Arts and Lifestyle Wednesday Presented by Cinematic Visions-Curious George
My wife and I are (finally) entering the vast world of entertainment options such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and the like, and last night she was perusing, purchasing, and exploring. And now I am sure that many of our nights in the near future are going to be taken up by the catalog of George Carlin’s HBO specials. I have seen them all previously, but most not for a long time. Last night’s entertainment was the last of his fourteen specials, “It’s Bad For Ya”. It was recorded only four months before he died in 2008. It is absolutely brilliant as is all his work, and it is incredible how sharp he is. I think far too many people think of him merely as a controversial commentator on the human condition, and don’s focus on his most brilliant attribute in my mind, his fantastic use of the English language, and not just the dirty words. He often goes through an entire performance with barely any hiccups, and he is rolling through some complicated monologues.
George Carlin was a very complicated person, and my one time seeing him in person is just one example. He was touring in conjunction with the comedy album “Occupation: Foole”. It was 1973 and I was in high school when the tour came to Framingham State College, in my home town in Massachusetts. One of the reasons that I don’t go to arena comedy shows, although I love stand-up more than just about anybody, is that it’s expensive, the sets aren’t long, and you can access the material in so many other ways. It’s not like a musical concert where the songs are often more elaborately played or extended, and the experience is far more rewarding than just the record. Well, one of those reasons stated was not part of the plan on this night.
“Foole” was the album after “Class Clown”, the breakout success for the second phase of Carlin’s career, after he had changed from being a standard, clean-cut and clean material comic, although he was pretty damn funny doing that, too. If you look at the album cover, Carlin is almost scarily skinny, and it was no real secret why. He was using a lot of cocaine at the time, and that no doubt fueled what happened that night, a show that run from 7:30 until well after midnight. No one could be relentlessly funny for that long, but he came close. However, after a while and some lags, the late hour got to some, and the sellout crowd eventually dwindled to about half. But those of us who hung in there, got the big payoff, the finale of “The Seven Dirty Words”.
That, indeed, and maybe sadly, was the bit that he is most known for, and really what shot him to the top in his counterculture period. The version of it I saw that night was very close to the original.”Seven Words That You Can Never Say on Television” from “Class Clown”. Of course the shock value of saying the words is what mostly is noted, but it’s his clever use of the words and descriptions of them that really sells it. His updated version that closes out his third, and likely most famous, HBO special “Carlin at Carnegie” is a profane virtuoso. He does the descriptive part hysterically, yes, but he then doubles down. The best comedians are quite funny aside from just their material. I usually describe this as “he/she could make me laugh reading the phone book”. (I may have to update that). After doing the first part of the bit, Carlin notes that he has added to the list and rolls out a long sheet of paper. He then just ticks of a bunch of words and phrases, no elaboration, precious little description. It’s belly-ache funny in it’s rude simplicity.
Another example of his greatness is that the “Dirty Words” bit follows the penultimate one, “Dogs and Cats”, which (although this is like picking your favorite child) is at the top of the list for me. It is an almost entirely clean perusal of the differences between the two animals. It highlights all of his abilities, from clever wordplay, to physical comedy, to just flat making funny faces. For all of the intellect that he exhibits is his comedy, he also is a first-class goofball, too. Just reading the setlist shows the variety Carlin always brought to the table. From abortion to Rice Crispies, from bad news to pet peccadillos, from filthy to silly, he could handle anything.
There is little question, that as time wore on, his work grew darker, and I know that he lost some people as time went on. That was their loss. Even when he was describing the destruction of the earth as he did in a piece later in his life, it was so rich with wordplay and cleverness amidst the anger. Many people also looked at home as super-liberal, but that was far from the case later on. No one was safe from his comic vitriol, from soccer moms, to radical environmentalists.
Carlin did branch out into the movies and television, and did some fine supporting work in films as admired as “The Princess Bride'‘, but after a few years of it he gave it up and returned to to the road. He also wrote some very successful books and I own all six of them. They are treats as well. They are generally compilations of different thoughts, lists, and jokes He is funny performing, but his material is so strong in print that reading one his books on a plane is dangerous business if you mind people giving you strange looks as you laugh out loud. A couple of the titles are quite illustrative of him. “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops” is one. Irreverent, silly, and offensive to some, it’s cover features Carlin inserted into a rendition of the Last Supper, a quizzical look on his face, and knife and fork in his hands. “Napalm and Silly Putty” is another. As serious a topic as you can get, right next store to…well…silliness. In typical Carlin fashion, he wrote an autobiography, that by design was released after his death.
Every time I watch George Carlin perform, what strikes me is how often he is right. No matter how outrageous, no matter how silly, no matter how confrontational, you are almost always left to think…..damn, that’s so true. Well, at least it is to me. And this came to me early. I was only fifteen when “Class Clown” came out. I was well on my way to losing my Catholic faith by then anyway, but if I needed a further shove, George was there to provide it. Almost the entirety of the second side of the album is his take on growing up Catholic. A brilliantly funny mashup of myriad characters, voices, and stories, it pilloried many of the absurd (and now often no longer in place) little rules to be observed, all the way to a boy asking the priest about missing church on Sunday, only to then cross the international date line,
George Carlin was one of the only celebrities that I truly mourned when he passed away at the age of 71.
He had plenty of time to bring me more wisdom and laughs. As noted earlier, he had lost none of his edge. We didn’t quite finish the final special last night before my wife went off to bed, and I can’t wait to wrap it up this evening and then dive into another one and soak up the pure genius. Sometime you need a little kick to revisit some things that are treasures in your life. He is truly that to me
I am far from alone. He has routinely been placed near the very top of lists of greatest stand-up comedians from Rolling Stone to Comedy Central and beyond. He was selected to receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor just a few days before his death, and tributes poured in from comedians young and old when he passed away. But only he passed away, his work didn’t, and we are all the richer, and wiser, for it.
His occupation may have been fool, but he sure wasn’t.