Sunday, November 20, 2005
A Moment of Silence
I think we need to observe a moment of silence for the passing of George Carlin. Well, not the actual man, but rather for the passing of his career as a revolutionary comedian and social commentator. In fact, not only should we all observe a moment of silence, but I wish he had observed 75 minutes of silence, instead of the drivel that I watched the other night on HBO.
George Carlin's had an amazing career. I discovered him when I was in middle school. At the time, I was likely drawn in by his expert us of expletives. Of course, I knew plenty of cuss words by then, but there was something masterful about how he punctuated his point perfectly with them. As I continued to listen to him, I found him engrossing on a more intellectual level. He was a master of dissecting the English language, and analyzing why people said what they said. He used that language skill in many different ways - he used it to entertain, but also to understand the meaning behind them meaning of what people said. Because of this, he was able to be brutally honest, cutting to the core of whatever it people's words were saying about them when they were talking about other things. He was brutally funny, and revolutionary, and had a big part in forming my sense of humor. If you read this blog, you can probably tell that I'm a stickler for semantics and meaning, and I do believe that what people say is critically important - I think a large part of that comes from listening to Carlin in my formative years.
The routine that cemented him in the pantheon of great comics is the "Seven Dirty Words". Not only does it stand the test of time, but because it caused such a legal stir at the time (he cursed on the air during the day), it resulted in a slew of court cases, in which the seven dirty words are quoted in legal documents. Now that's a triumph, and completely subversive. For instance, read this document, and note how the words are explicitly identified. They're now permanently written in the annals of American legal history. Brilliant! But the routine itself is excellent. For example (not for the squeamish):
"Now the word twat is an interesting word. Twat! Yeh, right in the twat. Twat is an interesting word because it's the only one I know of, the only slang word applying to the, a part of the sexual anatomy that doesn't have another meaning to it. Like, snatch, box and pussy all have other meanings. Even in a Walt Disney movie, you can say, We're going to snatch that pussy and put him in a box and bring him on the airplane. Everybody loves it. The twat stands alone, as it should."
Crude? Yes. Irreverent? You bet. But also intelligent. Now imagine a routine like that, except not intelligent at all, and you get his most recent garbage. I guess I shouldn't complain: He stayed good for quite a while - all the way from the 70's to probably the mid-90's. In the mid 90's, I started to notice a decline, but his still had moments of brilliance. For instance, on "Jammin' In New York", from 1992, he had one of my all-time favorite bits of his. It's regarding Airline Announcements (for the most part). Here are some highlights:
- People like to sound important. Weathermen on television talk about ‘shower activity.’ Sounds more important than ‘showers.’ I even heard one guy on CNN talk about a ‘rain event.’ Swear to God, he said, “Louisiana’s expecting a rain event,” I thought, “Holy shit, I hope I can get tickets to that!”
- That’s another complaint of mine: too much use of this prefix ‘pre-,’ it’s all over the language now, ‘pre-’ this, ‘pre-’ that. “Place the turkey in a pre-heated oven.” That’s ridiculous, there’s only two states an oven can possibly exist in, heated or un-heated! ‘Pre-heated’ is a meaningless fucking term.
The whole bit is here, although it's even better when you hear him perform it. Also, I'd like to note that for the most part, the routine is clean. When he does curse, it's because it's funny. For instance, above he says " 'Pre-heated' is a meaningless fucking term." Sure, he could have left out the "fucking", but it nicely punctuated the punch line. A good use of the word, and not egregious. It also emphasizes the absurdity of the whole thing. Good comics don't needto be crude to be funny - they use "dirty" words as an effective tool in their ample repertoire of language.
It was sad to watch him fade away. "Jammin' In New York" was probably his last great album, and even that album had a lot of unnecessary silliness on it at the end. Subsequent albums had moments of hilarity, but for the most part he ranted about how stupid everyone is, over and over again. And when his routines weren't funny, his cursing just seemed stupid. Furthermore, where he used to be subtle and subversive, he was just overly blunt.
The best stuff he's done in the past 10 years is probably his material related to religion. Now, partly I like it because it nicely sums up some of my beliefs about how religion originated, and partly because it's just funny. But it's interesting to note that he's forced to make overt points about religion, whereas in his more skilled days, he'd imply those points - more subversive, and funnier. (He has a lot of early material about being Roman Catholic and attending Catholic school. Nonetheless, here's one of my favorite recent bits:
"Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it, religion has actually convinced people that there's an INVISIBLE MAN...LIVING IN THE SKY...who watches every thing you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten special things that he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever 'til the end of time...but he loves you."
Good stuff. Not subtle, but still solid. He still does cut to the quick at times. He has another routine (here) about how we only need two Commandments, not ten. When discussing "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbors' Goods", he says it's stupid because "Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going!" Funny! True! But then he keeps going: "Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays 'O Come All Ye Faithful', and you want one too!" Why? Why keep going? It's so much less funny and unnecessary. *Sigh*
So, I think to me, it's much easier to pretend that George Carlin is dead. He lived a decent life, endured some hardship, and was a brilliant comedian. It's a shame he got hit by that truck in 1999. We'll miss you, George. Thanks for the memories.
