George Carlin: I Like it When a Lot of People Die

George Carlin was a one trick pony. All he had were the famous obscene words that he put on an album back in the 1960s, and got taken to the Supreme Court for obscenity. So every show he spends 15 minutes rhyming dirty words, like that is funny? The rest of his show is talking about how most people should commit suicide, because life sucks and the system will never be fixed. Really funny stuff.

George Carlin remains the King of HBO comedy and refuses to relinquish his crown with GEORGE CARLIN: LIFE IS WORTH LOSING. Carlin continues to be the master observer of all that is good and evil and twisted in the world. He opened this set with an extremely long poem about himself, utilizing every pop-cliché that we have become accustomed to hearing these days and has a way of making most of these clichés sound banal and silly. Carlin also does something in this special that I liked that he rarely does: he referenced a joke from an earlier concert because he got mail from people who didn't understand it and chose to explain it here. You don't see that often. This show, like all of Carlin's shows, is scathingly accurate and roll-on-the-floor funny, but this one seems to have a darker theme floating over it than most of his shows. The majority of the material seems to be centered around subjects like death, dying, suicide, murder, and other cheery topics, yet, as always when watching George, I found myself laughing my ass off and agreeing with everything he says because after all these years of pushing the comedic envelope, one constant that has never changed with George is that everything he says is absolutely correct.

All I have to say is that "Life Is Worth Losing", if you had to sit through George Carlin's new stand up. I am a huge fan of his past HBO stand up's but this one made me go to sleep. He has just lost his touch, it's a shame what rehab will do to you. The comedy was really just not there, the delivery was not sharp, stuttering over lines, reading of cues, just not Carlin humor. Yes the show had it's up's, but very few, and none of them where worth repeating the next day. I hope this new clean cut Carlin takes a drink and a couple pills, because this is not the guy that gave us such great stand up's as, "You are all Diseased", "Complaints and Grievances", "Jammin' In New York", "Doing It Again". George, please give us the old pi**ed off, grumpy Carlin that everybody loves.

I can't say i like all of his subject matter, but George Carlin, as a Comedian, is the Best, and a breath of fresh air. On my first viewing, I stopped after he started talking about "* farts" (which i thought was very juvenile)... but afterward, I skipped past that and he was the old George Carlin we all know and love. I think there are many hidden metaphors in what he says that we can all relate to.

My husband and I are long time fans of George Carlin. This was a George Carlin that I had never seen in stand-up and I hope I never see again. His non-funny diatribe about human depravity and his crude discussion of human fragility was unsettling and I found it difficult to believe anyone in the audience was laughing. George is certainly one of the brightest comedians around and most of what he discussed resides in truth. But the old George could take that truth and make it funny. We did not find any of this act funny - only dark and depressing. George offered a view of the future without hope and although his view may be correct, I would prefer to hold out for a tab bit of hope. Either George goes back to pot before his next stand-up or I shall have to take it up to tolerate his new very dark attempts at humor. For god sake, lighten up George!

Two things here. You can tell that you're in the presence of a master here; master of the spoken word, master of the whole art of presenting self, master of how to glare, when, how to pause, how to circle and grip and snarl and move back from a prey you've left bleeding but only really teased. When you watch him here, what you're really going to see is a shape- shifting shaman; changing from incredulous doofus, to wily old pervert, to Diogenes the Cynic barking aphorisms at the Athenians, to hunched Svengali seducing our inner Trilby. But to take so much knowledge of stagecraft and apply it to mere cynicism? To know how to take from wasteful surplus but not how to put back where it's needing? To be able to have been a teacher of the blackest, most cantankerous dharma and only be black and cantankerous? This is like sharing a crack pipe with a genius. You're going to get hammered but none the wiser.

