George Carlin interview on giving up on humanity, not caring about the outcome, accepting that it’s circling the drain time…Being an observer.
I keep rewatching it maybe three or four times just this month alone. I think I expect something will enlighten me, something will more brightly illuminate that path.
Curious if you remember the exact first time you heard Carlin, what joke was it? When? Where?
For me, I’m a younger fan so I had never heard of George until my sister showed me a 6 second clip on Vine and it just so happened to be a man yelling “RAT SHIT BAT SHIT DIRTY OLD TWAT, 69 ASSHOLES TIED IN A KNOT. HURRAY LIZARD SHIT. FUCK.” After that intro, I was hooked and had to find out the context of the joke. That led to me being a huge fan, I was wondering how other people became fans of found his comedy?
This interview first appeared in the January, 1982 issue of Playboy.
It began in 1970 on a typical September night in Las Vegas, as the early show went on at Howard Hughes’s Frontier Hotel. The men and the mink-draped women in the theater appeared equally prosperous and provincial. A sign at the theater entrance read, WELCOME, AWARD-WINNING SALESMEN.
The opening act that night was a 32-year-old comedian named George Carlin. Although most had never heard of him, a few members of the audience remembered seeing him on John Davidson’s summer replacement TV series—a conventional stand-up performer who did cute voices and jokes about his New York childhood. Vegas regulars knew Carlin better: He’d been an opening act at the Frontier for three years, was a reliable pro who earned $12,500 a week.
On that night, when Carlin glared out at the audience with what appeared to be a combination of loathing and resolve, most people either didn’t notice or thought he’d forgotten his contact lenses. When he opened with a dissertation on the number of ways to say “Shit,” the audience fell silent. Carlin’s next routine was about Vietnam, and that’s when people started walking out. Before he’d finished a piece on American business ethics, half the room was empty and the others remained only to heckle him. At a few tables, angry men were restrained from rushing the stage.
In one night, the big-money, mainstream show-business career Carlin had worked ten years to build was over. He went back to where he’d started-to the small clubs and coffeehouses, working for nothing; and with the help of unemployment compensation, he did the routines that had got him thrown out of Las Vegas. But the folk and college audiences loved them. Carlin’s dazzling wordplay was lauded by critics, who compared him to H. L. Mencken and Alexander Woollcott, and his withering attacks on religion, big business and the Vietnam war made him a counterculture hero. Between 1971 and 1976, Carlin toured constantly and recorded five albums.
Then, as suddenly as his meteoric “second career” had begun, it ended.
Read now: https://www.playboy.com/read/celebrities/the-playboy-interview-george-carlin
Happy birthday George 🎂
I remember seeing a TikTok with George Carlin and he was talking about politics and he said something about the fact that if you have a favorite politician, then you’re one of the brainwashed people. Sorry I know that’s sort of vague, but I don’t remember the rest of the clip.