George Carlin's had an amazing career. I discovered him when I was in middle school. At the time, I was likely drawn in by his expert us of expletives. Of course, I knew plenty of cuss words by then, but there was something masterful about how he punctuated his point perfectly with them. As I continued to listen to him, I found him engrossing on a more intellectual level. He was a master of dissecting the English language, and analyzing why people said what they said. He used that language skill in many different ways - he used it to entertain, but also to understand the meaning behind them meaning of what people said. Because of this, he was able to be brutally honest, cutting to the core of whatever it people's words were saying about them when they were talking about other things. He was brutally funny, and revolutionary, and had a big part in forming my sense of humor. If you read this blog, you can probably tell that I'm a stickler for semantics and meaning, and I do believe that what people say is critically important - I think a large part of that comes from listening to Carlin in my formative years.
The routine that cemented him in the pantheon of great comics is the "Seven Dirty Words". Not only does it stand the test of time, but because it caused such a legal stir at the time (he cursed on the air during the day), it resulted in a slew of court cases, in which the seven dirty words are quoted in legal documents. Now that's a triumph, and completely subversive. For instance, read this document, and note how the words are explicitly identified. They're now permanently written in the annals of American legal history. Brilliant! But the routine itself is excellent. For example (not for the squeamish):
"Now the word twat is an interesting word. Twat! Yeh, right in the twat. Twat is an interesting word because it's the only one I know of, the only slang word applying to the, a part of the sexual anatomy that doesn't have another meaning to it. Like, snatch, box and pussy all have other meanings. Even in a Walt Disney movie, you can say, We're going to snatch that pussy and put him in a box and bring him on the airplane. Everybody loves it. The twat stands alone, as it should."
Crude? Yes. Irreverent? You bet. But also intelligent. Now imagine a routine like that, except not intelligent at all, and you get his most recent garbage. I guess I shouldn't complain: He stayed good for quite a while - all the way from the 70's to probably the mid-90's. In the mid 90's, I started to notice a decline, but his still had moments of brilliance. For instance, on "Jammin' In New York", from 1992, he had one of my all-time favorite bits of his. It's regarding Airline Announcements (for the most part). Here are some highlights:
- People like to sound important. Weathermen on television talk about ‘shower activity.’ Sounds more important than ‘showers.’ I even heard one guy on CNN talk about a ‘rain event.’ Swear to God, he said, “Louisiana’s expecting a rain event,” I thought, “Holy shit, I hope I can get tickets to that!”
- That’s another complaint of mine: too much use of this prefix ‘pre-,’ it’s all over the language now, ‘pre-’ this, ‘pre-’ that. “Place the turkey in a pre-heated oven.” That’s ridiculous, there’s only two states an oven can possibly exist in, heated or un-heated! ‘Pre-heated’ is a meaningless fucking term.
The whole bit is here, although it's even better when you hear him perform it. Also, I'd like to note that for the most part, the routine is clean. When he does curse, it's because it's funny. For instance, above he says " 'Pre-heated' is a meaningless fucking term." Sure, he could have left out the "fucking", but it nicely punctuated the punch line. A good use of the word, and not egregious. It also emphasizes the absurdity of the whole thing. Good comics don't needto be crude to be funny - they use "dirty" words as an effective tool in their ample repertoire of language.
It was sad to watch him fade away. "Jammin' In New York" was probably his last great album, and even that album had a lot of unnecessary silliness on it at the end. Subsequent albums had moments of hilarity, but for the most part he ranted about how stupid everyone is, over and over again. And when his routines weren't funny, his cursing just seemed stupid. Furthermore, where he used to be subtle and subversive, he was just overly blunt.
The best stuff he's done in the past 10 years is probably his material related to religion. Now, partly I like it because it nicely sums up some of my beliefs about how religion originated, and partly because it's just funny. But it's interesting to note that he's forced to make overt points about religion, whereas in his more skilled days, he'd imply those points - more subversive, and funnier. (He has a lot of early material about being Roman Catholic and attending Catholic school. Nonetheless, here's one of my favorite recent bits:
"Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it, religion has actually convinced people that there's an INVISIBLE MAN...LIVING IN THE SKY...who watches every thing you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten special things that he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever 'til the end of time...but he loves you."
Good stuff. Not subtle, but still solid. He still does cut to the quick at times. He has another routine (here) about how we only need two Commandments, not ten. When discussing "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbors' Goods", he says it's stupid because "Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going!" Funny! True! But then he keeps going: "Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays 'O Come All Ye Faithful', and you want one too!" Why? Why keep going? It's so much less funny and unnecessary. *Sigh*
So, I think to me, it's much easier to pretend that George Carlin is dead. He lived a decent life, endured some hardship, and was a brilliant comedian. It's a shame he got hit by that truck in 1999. We'll miss you, George. Thanks for the memories.
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