That's clearly pandering, but that's how it works. We all point the finger and laugh. Ann Althouse (!) has some YouTubes of his A material - back in the 70s and 80s.
In Carlin's defense, I'd make a few points:
(1) Comedy is VERY tough to stay good at.
Look at how awful Robin Williams is, and how long he's been terrible. Carlin certainly aged better than him, likely because Carlin was more intelligent and a pure standup whereas WIlliams veered a hard, sloppy turn right into syrupy sentimentality with his movies and left the rigors of just you and a mike behind long ago. Remember that WIlliams was a 'genius' in the early 80s, too! Hard to believe. All that manic Cocaine-energy is especially prone to flaming out and losing your mojo.
(2) Another point is that comedy itself doesn't age well. I watched, to my amazement, a documentary about vaudeville a few months ago. It had Berle, and Red Skelton.
I was stunned at how funny those guys weren't. Skelton was so poor I had to flip channels til he came back. Just incredibly poor material that today's audiences are way, way too sophisticated for. He acted like a child in the back of a first grade class. And Skelton had the #2 show for a few years there. A pie in the face and a man in drag, ah the good old days! Krusty is funnier.
Or consider Chaplin, who in 1919 was maybe the world's most famous man. His films have some intellect to them, but I don't laugh at them, I smirk and appreciate them.
Overall, then, I'd say Carlin was a giant. He was brave in criticizing religion on Russert a few years back, and he may have went from laugh out loud funny to thoughtful and amusing, but he always had an insight at the core of his jokes. That's why his stuff has lasted as well as it has.
rollins
Ha ha! Pseudonymous nails it on the head! The death euphemisms. As SOON as I read 'his/her' comment, I remembered Carlin's bit on dehumamizing language. (From 'shell shock' to 'PTSD', 'but you get to add a hyphen' etc)
I think as he aged he lost his edge, but he was still funny.
His rat shit bat shit shtick was amusing but not really funny, imho.
His early stuff, that Hippy Dippy Weatherman - that was just lame, awful dreck. I chalk it more up to the hideous constraints of network TV in the late 60's than to his limits as a comic.
As far as him making audiences think they're smarter than they are, that's probably true. But all entertainers want to create that sense of we're in on the bit with him, that everyone else is stupid. Carlin had a great line where he said that 'Imagine how stupid the average person is, now realize that half of them are stupider than that!"
That's clearly pandering, but that's how it works. We all point the finger and laugh. Ann Althouse (!) has some YouTubes of his A material - back in the 70s and 80s.
In Carlin's defense, I'd make a few points:
(1) Comedy is VERY tough to stay good at.
Look at how awful Robin Williams is, and how long he's been terrible. Carlin certainly aged better than him, likely because Carlin was more intelligent and a pure standup whereas WIlliams veered a hard, sloppy turn right into syrupy sentimentality with his movies and left the rigors of just you and a mike behind long ago. Remember that WIlliams was a 'genius' in the early 80s, too! Hard to believe. All that manic Cocaine-energy is especially prone to flaming out and losing your mojo.
(2) Another point is that comedy itself doesn't age well. I watched, to my amazement, a documentary about vaudeville a few months ago. It had Berle, and Red Skelton.
I was stunned at how funny those guys weren't. Skelton was so poor I had to flip channels til he came back. Just incredibly poor material that today's audiences are way, way too sophisticated for. He acted like a child in the back of a first grade class. And Skelton had the #2 show for a few years there. A pie in the face and a man in drag, ah the good old days! Krusty is funnier.
Or consider Chaplin, who in 1919 was maybe the world's most famous man. His films have some intellect to them, but I don't laugh at them, I smirk and appreciate them.
Overall, then, I'd say Carlin was a giant. He was brave in criticizing religion on Russert a few years back, and he may have went from laugh out loud funny to thoughtful and amusing, but he always had an insight at the core of his jokes. That's why his stuff has lasted as well as it has.
rollins
Interesting observation about Carlin's ability to bond with his audience, to have them believe that he and they are smarter than others: of course we are against the Iraq war etc. Then he gets to the environmnent and seems to include us versus the white, rich, golfer environmentalists. I recall feeling this way in 1969 with the first Earthday sponsored by Stewart Brand; it seemed to particularly in its leadership attact those fencesitters who didn't protest the Vietnam War or get involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Almost exclusively White, not so angry, a feel good cause. Carlin is ten years older than me but I can see he identifies with how I felt. Today, though with my generation grown up and now old, the likes of Al Gore, serious, not so angry, "mature" taking on the environment, not so anti corporate; inject that Gore/Good vs. Polluters/Bad into the Carlin us v them, and the bond is not so tight for many of the audience. "What do you mean Carlin, so you're better than Al Gore? You think what he is saying is not valuable? You probably voted for Nader in 2000. Go back to your weed and let me study for my environmental final." Maybe it is partly generational.
I thought most of the New York concert was hysterical.
I disagree that old stuff is no longer funny though perhaps some of the comics may no longer be funny. Some of Robert Kline's material from the early 70's still is funny. Such as the panhandler in the wheelchair on the street yelling, "PLEASE" who Klein later sees standing up with the trunk of his car open, putting his wheelchair into it; or relating working as a waiter in Borscht Belt Hotel, following the story that the comic on stage would tell only to have the comic deliver the punch line in Yiddish; kind of like Robert Smigel today with Triumph relating the names some of the Yiddish plays his father and mother acted in in the Yiddish theater. or Bob Newhart's Bus routine, infinite amount of monkeys, Abe Lincoln,, Woody Allen's routine on negotiating for the return of his kid who has been kidnapped doing all the permutations and combinations he last beginning with, "Keep the kid..." Williams and Billy Crystal can still be funny on stage, but going for bigger things in film produced some good early films and now mostly bad stuff. And you can forget about Steve Martin or Martin Short, both kind of santimonious, Short: "I don't watch much television. . ."
