Posted on 12/12/2004 11:28:43 PM PST by JohnHuang2
Comedian George Carlin, 67, known for his shockingly obscene monologues got himself in trouble in Las Vegas recently – but not because of his filthy mouth.
In the his last performance at the MGM Grand after four years before 700 paying customers, he reportedly said: "People who go to Las Vegas, you've got to question their f-----g intellect – traveling hundreds and thousands of miles to essentially give your money to a large corporation is kind of f-----g moronic. That's why what I'm always getting here is these kind of f-----g people with very limited intellects."
But that's not the end of Carlin's performing in Vegas. He is scheduled to open in February at the Stardust Hotel.
A woman shouted, "Stop degrading us." Carlin replied by inviting her, in two words, to perform a sexual act upon him.
He said he was eager to get out of "this (bad word) hotel" and back east "where the real people are."
Carlin has been doing shtick like this for 40 years.
Carlin has suffered three heart attacks and undergone a number of angioplasties in recent years. He has also battled through cocaine addiction, a $3 million debt to the Internal Revenue Service that reportedly took him 15 years to pay off, and in 1997, the death of his wife of 36 years from liver cancer.
His current routine includes jokes about cancer, natural disasters and teen-age suicide.
''Right now somewhere around the world, someone is about to kill himself,'' Carlin declared earlier this month in a show at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island. ''Every 30 seconds – there goes another guy.''
After pointing out that suicide was the third-leading cause of death for young men in the United States, Carlin suggested, ''You gals, if you want to be truly equal, you're going to have to start killing yourselves in greater numbers.''
In 1973, his ''Filthy Words'' routine was aired on WBAI in New York City, resulting in an obscenity charge by the Federal Communications Commission against the station, which resulted in a long legal battle that eventually made it to the Supreme Court. The court upheld restrictions on broadcasting obscenities at times when children were likely to be tuned in.
So did John Edwards if you watched the VP debate.
"I imagine the two words were "BL!W ME"."
Yes, I'm sure that was what he said.
Stage Death - Remembering a painful evening with Spalding Gray
"The Lenny Bruce Performance Film" does not catch Lenny as a polished joke teller. He has a frantic delivery of a number of his pieces that he had told countless times better in the past. Need I add that it comes from near the tragic end of his career?
Cheap shot.
Carlin is an arrogant, major-league-CLYMER.
An over rated 60's style humorist, Carlin is often not very funny at all, tending not to know where comedy ends and social commentary begins.
Carlin was funny...once...back in 1967 or so...
Carlin is right. Anyone who bets against Corporate (Casino) or State (Lotteries) odds is f'n stupid, imo.
He Said...." B!ow Me !"
I have seen Carlin three times (twice in Vegas) and his shows seem to follow a pattern. The first 25 minutes or so are side splittingly funny, he is a very funny guy. But, once he starts on his preachy, political "humorist" screed you might as well leave. It sucks.
Why? Teaching someone requires knowledge and or wisdom re the subject. What you're saying is that they've done so much damage you won't listen to them when they're right. That's a problem with you, not them. If Al Gore is right about something, can you admit it, admit it grudgingly or must you call him a liar and hypocrite because of your hatred of him? The central issue in this is not to pick on you, I'm just trying to get you to explore the possibility encapsulated in the notion that one can be at once right and hypocritical. You might also check your definition of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy isn't telling someone not to do something you've done. Hypocrisy is doing something you know to be wrong and then barbq-ing someone else for doing the same. The former is teaching from experience, the latter is duplicity.
I am a huge fan of Carlin... or I was until our last visit to Las Vegas. Plopping down my hard earned cash to spend an evening entertained by one of the funniest men I ever respected, I was horrified by what another poster has already put forth... first twenty five minutes were great but he kept looking in his notebook trying to remember what he was supposed to say... disconcerting but hey, it could be new stuff, enjoy!
The last hour of the show was nothing but ranting and raving about suicides, how we can offer suicides better ways, and all sorts of inane bitching. Nothing profound or insightful as you are used to hearing. Nothing hippy-dippy, nothing that either made you mad or made you pump your first in agreement. Nothing Carlin-ish about it. Just an old man using my hard earned money to fund his berating of society in a non-thoughtful, unproductive, un-funny way.
Needless to say, the opening act got a bigger response than Carlin did. When Carlin ended, you could have heard a cricket chirp. No one laughed, no one applauded... we all just mumbled to ourselves and started to file out. End of story.
So Mr. Carlin, as an educated person who doesn't go to Vegas to give my money away, why does it seem that that is exactly what I did the night I paid to see you non-entertain. Don't blame us. If you're tired of doing this, stop. If you can't stop as you need the money, then don't blame us, do us proud and do us right. I, for one, will not support your businesses anymore and would even go so far as to ask for my $140 back... fat chance eh?
David Rubin
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