Speaking of which, I dug up some Lenny Bruce tracks recently. Wow, seriously un-funny in this day and age.
So many people right.
Carlin was never edgy or very lefty as he pretends. He strikes me as a Dennis Miller, career floundering in the middle so he found god by taking an extreme side and then just aped what other said and did it half as well. Carlin was edgy in the 60s compared to Dean Fucking Martin, and even then not really. He was edgy in the sense that twisted sister was edgy in the eighties. He was edgy for old farts who didn’t know better.
And if you are a fan now? Why? Isn’t there a carlin 78 that has everything he has ever done on it?
And yeah, I saw the HBO ad, and I would much rather not be watching the chris rock special, than not be watching the Carlin special. I pay for HBO, I want to at least have the option to not watch stuff I do want to watch to some degree.
The only thing I can say for the original post. At least he didn’t mention the anniversary party. The movie that made me realize I may have grown up. A movie that contains numerous semi-hot naked chicks, and I still thought it sucked and made me want to beat someone from Hollywood for just thinking it deservered the $6million it grossed (by the way speaking of crappy movies, the battle of shaker heights total gross was $279,282. Take that Ben Affleck)
Tom Chick, prove you didn’t go crazy Hollywood, you thought the Anniversary party sucked - right?
Chet
Chet, why on earth would you go see The Anniversary Party? It is the dark side of digital video, in that it allows for vanity projects by people who really shouldn’t have the means to be doing vanity projects.
It was funny seeing Alan Cummings playing heterosexual. And, umm, well… Okay, the only positive thing I can think of is that it was funny seeing Alan Cummings playing heterosexual.
-TomSpeaking of which, I dug up some Lenny Bruce tracks recently. Wow, seriously un-funny in this day and age.
It sorta depends on what you happened to hear. Near the end of Bruce’s career, his “routine” consisted of standing in front of an audience and reading out court transcripts from his various obscenity trials. Illuminating, perhaps, but not exactly a laugh-riot. Also, Bruce used a large degree of improvisation which inevitably leads to a certain variability from performance to performance. And, finally, his references are obviously dated.
Still, though, there’s a whole lot of funny there if you’re willing to look:
"A lot of people say to me, “Why did you kill Christ?” “I dunno… it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know. We killed him because he didn’t want to become a doctor.”
Interestingly, I don’t really disagree with anything Chet said. But I also don’t think that young Carlin was really about being ‘edgy’ or even particularly ‘lefty’. He was about being literary, in the sense that his best stuff – done before the heroin overtook him – was simply about words and their meaning. I completely agree that Carlin’s humour has deteriorated with age, and the crochety old man schtick wears thin fairly quick. To answer Chet’s question of why I still like him even though his best stuff is 30 years old, I’d probably say that I’m more a fan of his memory than I am of him now. But he is still capable of saying things that remind me why I thought (and still think) he was a great comedian ‘back in the day.’ In a sense, I like him now because he reminds me of why I really liked him before – kinda the reason I still appreciate Mick Jagger.
Sometimes – particularly after you’ve turned 40 – it’s not about edgy; it’s about comfortable shoes.
I like Carlin. Sure, he’s tended to repeat himself to some extent over his career, and his material and thesis was more shocking a couple of generations ago, but he’s nevertheless had some tremendously funny routines*, and his more recent stuff, while perhaps not as powerful, can still be quite amusing. He’s certainly head and shoulders over the average televised comic in intellect, humor, and longevity.
*This is an interesting word. It suggests, IMO accurately, that almost all comedians repeat themselves endlessly over their careers, in many cases word for word, in other cases in tone, message, and delivery.
First for the edgy=carlin. That isn’t me saying it. That is mr dangerous himself. I think he tried to be “out there” by pointing out that football and war were oh so alike… and the only crowd that would laugh at the lame “language” jokes were the anti-war crowd who would clap and yell for anyone who came near saying they shouldn’t go to vietnam.
And there he has stayed. I have never found one thing that has come out of his mouth witty, thought provoking or even near mildly amusing. Ever. And now it is worse, now it is like the other day…
I went to go see a cleveland punk band from the 70s who regrouped. But it didn’t work anymore. Instead of the angry youth yelling at the problems of the world, I kept thinking - Wow that insurance salesman is really pissed off, I bet someone didn’t put enough cream in his latte and now there will be hell to pay.
While non-stop angry is fun, trust me I am all for anger as a much needed emotion, watching the angry old guy is not funny, well not funny unless he is yelling at you because you egged his house or are sleeping with his daughter. But there comes a point in a counter-culture comedians life that he should contemplate suicide. Not for him, but for everyone else because he lost that ability to be outside of what he lambastes.
Tom. For the anniversary party. I actually fell asleep after the first 20 minutes and only woke up when my girlie kicked me and said there were nude chickies on the screen.
We got a DVD player and netflix as a gift (maybe the best xmas gift i have ever gotten) and have just gone hog wild with the movie watching, so some bad things are going to wash up. I will say, it looked nice for DV. And if you listen to the director track - did you know there are funny parts to the movie? I betcha didn’t notice them by just watching.
Chet
I liked Carlin’s silly stuff from the late 70s and early 80s. I agree with a lot of his current views on the silliness of censorship and government, but I certainly wouldn’t call it comedy.
Bill Hicks - now there was an edgy comic.
/boggle
Personally, I never had that experience with Carlin. But I can sympathize. The same experience made it impossible for me to stomach ‘Murphy Brown’.