Life is Worth Losing

[Reinhold]

hbo.com

Direct from the stage of the Beacon Theater in New York City, a longtime HBO favorite returns for his unprecedented 13th stand-up comedy special. Uncensored and uninhibited, this all-new 75-minute show - his fifth live performance on HBO - will feature George Carlin's dead-on observations on such subjects as extreme human behavior; the feasibility of an all-suicide cable channel; and his inimitable takes on obscure American words and phrases. Don't miss the latest outrageous observations from America's original counterculture spokesman, Saturday, November 5 at 10 PM EST.


i adore george carlin... after mr. rogers died, he and the dalai lama are my only two surviving heroes.  i've been thinking a lot about him since i saw an interview he did with tim russert about 4 months ago. i'm really looking forward to seeing this.  the ads look pretty good, too.

[grand theft sparrow]

When the greatest living comedian does his first show in 3 or 4 years and you don't really laugh, something's up.

I have to say I didn't know what to make of it, really.  It's the first special of his that I haven't been doubled over with laughter throughout... not even close.  But it was still interesting.

I've been a huge fan of George Carlin since I was 12 or 13, when my mom sat me down to watch one of his HBO shows.  And that couldn't have been easy for her especially when there were jokes in it like "You know how to piss off a feminist?  Call her a cum-catcher."  But she felt it necessary to introduce me to Carlin's work.  One of the best things she could have ever done for me.

This new show was weird because either he's become too bitter to be funny (a distinct possibility) or he didn't have the intent to be funny with this special, so much as directly making the audience feel uncomfortable.  From the point of view of it being a George Carlin comedy special, it just didn't deliver.  But from the POV of it being a one-man show about the state of the world with no promises of laughs, it was pretty fascinating.  There's not a lot to laugh at about suicide and since that kind of preoccupied his entire show, it was just... odd.  I wonder if this was a thought he had entertained when he was back in rehab and now he's managed to work it all out of him by doing this show?