George Carlin died and I think that’s too bad.
Many people (mainly comics who know more about these things than I do) have long hailed Richard Prior and Lenny Bruce as the comics who changed the face comedy and rattled everyone’s cages, but I preferred George Carlin.
Because, I related to what he had to say. I have long held that for something to be funny you have to understand it, and while that sentence may seem self-evident, I don’t think it is universally recognized. Theoretically drama is a more emotional experience and yet, I don’t think you have to relate to it in the same way you have to relate to comedy to really enjoy it.
George Carlin questioned everything and that’s something I related to. He did not think anything or anyone was so sacred or so revered as not to be open to scrutiny. I believe very little of what he verbalized has not been thought by most of us at some point. However patriotic, religious, or optimistic we may be, we all have those private moments in which we question everything that is commonly accepted, and most of what we are told we should hold as absolute.
For most people those questions are just a momentary lapse, but he didn’t hide his questions—he embraced them, dissected them, played with them, and then threw them back in our faces. The important thing is that he usually managed to keep it comical.
I am not really what you would call a “big fan” of his—I did not seek him out, either in comedy clubs or via his recordings, but when I saw that he was going to be on talk show, I often tuned in, thinking it would be both funny and thought-provoking. More often than not it was.
6 responses so far ↓
elemenohpea // Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 10:10 am
i too enjoy george carlin. although i will state that in a cd my brother owns of him, he states a few things that i find to be wrong. but, overall, he was very funny.
michelle // Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 6:00 pm
ditto on your sentiments, cat. a radio program played a previous interview of theirs with him and he said he wrote everything down. he was anal about recording things and molding them until he found them presentable.
sounds familiar for some reason…hmmm.
Anonymous // Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Have you seen his “American Dream” segment?
You Tube/Adobe Flash player/64-bit broswer briefly worked for me last night and I got to see this:
Jenny Robin // Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 10:22 pm
You won’t be surprised to know that I really didn’t care for him or his humor.
apremerson // Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 6:41 am
JRH, honestly I never know who might or might not like a particular person’s idea of entertainment.
I liked his intention even if often I did not agree with his take on a particular topic, not unlike what elemenohpea said.
apremerson // Wednesday, June 25, 2008 at 6:47 am
PS. I really think it’s hard to know. I have a friend whom I share (for the most part) very similar tastes in films and a lot of music and was shocked when asked if I wanted to join a group who was going to see a comic whom I a happen to think has as much appeal as a boiled cucumber. I am not saying who the comic is since someone is bound to think he/she is a genius.
Like gas stations in rural Texas after 10 pm, comments are closed.