So it's ok if the comic can make you feel that you and he are in it together and better than the others, but if you think the comic is saying he is better than you---is just poison. Hello, Michael Richards.
There was much more to George Carlin than the 7 dirty words routine.
His football/baseball comparison and his modern man monologue are timeless masterpieces. I hope people will remember him for these and other brilliant routines.
Rest in peace George. At least we still have Robert Klein, Denis Leary, Lewis Black, Richard Lewis, Richard Belzer, Harry Shearer, Bill Maher, Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, Mort Sahl, Garry Shandling, Larry David, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Steven Wright, and Paul Reiser alive and kicking.
Jim, points taken. I think there is a line, maybe 1970? I'm not sure where exactly, but there is a real BC/A.D. cultural line as far as laughing out loud to comedy.
There are examples, but much of the older, say 1950's or earlier humor just doesn't cut it for me. But around late 60's that stuff ages a bit better. Carlin's 1960's stuff, the little I've seen, is terrible, but his 70s stuff hits stride and is really good. I like Klein's stuff of that era as well. Interestingly, Lenny Bruce doesn't make me laugh, and he was one of the original 'sick' comics. Maybe he IS the line...
It's bigger than comedy for me, at least, because I don't really like much of what passing for 'acting' in the older films, either. Too canned and corny. I'm sure plenty will disagree with this, though. I once heard Russell Crowe discuss the famous anecdote from Marathon Man between Olivier and Hoffman about acting. Crowe made the ballsy statement that this is why Olivier's stuff doesn't hold up. (!) But I agree for the most part, after Brando's shift, I can't really take the older stuff seriously. Maybe I would if I really took my time with it.
Crystal's stuff in his prime still makes me laugh. He really has tanked, movie wise, though. Steve Martin, after Roxanne, really bottomed out too. He was a true rockstar standup, but when I watch it now, I just don't get the hilarity. And Martin has made so many weak films I stopped paying attention.
I actually like Cosby more than Bruce (!). Cobsy in Himself is a work of true genius, imho. A natural. Ah, but this old timer does ramble on.
Alot of very funny comedy of the 50's and '60's was done in nightclubs in Las Vegas but I don't believe tapes were made of them as was done with some of Richard Pryor's routines. Buddy Hackett and Shecky Greene were extremely profane and very funny but they are gone and forgotten by most people living today. The comedy records of Redd Fox (Fred Samford of '70's fame)recorded in the 50's are still funny.
When I was growing up in the 50's and 60's my people of my parent's generation complained that there was no one around who could entertain and perform like Al Jolson. For me the greatest entertainer was Sammy Davis,Jr. though Ray Charles was his equal though he didn't dance, he just swayed directing the band. After them, who? Michael Jackson? Yuck-I'm too old for him, but he is/was amazingly talented. Today? Madonna? Please, all in the production.
Oh, I forgot we were discussing George Carlin and comedy. R.I.P. George.
The great thing about Carlin was he seemed to be a real comic's comic. Sure he did movie cameos and books but he was a stand-up guy for life. And he mixed in intelligent ideas. Probably my second favorite comic of all-time after Bill Hicks, who he blazed the trail for. And of course Pryor was the man (until Superman 3 at least.)
No discussion of comics gone awry is complete without the saddest one of all...Eddie Murphy. I mean, Delirous and Raw were the two funniest goddamn standup concerts I think I have ever seen and now he does kids movies and those shameless watch-him-play-10-characters-at-once, scenes. Robin Williams was a pretty sad plight but at least he was creepy in One Hour Photo.
As a kid with my family I saw Carlin in Vegas right at the time he was shedding his straight yuckster skin for the radical iconoclast he later became. Half the act was cutesy, and the other half he was sort of tentatively tryin out new things. Once, a little after 9/11 I saw him in a small, out of the way mall men's shop that was empty and you could see he wanted to get out of there fast lest anyone see him in a mall. It was funny but he was a nice guy. Truly, one of the greats, if not the greatest stand-up ever.
Thanks, Rosenfeld, for the link. I just spent the last hour laughing my ass off.
One of the staff at one of my clients plays Carlin shows on his laptop while working evenings. So I just heard another one of his shows last week, to remind me how brilliant a performer he was.
And the reason I like Carlin is simple: his opinions are the same as mine about almost everything. He probably would have made an excellent Transhumanist. He certainly had the negative attitude about humans down pat.
"Today, though with my generation grown up and now old, the likes of Al Gore, serious, not so angry, "mature" taking on the environment, not so anti corporate; inject that Gore/Good vs. Polluters/Bad into the Carlin us v them, and the bond is not so tight for many of the audience. "What do you mean Carlin, so you're better than Al Gore? You think what he is saying is not valuable? You probably voted for Nader in 2000. Go back to your weed and let me study for my environmental final."
Guess what? He's still right. Global warming is not a problem for the planet - it's a problem for us. His last 13 minutes of the show linked above is all about that.
Yes, George Carlin is better than Al Gore. I would much prefer Gore drop dead now than George.
Comments closed July 07, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
In tribute, I say: fuck.
Posted by Al | June 23, 2008 10:02 AM