Does this bug anyone else?


First of all, I'd just like to say that I'm not one of those who reside in the "Carlin has lost it" camp. I was very impressed by this darker brand of comedy; he kept his anger constant but not enough to push away the audience. In fact, most of the demeanor in this performance seemed to be not bitterness or fury but pure and simple fascination at his subject matter. I haven't laughed this hard in a long while.

But the one thing that really detracted from "Life..." is his transition from "The All-Suicide Channel Pyramid" to auto-erotic asphyxia. He was going somewhere the first idea and seemed like he was about to sum up his entire point concerning it, but then floats away from the topic with AEA. I thought he might go off tangent for a while and then go back to the Pyramid, but then he goes on about donating genitalia and natural diasasters, never to speak off the Pyramid again. Why mention it? What was its purpose? To illustrate the need for boosting the All-Suicide Channel's popularity during sweeps month, sure, but why should I care?

The show was absolutely perfect until this sloppy transition occurred; I keep referring back to it in my mind as the point where the show "tripped". Did this bug anyone else or is it just me?

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Did you catch the original *live* airing?

The reason why the transition seemed so sloppy is because part of the "Pyramid" bit was edited out. At one point, Carlin brought out a piece of paper that he said had "new" material on it. Then he proceeded to trip over it like it was poorly (or not all) rehearsed.

The bit was edited out upon second airing.

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Have you seen Complaints and Grievances? Carlin states "I don't do transitional material...and now we're on BARNS"

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Hmmm I believe the pyramid was fully explained... at the bottom was the homeless, then ppl in prison, then ppl who claim to be depressed, then the terminally ill... and from that he finishes it off by saying that he could get them all to hold hands and jump in the Grand Canyon

I mean what else did he need to do?

People are really too critical of his work, c'mon just listen and enjoy... think more about how f'd up our society is then trying to nitpick and analyze "transitions" and "level of satire"

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George Carlin is a great stand-up. He's a bit of a 'decent actor' as quoted by himself, actually he said 'his acting was getting better. I havn't seen anything of him in a while but when I did, I loved it.
His character is more of a non-conformist and he has 'gone the distance' to prove that, for whatever reason he has.
All he deserves and I am sure what he wants is respect for what he has done. And that's hard, hard work in comedy stand-up as an original and realist.
He is after all, 70 years old, What 70 year old comedian does anyone know that has gone the distance as he has ? I say give him his dues, whatever words he has said...after all,,,who really knows the real man inside that George Carlin is ? After all, it's only a show.

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If you think you can do something better then do it. Write your own stuff and deliver it better than George. I doubt you could stand a chance...

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if this was his last hbo special, it was *beep* BRILLIANT. the man got SO much sharper politically towards the end of his performing life, & with a laser-like eye for the underbelly of this country, his observations would turn out to be HIGHLY prophetic. i'd trade that any day of the week for the guffaws, not that he really became less so, i just think he was truly disgusted by the inequality between the 1% & the rest of us, & how our gov't had/has turned into a puppet of the former.

we can't forget that the man WAS ill, & it was taking a visible toll on him, but that only makes his observations at the time more relevant, that is, when he was able to rally his focus on the issues that bothered him. to me, he was like the jeff beck of comedy, because they both made this leap in talent & ability in the part of a creative person's life where most run out of gas; they became uber-jeff & uber-george...

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