*THIS COUNTRY IS FINISHED* GEORGE CARLIN ON COUNTDOWN*
George Carlin died Sunday of heart failure.
Carlin authored and delivered some legendary satire. His comparison between baseball and football is a classic, as is his “Seven Dirty words” bit.
But there was also a darker side to Carlin, who became a 9-11 Truther and a bitter old man who never seemed to mature beyond that youthful idyllic libertinism that most folks go through in their teens, as seen in this clip he did with Keith Olbermann.
I am sorry to hear of Carlin's death. May he R.I.P. Carlin had a way of making an audience agree with him because they feared they would look stupid otherwise. He was funny, but wrong in his basic premise much of the time.
ReplyDeleteHe knows better now.
most of the time i disagreed with carlin and he could make me so angry with the stupid, stupid, stupid things he said. but as uncle sloane pointed out, i'm certain he knows better now.
ReplyDeletei'm glad i missed when this originally aired - not surprising from either of them, really, but it still makes my blood boil...
heidianne jackson
http://biggirlpants.typepad.com
No question Sloane, Carlin was a persuasive counterculturalist.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that he was so wrong on so many things.
Even his baseball/football analogy (which I love) is, at its root, a very cynical slap at the 20th Century compared to the more pastoral and relatively peaceful 19th.
On economics, he was a dolt.
Like a lot of entertainers who make it, they seem to forget how much they lusted over gigs and money and how effective they were at playing the back-scene politics that exists everywhere. Most of these guys had to undercut to advance over others at those folk's expense....it's the way of the world.
Of course when such folks "make it," they aften like to pretend they were "never that way."
"i'm glad i missed when this originally aired - not surprising from either of them, really, but it still makes my blood boil..." (Heidianne)
ReplyDeleteIt SHOUD make any reasonable person's blood boil Heidianne. I was saddened to see the veritable love-fest between Carlin and Olbermann.
I liked Carlin because made me think and forced me to refine my conservative arguments. His last few specials were too over-the-top liberal and conspiracy theorist for me.
ReplyDeleteLiberlism aside, I liked his on-the-fly riffs.
Carlin WAS thought-provoking in his early days, Roadhouse.
ReplyDeleteIt just seems that as he got older, he got more bitter, more conspiratorial in his thinking and sadly, more Left-wing in his views.
Funny how the "best" news show ever starts this particular bit with the impression that Falwell alone commented on the gay teletubbie when in fact he was, like others, commenting on the rumors by Time magazine and other msm reports about the rumors that predated his comments and therefore were open to discussion by anyone who came across them. Carlin could be funny, but mostly, he gave us a peak at ourselves and sometimes, did it very well,too bad he didn't mature well!
ReplyDeleteIt is kind of amazing how the other criticisms are conveniently ignored.
ReplyDelete"Carlin could be funny, but mostly, he gave us a peak at ourselves and sometimes, did it very well,too bad he didn't mature well!" (anonymous)
I agree completely. He was a very talented comic, but a boorish political hack.