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(Author’s Note: While my blogs are mostly PG in nature, this one has more foul language/references than normal. If you’re sensitive towards this, then leave now. If you’re not, then enjoy/appreciate the show!)
Exactly three years ago today, the world lost perhaps its greatest comedian. On June 22nd 2008, George Denis Patrick Carlin, whose career spanned more than fifty years across all sorts of mediums, passed away at the age of 71 due to heart failure.
If George himself had to comment on the way he passed, he’d note two things. First off, he’d probably why it took so long, because number two, he had THREE prior heart attacks and technically he had a fourth leading to the heart failure. As the twisting of the old saying goes, “The fourth time’s the charm!”
Now it goes beyond saying this won’t be a full-on biographical piece because, well, he wrote his own autobiography to supplement three books of comedic material.
However, I will tell you how this certain comedian has affected this blogger’s life, kind of like a modified Ken Burns documentary.
My earliest moments of Mr. Carlin can be owed to something called HBO on Demand. In 2004, when this sort of thing was still kind of new, my parents subscribed to the service mostly because they wanted to catch up on ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Sex in the City’.
What they didn’t realize was that their children, whose youngest was now about 15, was about to stumble across their favorite comedian/entertainer.
If I remember correctly, the first special I remember seeing of his might have been ‘Complaints and Grievances’, which at this point was also his newest material.
While he was “thinking” of suggestions to help the government combat terrorism in the form of the F.A.R.T squad, he also made a list of “People who Oughta Be Killed”.
For my birthday that year, I made a Amazon wish list to my mom and dad and this item came up. Surprisingly, they got it, and jumping ahead a little bit, ‘Jammin’ in New York’ off that disc is the special I’m watching while writing this.
Why you ask?
In my opinion (and his, from his autobiography), ‘Jammin’ is his best work. Originally aired on HBO in 1992, this special felt like the comedian equivalent of a centipede becoming a butterfly, but only in a harsher, more aggressive sense.
From the prior special of “Doin' It Again” (whose CD equivalent is a big-ass label of Parental Advisory), it seemed like Carlin’s material took a major swing. In addition to more straight-up political material found on “What Am I Doing in New Jersey?”, there were more crude sexual and analytical/philosophical material that while lost some fans, made more at the same time. “Again” seemed like a fine tune before the big day, although that special also comes highly recommended from me.
“Jammin’” is one of those works of material that every stand-up album should aspire to be. George zeroes in on his material like a hawk on unsuspecting prey, and the results are glorious.
For example, his opening bit is about “Rockets and Penises in the Persian Gulf”. Essentially, this material deals with the then-war that H.W was fighting. “This will not be another Vietnam! We’re not pulling out! We’re going all the way!” Immediately, Carlin points out that the President was using the sexual slang of a thirteen-year-old to describe his foreign policy.
Nearly 20 years later, NOTHING has changed. This material has aged better than Ann Margaret from “Grumpy Old Men”.
Skipping around a little bit, about fourteen minutes into the show comes my all-time favorite Carlin bit. Lasting an astonishing SEVENTEEN minutes, “Airline Announcements” deals with hypocrisies and double-standards in the airline industry, not only with flights but also with dialogue used on pre-flight descriptions, airline food, etc.
“Get on the plane, get on the plane! I say FUCK YOU, I’m getting IN the plane! In the plane! Let Evel Knievel get on the plane, I’ll stay in here with you folks in uniform, there seems to be less WIND in here!”
If you think the special ends it’s good material there, you’re sadly mistaken.
George, while re-using some old ditties, makes fun in an original way of certain eating diseases in America.
“Only in America can make up the disease of BULLEMIA! This is the only country where we have people looking in the dumpsters looking for a peach pit, and we have other people eating a nice meal and puking up intentionally!”
Again, this material has aged really well. As well as the treatment he gives on golf courses being demolished so homeless shelters can be built in their place.
Just because I really want to put it in here due to me being a NASCAR fan, he notes how auto racing is the only thing where you can see a 23 car collision and not be in the son of a bitch. Well, here’s one!
His finale deals with how the planet will deal with us, and be even better than okay when we’re all gone. Very philosophical, he notes how we’re all the planet’s children and needed us to do certain things. “The big electron, whoooOOOOOooooooo"…”
Seriously, after I saw this special for the first time, I had to listen to it. And I was STILL as mesmerized as the prior watching. If even you’re barely a Carlin fan, OWN THAT SPECIAL!
As a side-anecdote, this special had such the lasting impact it served as majority of my final project in my website-making class in high school back in 2007. Although I got a 95 on it mainly due to lack of “flash”, it still made my teacher laugh at my work the hardest.
In not much more detail, I think Carlin’s stuff between 1988 (‘Jersey’)-1996 (‘Back in Town’) is his best stuff. It’s not the “hippy dippy” stuff like his 60s through mostly radical-80s material, but its also not as darkly depressing as most of his later works would become. There’s a balance reached in creativity and execution that just makes all those specials incredibly joyous to listen to.
From Margaret Thatcher wearing a dildo (I’m not making that up kids), to Mickey Mouse stuffing his hand down Goofy’s pants (again, his words not mine), Carlin was as equally silly as serious, and thus only compliments the point of creative balance.
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At this time, I would also acknowledge I had the privilege of watching George perform. It was November 5th, 2004 at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York.
It was his material leading up to the “Life is Worth Losing” special, which would be recorded about a year later.
While I’ve been mostly positive about his work, this material was actually amongst his worst. Unrelentingly dark and crude, it seemed as if he was in a creative flux/he was getting old, and therefore made it feel ominous the whole way through.
That being said, George’s worst work is still much better than most comedians’ best. At least “Losing” gave us this:
His last special, “It’s Bad for Ya”, was a bit brighter in the material. Instead of being somewhat afraid of being older, he embraces it like a lost child.
While it was saddening that it would be his last special, at least he didn’t end with ‘Life’. That would have been a real bummer.
Another solid memory of Carlin’s career from my view was when I got the album “A Place For My Stuff”. There were multiple ‘Announcement’ tracks, with one in particular catching my attention.
Dealing with a Saturday morning television show, it talked about starving Indians walking through Utah in horrible weather only to find they don’t live there. The topper was this, “And next week, don’t forget to watch Ranger Dan and his big dog Dick, or Ranger Dan and his big dog dick!” Such a line apropo of nothing, I couldn’t help but show my brother this, and his reaction was more hysterical than mine!
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When I learned the news of Carlin’s passing, I just came home from the NHRA Supernationals in Englishtown, New Jersey. That day was already quite sad, because the NHRA community lost Scott Kalitta due to a horrifying crash the day before. So to learn a talented racer and my favorite comedian dying within 24 hours of each other was quite the emotional trampling for yours truly.
However, instead of truly mourning his loss, I celebrated his tenure of existence. He gave us more than 50 years of entertainment, 14 HBO specials with even more albums than that, yet he stayed as relevant as ever throughout.
So here’s to you Mr. Carlin, “The Icebox Man”, who has since entered heaven with Rice Krispies yelling, “Snap, Crackle, Fuck Him!”
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