This was no unlucky 13. It was just as good as the previous 12. Although the comedy wasn't as intense as in previous years, people have been going to not only see George the comedian, but also George the storyteller. Carlin has been around for a long time and has seen a lot of things. He likes to express his feelings and bring up things that most people take for granted. Essentially people listen to Carlin to laugh and also to learn something. So if you feel that this wasn't good because it wasn't as comedic, then i think you completely missed the purpose. George may not have been as quick as he used to be because his age and drug use has taken its toll. Overall I rate this a 7.

George Carlin's claim to fame was the seven obscene words, and in every show he spends close to ten minutes doing words and rhymes and he thinks he is really hip. I thought it was boring as hell. 50 years of doing words and rhymes gets old, like Carlin. From there he spent at least thirty minutes talking about how life sucks and all the reasons to commit suicide. I guess that is the best he can do for humor? Talk about washed up!

I agree with one of the earlier posts that ppl must be getting offended 'cause he's officially made fun of everyone and if he hadn't yet, then this routine touched that last nerve on the so-called "hard-core" supporters that think that his best yrs are behind him. My favorite is one guy who thought that after he started attacking religion that his routine went down hill and why? Because he's some full-of-himself, "moralistic", religious nut himself and got offended... Obviously he didn't take in the message George has been sending all along... to take a step back, realize what's going on around us, and most importantly, LAUGH!!!! This was a very ingeniously performed routine that took a shot at all the ills of pop-culture, the morbid curiosity of your average person, and ultimately the extreme human behavior(exclusive to us so-called "civilized" beings) that shows how primitive we really are... And for those of you that don't think there's punchlines how 'bout when he talks 'bout "scarfing" and throws in the pun, "think of how many kids are trying to pull this one off" Also he touches on several current topics like obesity, stupidity, and consumerism that are just becoming too much of an issue to ignore, I mean the whole "pretty soon all you'll need to get into college is a pencil" is so true, I mean I know that i'm not as "enlightened" or "educated" as I should be and I know that if I had the same study habits/dedication towards school just 20yrs ago there's no way I'd be able to get a college degree but now i'm just a couple months away from graduating college, just going to show that they're definitely lowering the standards, I mean I'm no dummy either, but still, getting into and graduating college is becoming less of a big deal 'cause the best way to help "educate" the ppl is to lower the standards.... The obesity part... OMG... Being in Europe now, yes there are obese ppl, but nothing like the "interstate buses" you see in the US, especially in the Southeastern states... And as for consumerism, while he's touched on the subject several times the "spending money we don't have on things we don't need" is just becoming more and more evident in society! I could go on and on, but the ultimate genius of this bit is how society is "going to the dogs" and he touches on this not only in the Suicide Reality TV bit, but also the Eliminating Electricity to bring us back to primitive times and finally the Nationwide Natural Disaster bit as well as just the whole routine shows us what's wrong with society and that it's only getting worse, so what should we do about it... SIT BACK AND ENJOY THE RIDE!!!!

We had a gasoline shortage in 2000 and in August of 2006 and now we have yet another gasoline problem. I predict that we will soon be paying $5 per gallon and everything will become prohibitively expensive. People, if you own a bicycle, take care. Lock it in your garage with the front wheel removed. You may have to use it to go to work. If a couple owns a business, look for a bicycle built for two. In the meantime, the solution is TRICYCLES, for those of us who never learned to ride a two-wheeler. Tricycles don't use gas. Four of them can fit into a parking space. The effort required to pedal it would cause people to lose weight and build muscle. Think how this would benefit marriages. Couples on the verge of divorce would reunite; they would see less of each other, thereby eliminating some of the reasons for arguments. It's hard to engage in adultery since a tricycle doesn't have a back seat. The children, taken care of by a stay-at-home mother, would have to learn all the games we played as children to keep ourselves amused. We played Tag, Ring A Leeveeo, Statues, Simon Says, Touch Football, Stick Ball, Jacks, etc., which prevented the childhood obesity which is so prevalent today. Renee Sinrod, Clearwater, Florida