George Carlin: You Are All Diseased

Since today is George Carlin's 70th birthday, I wanted to review one of his stand-up performances. "George Carlin: You Are All Diseased" is one of the funniest stand-up performances that I've ever seen. It shows that Carlin hasn't lost his touch, as he assails every aspect of society. I never realized it before, but it's true: everyone BS's* us (including our parents and teachers). I couldn't agree with him more about religion, and he did have a good suggestion about preventing diseases. But no matter what, Carlin positively identifies that pretty much everything about our society turns us into a bunch of submissive little f--king pussies. A great experience.

*I assume that you know that BS is short for a word that I'm not allowed to write here; a word basically meaning "male-cow excrement".

It was only coincidence that I was watching this special the day after George Carlin died recently. I know there is a sudden rush now to see all his old stuff as if he was a relative who we never spent enough time with but for me it was just something that I had recorded and had taken my time getting round to. I'm not a massive fan of Carlin but I have seen parts of his career that I have thought were really smart, insightful and funny.

Although it has its moments and plenty of energy, You Are All Diseased is not among his better word, indeed it is surprisingly weak. The only other review on this site that has pointed this out has been roundly slated via the "useful" voting system and I imagine it will be worse now due to talking ill of the dead but it is hard to avoid seeing the show for what it mostly is. And what that is is an angry rant that is surprisingly weak in validity and humour. I'm all for angry comedy and I think the more acerbic the better but I need to be able to understand the point being made behind it, even if the routine ends up in extreme examples, if it is built on a good point then it works.

Here though too many of Carlin's rants are built on unreasonable points from the very start and it takes away from how interesting it is to listen to. It begins at the beginning with a rant against hygiene. In that he rails against the basic hygiene habits everyone should have and it risks losing him the viewer as one starts to think "well, hang on a minute" about what is being said. Here and there he makes really good points in his angry rant but too much of it seems to be anger for anger's sake with illogical arguments and (in some cases) hypocrisy, as the basis. What is worse is that a lot of the humour seems dependant wholly on swearing, shock value and energy to carry it. Of course this is not wholly a criticism because he does work this angle really well and the crowd do love him for it, just for me I was laughing at this and I didn't think the crowd were so much as they were "reacting" to the delivery.

Carlin may be gone but he has left behind him some very work from his career; problem here is that I don't consider You Are All Diseased is among it. Many will disagree and I salute them for it and think them lucky to have had more fun than I, but for me this is quite weak stuff from someone capable of much more.

You don't get the highest joke-per-minute count with this one, but the laughs are so deep and satisfying, their build up so artfully and powerfully crafted, that each laugh is worth a dozen of any other comedian's. George Carlin unleashes the most furious, malevolent, blistering rant of his career, all the while reaffirming his place as one of America's all time greatest comics. What's so remarkable is that I thought I already knew just how p***** off George was. His ultra-anger may be a put on, a device masking his true gentler nature, but you'll swear he's about to spontaneously implode. Maybe the recent death of his longtime wife fueled him in a new way, or maybe he just keeps getting better. Either way, its an hour of searing, raging joy.

Before Atheism, laughing at the incidents around the world, hating the government and the systems in America, cheering for the villains on all sides along with having a mind for critical thinking, George Carlin's "You are all Diseased" was the first stand up special I saw of the famous comedian on HBO in the early months of 1999 where not only did I laugh my butt off, I was also at the early stages of a young man where I thought about what he said from religion being full of you-know-what to how pathetic we Americans are in terms of sensitivity and want things done in a orderly fashion were right on the money. The more I watched his programs, the more I understood.

"You are all diseased" concentrates on things that make George very upset off from white people acting black (ex: the blues brothers), airport security (an early prophecy before 9/11), kids (too much concentration from school shootings to uniforms), America (and I agree with reason), and religion (who doesn't agree with me?); he also has suggestions on club and restaurant names to programs that would have jump the ratings board and songs just for kicks.

As a fan of George for over nine years and hearing the recent of his passing, I raise my glass and say thanks for the memories and laughter while at the same time educating us to be better people without being fodder like the rest of the world.

Cheers, George.

George Carlin is a waterfall of words, one that can't be stopped once he's going. In this show he's like he always is, critical about everything he witnesses, critical about the same things we all think but never say. He might have a negative view of the world, like I do, but you can't blame him for telling the truth in a funny satirical way. I don't think it can be offensive enough as we sometimes need a good piece of truth shoved in our face to make us realize we are all pawns of this corrupted society. Secretly eveybody gets his message but sometimes it's just difficult to admit it. Another show of George Carlin, where he rants about everything he hates and that's just never boring as a show. You either love him or you hate him, and I'd rather be with people that love him.