March 28, 2015

"If you assumed that the man who said, 'The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe in it,' would not be pleased..."

"... that a picture of himself was to be displayed in the National Portrait Gallery, you’d be dead wrong. Yes, my dad, George Carlin, was famous for elucidating his displeasure with authorities like the government, big business, the military, and pretty much any other large institution you could name. But that was his job, and yes, of course, his personal stance. When it came to the individual versus institutions, dad almost always took the side of the individual, the underdog. He believed this was the only ethical choice to make."

That's Kelly Carlin, writing for one institution — The Smithsonian Institution — about another institution — the great George Carlin. You can see the (photographic) portrait at the link.

And here's the relaunched George Carlin website: georgecarlin.com. Lots of photos there, like this one:



Kelly says that they are going to be streaming a lot of audio, from "a box of audiocassettes that my dad had kept over the years, starting with shows in the 1960s, ones that were important him, kind of seminal moments in his career."
And we've been listening to them and archiving them. And what's really surprising is that when most people think of my dad, they think of, of course, the albums and stuff, but really his HBO shows. And he was so polished and perfect on those HBO shows. And a lot of these audiocassettes and these concerts were from the '70s and '80s when he was playing on stage and experimenting still.
Wow! Thanks! Perfect. I mean, it will be perfect to get the imperfection

37 comments:

Moneyrunner said...

Note the cigarettes and the wine.

mccullough said...

Another child cashing in on the fame of a parent.

Ann Althouse said...

"Note the cigarettes and the wine."

Yeah, it reminds me of my old family photos.

Captain Ned said...

Cash-in or not, to have Ur-Carlin is worth it.

rcocean said...

Meh. I never found Carlin funny except for a few of his word play bits. That people think he had something profound to say is kinda scary. Here's a guy who almost killed himself with drug abuse, not the biggest genius on the block.

Ann Althouse said...

The children of artists deserve the income stream from the parent's work. We should judge them by how well they do their own work of preserving and presenting the parent's legacy. I don't see any sign that Kelly Carlin is mishandling what her father left to her.

Ann Althouse said...

Actually, he was the biggest genius.

If you don't think he was, if you don't think he was even close... who do you think was?

When I was a child, I believed Red Skelton was the biggest comic genius in the world, but ever since that time, I would go with Carlin? Who am I missing?

Moneyrunner said...

In other news, Black Indiana Democrat legislator accuses 18 month-old toddler of racism. http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/03/23/lawmaker-accuses-colleagues-son-of-fearing-skin-color/70341698/

Ann Althouse said...

My favorite Carlin routine is "Stuff."

Tank said...

Yeah, stuff was good shit.

mccullough said...

Richard Pryor was better.

Hawking books about your Dad is cashing in. She's doing more than taking in the income off his old albums. I don't care what she has to say. She's living off someone else's achievements, just like Marvin Gaye's kids. Better to the taxpayer than living off welfare but not admirable.

W and Jeb have done the same thing. I think it's the way the British did things.

mccullough said...

Prince Fielder, Bary Bonds, and Ken Griffey, Jr. surpassed their dads' achievements in the same field. It's rare but it happens.

So is Carlin's daughter even funny?

William said...

Jack Paar said that Red Skelton was the greatest physical comedian of his era and the true inheritor of Chaplin's crown. Now both Paar and Skelton are distant figures fading into that faint luminescence of not quite forgotten celebrities. In another generation or two, Carlin will inherit the mantle of oblivion from Jack E. Leonard and Georgie Jessel.

William said...

Remember when the primary task of comedians was to make you laugh. How primitive they now appear. Comedians are the new poets and novelists. In their skits, the conscience of a nation is formed. We have been redeemed by the sufferings of Lenny Bruce......Some musicians are more portentous of the social import of their guitar chords, but comedians are up there when it comes to self glorification of ephemeral riffs.

Moneyrunner said...

@William. Right on. Comedians now dictate taste, the approved political views and decide who is cast as an object of ridicule. Something of a smiley face Fascist club.

MayBee said...

She did a podcast interview on Alison Rosen Is Your New Best Friend and was really interesting.

It is funny to me to see people who rail against the American Dream get really rich and live it. Carlin's own wealth and fame made him a little bit of a hypocrite. Maybe that's why he ended up being (imho) more angry than funny.

Virgil Hilts said...

Agree with Ann. An absolute genius, and he was incredibly polished in his HBO performances. I love his airport security/language rifs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQdC-e82gmk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdPy5Ikn7dw

Ann Althouse said...

I love the comparison of baseball and football too.

sane_voter said...

