George Carlin surprise.
- Thread starter Kenbushway
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He may be overrated, but he's still funny. And he's thought-provoking, which is great. Thought provoking just means that he should provoke people to think, not that they should mindlessly obey him.
There were two major mistakes he made, that I recall without re-watching the video:
First, he argues against the idea that Human civilization will destroy all life on the planet. But he's arguing against nothing, because nobody has ever said that (well, maybe somebody has
). The problem with the degradation of the environment is the threat to Humanity and civilization. And, personally, I think Humanity and civilization are good things. I don't really want to see millions or billions of people die.
Second, he cries about the arrogance of Humanity in trying to control nature. Well, aside from the fact that Humanity is part of nature, the fact is that it's a great thing that Humanity has come so far in controlling nature and will go farther in the future. Controlling nature means having clothes and shelter, sanitation, medicine and plentiful food. Not to mention art and literature and poetry and photography, and the technology to purse the incredible curiosity that we-- at least some of us-- have about the natural world and the universe that we're a part of. Arrogance created a higher standard of living, painted the Mona Lisa and put men on the Moon. Arrogance is awesome.
There were two major mistakes he made, that I recall without re-watching the video:
First, he argues against the idea that Human civilization will destroy all life on the planet. But he's arguing against nothing, because nobody has ever said that (well, maybe somebody has
). The problem with the degradation of the environment is the threat to Humanity and civilization. And, personally, I think Humanity and civilization are good things. I don't really want to see millions or billions of people die.Second, he cries about the arrogance of Humanity in trying to control nature. Well, aside from the fact that Humanity is part of nature, the fact is that it's a great thing that Humanity has come so far in controlling nature and will go farther in the future. Controlling nature means having clothes and shelter, sanitation, medicine and plentiful food. Not to mention art and literature and poetry and photography, and the technology to purse the incredible curiosity that we-- at least some of us-- have about the natural world and the universe that we're a part of. Arrogance created a higher standard of living, painted the Mona Lisa and put men on the Moon. Arrogance is awesome.
Overrated dead idiot? I disagree on all three counts (and I'd like to add that I think you calling him that is rude and unnecessary). He is one of my favorite comedians and I own several of his albums.
Sure he takes this to the extreme, but like most of his humor, I find myself more of the middle ground. We do need to do our best to the save the planet from dumb asses, who decide its alright to dump toxic waste somewhere or on a smaller scale, can't be bothered to put their recycling in a recycling box. I had neighbors like that and where I work currently has recycling boxes that they dump into one garbage.
However, the world has survived so much as he says and it will continue to save itself. We just need to do our part in simple ways.
Its being able to think deeper than a puddle that has a lot of people liking him and his material.
THIS.
He was no "arbiter of truth". He was an edgy comedian with a finger on the pulse of credible issues. He had HIS opinion, which he clearly communicated, yet he also touched on very sensible observations. He was a man of some truths and plenty of mockery, of gut wrenching entertainment and surprising wit. A legend who will be remembered a long time from now.
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmXacL0Uny0[/yt]
You know what?
We cannot "keep the world how we like it."
That has exactly as much to do with the actual Universe that you're a part of as saying "I will not die because I don't want to."
This, of course, is the main and undeniably accurate point that Carlin makes in the routine. We can be as anthrocentric as we like, but we're showing no evidence of being less fragile than, oh, the dinosaurs - rather the reverse.
All that we actually know indicates that this planet will be here a million times longer than you or anything that gives your life meaning will continue to exist or be remembered - and the Universe will continue on much longer even than that.
When I saw the thread title, I thought perhaps Carlin had faked his own death and was still alive somewhere!
"Tonight's forecast -- DARK!"
Carlin at his best was a brilliant satirist. But in his later years, he began to suffer from Lenny Bruce Syndrome -- getting progressively angrier and preachier while forgetting to be funny.
I still love his "Wonderful WINO" radio routine, with Al Sleet, the hippy-dippy weatherman.Then again, what do I know, my favorite routine he ever did was The Indian Sergeant which is when he was still a suit-wearing clean-shaven dude.
"Tonight's forecast -- DARK!"
I still love his "Wonderful WINO" radio routine, with Al Sleet, the hippy-dippy weatherman.Then again, what do I know, my favorite routine he ever did was The Indian Sergeant which is when he was still a suit-wearing clean-shaven dude.
"Tonight's forecast -- DARK!"
"Continued mostly dark tonight, turning to widely scattered light in the morning."
Now don't get me wrong, I thought Carlin was funny even when he was angry all the time. Anger can give rise to some great comedy. But, and Carlin himself might be horrified to hear me say this because who knows how he looked back on this era, I always preferred the Carlin that we have just been discussing - when he was a button-down 'jokester' who rarely even swore. The reason I liked that part of his routine wasn't *because* it was clean (indeed, Killer Carlin was very edgy - indeed, since Jack Burns was involved, that predates everything Carlin did as solo), it was just a coincidence. But I thought the WINO stuff was some of the most hilarious material he ever did.
My favorite is his Rice Krispies bit. Closely followed by the bit about leftovers in the fridge.
^ "I distinctly heard: Snap, Crackle, Fuck Him."
One of his funniest and most accurate routines was his rant on germs:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo[/yt]
^ The epitome of "ornery old coot!" 
Hilarious bit, one of his best in the edgy profuse swearing corner.
Hilarious bit, one of his best in the edgy profuse swearing corner.Well on a physical level we're fragile in different ways. Without all of our inventions, ounce for ounce we couldn't match the robustness of a dinosaur. It's undeniable that we have the advantage of intelligence and the inventions we've crafted with it, which does make us much more formidable. But we've also established a very fragile food chain to feed our rapidly growing population. One break in it and it all comes tumbling down. It's very easy for the human race to lose vast portions of its population in a rather short period. If we pollute our environment enough to make it difficult to live, a lot of people will certainly die, but I'm sure some will survive and find a way to keep going. It'll be a vast difference of life quality compared to what we have now, though. That's the thing... we're living like kings relative to life quality conditions the human race had endured just a few hundred years ago. But a collapse of our infrastructures (power and food) will result in it going far back before that.
One of his funniest and most accurate routines was his rant on germs:
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo[/yt]
You beat me to it, I used to be a little bit of a germ freak but then I saw this and haven't cared about germs at all since then.
^ Like George, I don't take those precautions and I never get a cold or the flu.
Of course, I never swam in raw sewage....that I know of.
Of course, I never swam in raw sewage....that I know of.
More formidable than a monkey with a pointy stick, yes.
Intelligence of our kind is a long way from having demonstrated the kind of evolutionary success in terms of successful propagation that a great many other species have seen on this planet. Our entire existence is three or four million years long, after all. There's probably more reason to think that we have the "survivability" of yeast - we do what we do really well until what we do kills us - than that we'll continue on for another million.
Earth's four and a half billion years old. Maybe seven billion years until the Sun sucks it up. We're no more than an eye-blink, and we matter in one sense only - as Daffy Duck so memorably put it, "I'm too me to die!"
Carlin is attacking human arrogance - his main target always - not enviornmental awareness. His main focus, especially in his later years, was asking "who the hell do we think we are?" in his diatribes on religion, politics, etc. We like to think of ourselves and act like the apotheosis of nature, yet we treat each other and everything around us like shit. He was able to make this point while getting you to laugh your ass off. That's why he was great.
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