How good of a stand-up comedian was George Carlin?

How good of a stand-up comedian was George Carlin?


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Although his performance as a whole was amazing, I voted very good since his wife actually wrote a LOT of his stuff.
 
I don't understand the adoration for him. He's an incredible orator, but not very funny. Nobody watched a George Carlin special and laughs their head off, but more than likely spends most of it nodding in agreement. I'm not even sure i would call what he does "comedy".

I came here to say this.

There are some comedians I listen to and think "that's interesting" or "well, said" like I'm listening to a wise/witty person doing a podcast.

In contrast to more "goofy" comedy where I'd laugh from anecdotes, impersonations, etc.
 
I put him as Good.

He was better at preaching. As in, id listen to him and not laugh most of the times, but be in agreement.

Need folks like him today like a motherfucker.
 
I put him as Good.

He was better at preaching. As in, id listen to him and not laugh most of the times, but be in agreement.

Need folks like him today like a motherfucker.

That's how Dave Chapelle was in his last "comedy" special (8:46). He may have made 5 jokes max, but said some deep stuff.
 
I didn’t agree with him much, be he knew how to command an audience. He made it look like he just had conversations with the audience instead of “very rehearsed” bits Which is hard to do.
 
That's how Dave Chapelle was in his last "comedy" special (8:46). He may have made 5 jokes max, but said some deep stuff.
I was gonna mention it and that he got some backlash for it. However, if anyone paid attention to that, they would also notice nothing happened to him. Hed still sell, hed still kill, and hed still be fine when the dust settled.
 
From the Saving the Planet rant:

The planet isn’t going anywhere… we are! We’re going away! Pack your shit folks! We’re going away and we won’t leave much of a trace either, thank God for that… maybe a little styrofoam… maybe… little styrofoam. The planet will be here, we’ll be long gone; just another failed mutation; just another closed-end biological mistake; an evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet will shake us off like a bad case of fleas, a surface nuisance. The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we’re gone and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: The Earth plus Plastic.

I wanna see a paint factory blowing up! I wanna see an oil refinery explode! I wanna see a tornado hit a church on Sunday! I wanna see people— I wanna know there’s some guy running through the K-Mart with an automatic weapon firing at the clerks! I wanna see thousands of people in the street killing policemen! I wanna hear about a nuclear meltdown! I wanna know the stock market dropped 2000 points in one day! I wanna see people under pressure! Sirens, flames, smoke, bodies, graves being filled, parents weeping… exciting shit! My kind of TV!

What would you do if you were the planet trying to defend against this pesky, troublesome species? Let’s see… what might… hmm… viruses! Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And uh… viruses are tricky; always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed.


This is my basis for #nolivesmatter movement. Leaves folks with their mouths hanging open.

<Lmaoo>
 
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That's how Dave Chapelle was in his last "comedy" special (8:46). He may have made 5 jokes max, but said some deep stuff.

“You watch one shooting after another …Eric Garner in New York. The first guy that told the police, ‘I can’t breathe,'” Chappelle notes. “Eric Garner was selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island when my kid was born, my first son. My wife lived on Staten Island. It’s an awful place. She knows it. Everyone who’s ever been there knows it. Yuck to Staten Island, it’s a very terrible place. F–k everybody on Staten Island except the Wu-Tang Clan.”

Why's that, Dave?
 
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Everyone has the right to their opinion. Chappelle is great no doubt, but I prefer George Carlin style of delivery and the contents of his jokes.

Btw isn't human beings part of nature? So it's essentially nature being nature.
I'd say Carlin is unquestionably one of the all-time greats, but to me he hit some stages in his later years where his stand-up was more cynical ranting on the stupidity of humanity than ha-ha funny. Still his body of work and longevity put him near the top.

As to the saving the planet routine, the point of the joke was his suggestion that it's stupid to think that anything humans do could have any significant effect on the planet, which is pretty stupid IMO. I hated that bit.

The routine of his I think aged the worst, though, was the pre-9-11 one where he went off on how stupid it was to have security at airports, because you'd have to be stupid to think that anything really bad was going to happen. Ouch.
 
I've said this before, but he's the guy who thinks he's too cool for everything, and thinks he's way smarter than he actually is. His bit on saving the planet for example - he's completely wrong on almost everything he says. Pretty much everywhere humans have ventured throughout history, mass extinctions of wildlife have followed. No, that's not just nature doing it's thing, it's humans being significantly more advanced than the rest of life on Earth, and us wielding that power carelessly. It's something we can stop, and should.

And fucking lol at him being better than Chappelle.

9nohQh4_d.webp
 
I was gonna mention it and that he got some backlash for it. However, if anyone paid attention to that, they would also notice nothing happened to him. Hed still sell, hed still kill, and hed still be fine when the dust settled.

Dave is this era's GOAT. He has staying power.
 

How did I not get the joke? He is making the point that we don't have much influence over the earth and that species dying off has nothing to do with us - which is completely wrong. Similarly, he tries to make the point that there is nothing we can do to save species that are dying off - again, completely wrong.

I wouldn't have an issue with him if he had an approach more similar to Bill Burr - he'll go on a rant and finish with, 'hey I don't read don't actually listen to me.' But everything Carlin says comes off as him actually thinking he's some brilliant visionary, when most of what he talks about are high school level stoner thoughts.
 
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I personally think he's the best. Better than Chappelle.

Would have loved to hear him do a stand up special on this Covid era.






*Like*

GOAT level. I've got him in my top 3, along with Hicks and Chappelle. I think most people would have him as top 5/10 at least, if not higher.
 
I lost my virginity thanks to George Carlin. His standup about “the giant man in the sky and he’s got 10 thing he does not want you to do” cost a girl I knew her faith. Gave up on the cross and hopped on the D.

He’s the best comedian ever as far as I’m concerned.
*Like*

<{monica}>
 
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