Why George Carlin is Awesome
One of my great loves outside of writing is Stand-Up Comedy. I love listening to Stand-Up, and I probably listen to more Stand-Up than I do music. There's just something enjoyable about listening to someone weave words and tell stories, seemingly extemporaneously, with the main intention of making you laugh.
I admire (and envy) Stand-Ups for their ability to do what they do. I can barely speak to people (that's why I write), and I couldn't stand performing music when I was in school. Being the center of attenion is not my idea of a good time. So I'm in awe of people who can do it.
I have a lot of Stand-Ups I listen to regularly, and I'm constantly finding new ones to enjoy. I'm a genuine fan. However, I wouldn't have become a fan had I not begun listening to the comedy one particular comedian.
That comedian was the one and only George Carlin.
I have my father to thank for introducing me to care, thus beginning my addiction to the artform.
My dad and I have a surprisingly close relationship. Like all fathers, I think he has a different relationship with each of his three kids, but ours is the only one I have firsthand knowledge of. We're very similar in temperament, fairly laid-back and solitary. We're also both quiet unless we're around people we know very well or find ourselves in a social situation that requires us to be more demonstrative. I think my dad saw this in me from an early age, this similarity of personality. So, as a result, he typically chose me to accompany him whenever he had to do something. (Consequently, my mother became aware of this to the point that, even when my dad hadn't asked me to help him with something or going somewhere with him, she insisted on me do so anyway, if only to look after him).
I am the Hardy to my father's Laurel.
(There is, by the way, one difference between dad and I. He loves shopping and I can't stand it. I'm a "man on a mission" sort of person, who goes someplace to obtain something specific and gets out quickly. My dad, conversely, is a peruser. He likes looking over things and comparing prices. So, I can fairly say, I'm not a complete carbon copy of him).
Anyway, dad and I were coming back from visiting our relatives outside Jefferson City, MO (he's the family tech support for everyone there), and as we were driving, he happened to bring up George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television," Carlin's most famous routine. If I recall correctly, the reason for this was that a radio personality we were listening to during the drive happened to bring up the concept of censorship in American Media.
I had never heard Carlin's routine, but to paraphrase the immortal words of Curly Howard, I knew all the words (you can't attend public school in America and not pick them up).
Subsequently, I went home, logged onto YouTube, and found a clip (see here for the routine).
Having had no experience with Stand-Up, I was enthralled. I was laughing like a maniacal hyena the first time I listened to it. From then, I was hooked. I wanted more Carlin, and goddamn did I find it.
The first full HBO special of I actually watched though was his 1992 special "Jammin' in New York," and after that, I just bounced around. I went through all of his specials from the 90s and the 2000s and then rebounded to the specials he recorded in the the 70s and 80s. For maybe, two years, I watched and rewatched all of Carlin's comedy, memorizing whole routines, lines, and bits from all 14 HBO specials, some of which I can still recite word perfect as he'd performed them to this day. (If could be safely said that I was obsessed).
After that long, however, I stopped laughing at his stuff.
Instead, I started listening and studying his comedy.
Carlin was unlike most comedians I listened to subsequently because of one thing. He never used his own life as fodder for his comedy.
Most comedians usually followed the lead of Richard Pryor (another comic I might talk about in the future), who specialized in telling stories about his own life. They then use dark experience as a jumping off point to make a larger point about society or sometimes just as a way of pointing out their own flaws. In other words, they were always the but of the joke.
Carlin didn't do that. His focus was always on the world around him, not on himself. He was the guy pointing stuff out and saying, in the funniest possible way, "Look at that. Isn't that weird? Isn't that fucked up? Isn't that fucking stupid? Who decided that was a good idea?"Sometimes this focus would be on little things, like airport safety lectures and the antics of cats and dogs. Other times, his focus was on the ridiculous language we use to disguise the truth (euphemism was a prominent motif of his). Sometimes, still, it would be on even bigger issues of society, like Religion, Race, the Pro-Life Debate, or Warfare.
(A perfect example of the latter two coming together is his mini-rant about the bullshit that is PTSD).
Carlin wasn't just interested in making you laugh, especially in the shows he recorded in the last two decades of his career. He also wanted to make you think and help you see just how absurd certain aspects of human society were (and are).
Those late shows, from 1990 until 2008, changed my thinking in particular.
He helped me to see the absurdity of thinking of certain words as bad and others as good. Words are tools of human making; it's how you choose to employ them that determines what kind of power they possess. They're malleable, and a person may use them for good or for ill. If you're smart you'll be able to see the difference.
He also helped me see the absurdities of certain social institutions and concepts. I question things a lot more than I did when I was a kid. I don't take things a face value very often, and I don't get along with authority very well, especially when such figures attempt to be condescending.
Some people called him a philosopher after he died. I think he would've thought of that title as pretentious bullshit. He might have just been happy with the title of Comic. If he were still around today, he'd have plenty of stuff to talk about, and I'd watch every one of his new hours.
The result of my saturation in Carlin's comedy is that he is now the bar for me. Every comedian I listen to now has to rise to his level of quality comedy. You can be yourself and do your own thing as a comic in my eyes, just so long as you don't phone it in.
