Steve Martin is the first comedian I mimicked, whose work I eagerly bought up, whose routines I (pathetically) aped in my room. Richard Pryor was the most lacerating and challenging (the impact of which hasn’t faded, whenever I rewatch), but man he was funny, even when I got the edge and anger more than the punchline; Richard Belzer’s breezy nihilism (on a talk show, no less!) gave the adolescent Reynolds too much confidence in his own sarcasm, and; Albert Brooks was the guy I loved to love ’cause so few other people seemed to know him (or, as often, understood or found him funny)–my god, a parody of the Mr. Jaws records that was patently unfunny?–Brilliance!
But George Carlin. Ah, damn. I can come upon an old routine–about planes, pieces of corn in shit, God (“But he loves you!”), the infamous seven words and the lovely extended riff of further words (“Mongolian cluster-fuck” the one that sticks with me)–and I pull up short and watch, as I did about seventeen times today, and they still make me laugh. Routines from the ‘seventies, ‘eighties, ‘nineties, and more recently–funny, pushy, witty, biting stuff in each decade. No one pitched as neatly smart and silly and scatological as Carlin.
I came to Carlin late, discovering his specials replayed on HBO where I could watch him age twenty years in the space of a weekend. I liked his observational humor (his remark about drivers that go faster and slower than you seems on the money every time I am in my car), and some of his football routines, especially one about the Raiders, were wonderful. I admired his wordplay too, but he never quite spoke to me the way Bill Hicks did. I think I like my comics angry, and Carlin was too mocking to be really angry. His political humor was sly rather than devastating. But he was consistently strong over a long period of time.
i can’t remember if i discovered george carlin or monty python first. i did encounter them both around the same time, and both courtesy a friend one year senior in high school. the python was “the soundtrack to the trailer of ‘monty python and the holy grail'”, and the carlin was the album with the seven words you can’t say on television bit (class clown?). i think the pythons and their comedy of the absurd grabbed onto more of my teenage soul in the end, but carlin was a bigger revelation then. it wasn’t just because he swore so much; it was that non-stop mouth making stuff up as he was going along. sure it was a shtick but it didn’t feel like one then, and it didn’t feel like one when i got to the u.s and caught up with more of his work.
he was the first stand-up i’d ever heard (stand-up is only now beginning to make an appearance as a performance genre in india) and i’ve yet to see or hear anyone better. there are people who make me laugh more but almost no one as smart and funny as he was. and unlike most smart comedians he was not smug. his jokes acknowledged his audience’s intelligence–he never talked down to anyone, and always assumed we were ready to go out on that transgressive ledge with him; which made it easier to go along.
my favourite show remains jammin’ in new york–the first full-length special i saw. the stuff on the gulf war is devastating, as is the absurdist anger (there’s that connection to the pythons) about the plight of the homeless, and the degradation of language.
here’s a bunch of stuff from that show (click on the links if the embedded videos don’t work):
“the gulf war”
“solving the homeless problem”
and here’s the great airplane/airport announcements bit that mike’s post title is taken from.
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/brainstorm/200806/george-carlins-last-interview%20