Napalm & Silly Putty (2001)
I doubt that he'd find it amusing, but George Carlin might at least find it interesting to consider the possibility that the iconoclasm and nihilism of his brand of humor has succeeded so totally in transforming the culture as to make him generally unfunny. For one thing, his stock in trade is observational humor, which the far less talented Jerry Seinfeld has pretty much beaten into the ground. Second, where his profanity and scatology were at least somewhat daring twenty years ago, in a post-Clinton America where South Park is on TV, Eminem is the most popular pop singer and the Farrelly Brothers' movies are considered funny, there just is no such thing as public decency any more, and therefore, nothing to offend it. What's more, there's something truly sad about an old man, which Mr. Carlin is these days, who swears so compulsively. It is particularly noticeable when, as here, the language is written rather than spoken. At a night club or in a stage act, surrounded by young people, maybe it's more appropriate. But how does a 65 year old sit at a desk and type the infamous "seven words you can't say on television" quite this many times without feeling like he's making himself sound like a moron ?
Finally, Mr. Carlin seems not to realize that most of the once sacred cows he's attacking were actually led to the slaughter years ago. Much of his ire is directed at Christianity and believers, but they have been so marginalized by modern society that it's like he's beating baby seals. The shock value of making fun of God went out with the hula hoop and coonskin caps : for cripes sake, it's been at least a hundred years since Nietzsche declared God dead--give it up already. I mean really, when's the last time you saw a person of faith portrayed in a positive light in any form of media ? Attack humor is funniest when directed at the powerful or those with many defenders, but when aimed at the downtrodden and the thoroughly disregarded it is merely gratuitous.
It is a shame that Mr. Carlin, for whatever reason, but one assumes it has roots in his Catholic childhood, does not realize this, because when he goes after modern shibboleths, icons and causes, he really is funny, if only because political correctness has made so many of these things untouchable. He phrases it differently in the book, but when, one morning on Imus, he said of Timothy McVeigh :
I'd let him off. After all, it's his first
offense, and sometimes all these guys need is a firm talking
to.
it captured both the idiocy of the kind of penal laxity that the Left so often espouses and, second, the way in which secular events like the Oklahoma City Bombing have been endowed with a kind of holy and inviolable significance. Or when he says :
Most people with low self esteem have earned it.
or
People get all upset about torture, but when you
get right down to it, it's really a pretty good way
of finding out something a person doesn't want you
to know.
or
Message to the Denver Nuggets regarding Columbine
High School: There's no reason to cancel a
sporting event just because some kids kill each
other. Try to concentrate on basketball and leave the
life-and-death "stuff" to someone else.
the lines aren't even all that funny, but the sentiments are so shocking,
and true, that they catch you offguard, but then trigger that guilty moment
of agreement. Lines like these show that there's still plenty of
mileage left in being irreverent, Mr. Carlin just has to recognize what
it is that our culture reveres these days, not God or clean language, but
victimhood, disabilities, odd sexual preferences, and the like. It's,
unfortunately, a New Age, and his humor needs to catch up.
(Reviewed:01-Jul-01)
Grade: (C)