Carlin is my measuring stick, and if you don't measure up or if you try to play fast and loose with the truth, I'm calling bullshit.
*No copyright infringment intended. All images are the property of their creators and owners.*
I admire (and envy) Stand-Ups for their ability to do what they do. I can barely speak to people (that's why I write), and I couldn't stand performing music when I was in school. Being the center of attenion is not my idea of a good time. So I'm in awe of people who can do it.
I have a lot of Stand-Ups I listen to regularly, and I'm constantly finding new ones to enjoy. I'm a genuine fan. However, I wouldn't have become a fan had I not begun listening to the comedy one particular comedian.That comedian was the one and only George Carlin.
I have my father to thank for introducing me to care, thus beginning my addiction to the artform.
My dad and I have a surprisingly close relationship. Like all fathers, I think he has a different relationship with each of his three kids, but ours is the only one I have firsthand knowledge of. We're very similar in temperament, fairly laid-back and solitary. We're also both quiet unless we're around people we know very well or find ourselves in a social situation that requires us to be more demonstrative. I think my dad saw this in me from an early age, this similarity of personality. So, as a result, he typically chose me to accompany him whenever he had to do something. (Consequently, my mother became aware of this to the point that, even when my dad hadn't asked me to help him with something or going somewhere with him, she insisted on me do so anyway, if only to look after him).
I am the Hardy to my father's Laurel.
(There is, by the way, one difference between dad and I. He loves shopping and I can't stand it. I'm a "man on a mission" sort of person, who goes someplace to obtain something specific and gets out quickly. My dad, conversely, is a peruser. He likes looking over things and comparing prices. So, I can fairly say, I'm not a complete carbon copy of him).
Anyway, dad and I were coming back from visiting our relatives outside Jefferson City, MO (he's the family tech support for everyone there), and as we were driving, he happened to bring up George Carlin's "Seven Words You Can't Say on Television," Carlin's most famous routine. If I recall correctly, the reason for this was that a radio personality we were listening to during the drive happened to bring up the concept of censorship in American Media.
I had never heard Carlin's routine, but to paraphrase the immortal words of Curly Howard, I knew all the words (you can't attend public school in America and not pick them up).
Subsequently, I went home, logged onto YouTube, and found a clip (see here for the routine).
Having had no experience with Stand-Up, I was enthralled. I was laughing like a maniacal hyena the first time I listened to it. From then, I was hooked. I wanted more Carlin, and goddamn did I find it.
The first full HBO special of I actually watched though was his 1992 special "Jammin' in New York," and after that, I just bounced around. I went through all of his specials from the 90s and the 2000s and then rebounded to the specials he recorded in the the 70s and 80s. For maybe, two years, I watched and rewatched all of Carlin's comedy, memorizing whole routines, lines, and bits from all 14 HBO specials, some of which I can still recite word perfect as he'd performed them to this day. (If could be safely said that I was obsessed).
After that long, however, I stopped laughing at his stuff.
Instead, I started listening and studying his comedy.
Carlin was unlike most comedians I listened to subsequently because of one thing. He never used his own life as fodder for his comedy.
Most comedians usually followed the lead of Richard Pryor (another comic I might talk about in the future), who specialized in telling stories about his own life. They then use dark experience as a jumping off point to make a larger point about society or sometimes just as a way of pointing out their own flaws. In other words, they were always the but of the joke.
Carlin didn't do that. His focus was always on the world around him, not on himself. He was the guy pointing stuff out and saying, in the funniest possible way, "Look at that. Isn't that weird? Isn't that fucked up? Isn't that fucking stupid? Who decided that was a good idea?"Sometimes this focus would be on little things, like airport safety lectures and the antics of cats and dogs. Other times, his focus was on the ridiculous language we use to disguise the truth (euphemism was a prominent motif of his). Sometimes, still, it would be on even bigger issues of society, like Religion, Race, the Pro-Life Debate, or Warfare.
(A perfect example of the latter two coming together is his mini-rant about the bullshit that is PTSD).
Those late shows, from 1990 until 2008, changed my thinking in particular.
He helped me to see the absurdity of thinking of certain words as bad and others as good. Words are tools of human making; it's how you choose to employ them that determines what kind of power they possess. They're malleable, and a person may use them for good or for ill. If you're smart you'll be able to see the difference.
He also helped me see the absurdities of certain social institutions and concepts. I question things a lot more than I did when I was a kid. I don't take things a face value very often, and I don't get along with authority very well, especially when such figures attempt to be condescending.
Some people called him a philosopher after he died. I think he would've thought of that title as pretentious bullshit. He might have just been happy with the title of Comic. If he were still around today, he'd have plenty of stuff to talk about, and I'd watch every one of his new hours.
The result of my saturation in Carlin's comedy is that he is now the bar for me. Every comedian I listen to now has to rise to his level of quality comedy. You can be yourself and do your own thing as a comic in my eyes, just so long as you don't phone it in.
Carlin is my measuring stick, and if you don't measure up or if you try to play fast and loose with the truth, I'm calling bullshit.
*No copyright infringment intended. All images are the property of their creators and owners.*
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