Maybe because I became more conservative I don't seem to like Carlin as much anymore.

then we get the obligatory liberal global warming smear from the daughter at the end of the interview
"Yes, of course, climate change, the denial of science, would have been, I think, a huge thing for him."

I won't be visiting her website.

harrogate said...

“The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe in it."

Brilliant line.

Gordon Scott said...

I grew up with Carlin in the sense that I heard his albums in my early teens. They were wonderfully transgressive in that you could tell people about the seven deadly words, but you couldn't say them out loud in certain company.

But I liked him less and less as I got older. I went to a live show in 2003 or so, and I just didnt' laugh. He was angry, bitter and nasty through the whole show, and it just wasn't funny to me. Many of his rants were of the same style as 30 years before, but back then, he was cheerful.

n.n said...

The American Dream is only suitable for men and women capable of self-moderating, responsible behavior. Everyone else has to be seduced (i.e. opiates) or sedated (e.g. psychoactive drugs) to mitigate anthropogenic disruptions.

Lewis Wetzel said...

The comics who say that they are out for the underdog and hate big institutions usually are doctrinaire leftists or they become doctrinaire leftists.

Wilbur said...

He was clever and funny, but I eventually regarded him as a bit full of himself.

He did a rant against golf that merely showed his ignorance of the subject.

Paul Snively said...

Moneyrunner: Something of a smiley face Fascist club.

"When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jackboots. It will be Nike sneakers and smiley shirts. Smiley-smiley." — George Carlin

Ctmom4 said...

I loved the baseball / football routine too. And of course the seven words. I didn't like him as much in later years - angry,I agree.

rcocean said...

I'm not saying the man didn't have comic talent - if you like his type of comedy.

I'm simply pointing out that some people think he was a profound thinker - and he wasn't.

As for Comic genius - I think his appeal was too limited for that label. I'd reserve that for Chaplin, Fields, Marx Brothers, Skelton or Hope. Probably woody allen or mel brooks too.

Bay Area Guy said...

I loved Carlin. I really did. He was funny as hell. He had some trenchant criticisms of the USA, but ultimately, he was wrong. He was picking at the warts, not seeing the breadth, unable to properly compare the USA, on the whole, to other nations and cultures.

ken in tx said...

Carlin was an avionics technician in the Air Force. He worked on B-52s at Barksdale AFB, La. He got an Article 15 punishment for something I don't remember what. He was not allowed to re-enlist because of it. If that had not happened, he would probably have never became famous and successful. He would be just another retired NCO, Somebody's funny uncle.

Phil 314 said...

As his cyanism grew my enthusiasm waned.

rcocean said...

Comedy can be very subjective. I've never understood the appeal of Alan King, Buddy hackett, Totie Fields, or Lenny Bruce but my parents liked them.

Go figure.

kzookitty said...

Once the last Boomer is dead Carlin will sink into oblivion.

kzookitty

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Just look at that picture- domestic comfort, a cozy home with nice furniture, a lovely well dressed wife, husband groomed and wearing sweater and tie, beautiful healthy baby in good clean clothes, the pleasures of alcohol and tobacco at hand- That is the American dream and he was living it. Too bad he couldn't appreciate what he had and became so embittered that he denigrated it. No wonder why he was so angry at the end of his life.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I liked Carlin when he was goofy and whimsical, which he could be at times. I even liked him when he was bitter and sardonic, but generally not as much.

zefal said...

Terry said...

The comics who say that they are out for the underdog and hate big institutions usually are doctrinaire leftists or they become doctrinaire leftists.
3/28/15, 4:10 PM

And they want the government to take over every aspect of the plebeians lives because they are too stupid to run it themselves!

zefal said...

Michael Fitzgerald said...

Just look at that picture- domestic comfort, a cozy home with nice furniture, a lovely well dressed wife, husband groomed and wearing sweater and tie, beautiful healthy baby in good clean clothes, the pleasures of alcohol and tobacco at hand- That is the American dream and he was living it. Too bad he couldn't appreciate what he had and became so embittered that he denigrated it. No wonder why he was so angry at the end of his life.
3/29/15, 7:38 AM

I'm geussing he suffered from depression possibly from chemical imbalance as a result of his years of drug abuse.

David Letterman was so bitter at one point when I would dare quickly tune in to his show during the time of his Palin smears. I and others on a popular news forum asked when he became so bitter. I don't know if the prompted his realization that he was a bitter person (a sign of depression) that his doctor had been proposing he try an anti-depressant and he finally took his doctor's advice. I saw him some time ago and realized he wasn't the bitter person he had been and then came across an interview in did on charlie rose show on youtube where he stated that he was taking an anti-depressant and wasn't the always andry person he had been. I think Tommy Smothers is a prime example of a bitter person probably suffering from an on/off lifelong bout with depression.