George Carlin... It's Bad for Ya!

This was the great George Carlin's last solo film, and the last of the 14 HBO specials that he did. The set is unnecessarily big and complicated. This is not Carlin's best material imo, but I will forever be a fan of his.

It might be a stretch saying this as a die-hard Carlin fan, but the material, both written and as performed, in It's Bad for Ya is some of the best late-era material yet. At 70 Carlin bounces back from the level of despair (and some of the stumbles in the act itself) from Life is Worth Losing to a special that is firmly structured but loose and playful- or as much as the "old f***" can get- and is continuously, ceaselessly, funny. And funny as in reminiscent of what some of us had going on when watching Back in Town or 'Diseased' the first time. The material, even if sounding at times a tinge of the previously done (i.e. the whole bit on children in school and camp like the Children segment in Diseased), is always fresh and with such a sting of truth to everything that it scalds the mind while (here goes) tickling the funny bone.

Going from the topic of death (how long to wait to scratch off a name from the book? six weeks, unless if on the computer scheduler), the facets of communication, looking down from Heaven, spots of God (naturally), kids, and just troublesome gestures involving hats in religion and if people really have "Rights" make up the bulk of the special, centered around the premise that what's bad for you, plain and simple, is BS. Total, complete BS, which as we also learn (or if you've really learned it you're like the kid waiting at the street corner for a week following dropped off not-quite randomly by the parent) holds the country together. Carlin isn't necessarily angry though, even if disdain seems to spout out at most turns, even just to observe how horrifying children's teeth coming in look. It's skepticism tinged with the feeling that everything is NOT going to be "fine".

What it comes down to is this: Carlin is to dirty, witty, cautionary stand-up comedy what Yoda is to Jedis everywhere, which is a small spark of hope via crystal clear wisdom in a world where it's pretty damn hard to get any. At the least, we get classic GC - outrageous lines and bits from the man's 13th (or is it 14th) comedy special, including as far as an eyebrow-raising observation on people who play Mozart music during a birth!

George carlin. Recently being binge watching his conedy bits on youtube. This is first special of his that i watched and it didn't disappoint. Even in his last special he is at his best.

This was George Carlin's last show and he'll be missed. Maybe not to everyone but to me he will, as to many others that liked his satirical view on society. On his view on religions I couldn't agree more with him, on the need to procreate as much as possible and so put our planet in danger by overpopulation I couldn't agree more with him, on how the whole system is working as they want to control everything you do, as they want you to consume as much as possible I couldn't agree more with him. I'm pretty sure he didn't like humans much as they are the parasites of this planet, and if you think about it you got to say he's right. George Carlin, the satirical comedian that said it raw, that will question anything, he'll be missed.

Very good special

The old man comedy part of the show was good very funny jokes, very "old man yells at cloud" jokes but i think it was meant to be like that. Bit more light hearted.

Then the God part of the special was a good reality check but to me i know so few amount of people around me that believes in god (I'm not american) that i found it a little bit less relatable but i'm pretty sure in 2008 that was very of it's time in the US.

Didn't felt like as much punch to the face like the last special. I'm a sucker for misanthropic humor. But he's the greatest so it's still miles ahead of what everybody is doing still to this day.