George Carlin at USC

George Carlin makes his first HBO special here (that number would eventually rise to 11 in 1999) and it makes a great format for Carlin's brand of humor. Here, he examines monopoly, walking, random thoughts and phrases and a early version of flying and planes. Funny stuff to watch (even if it is way over 20 years ago) as Carlin evolves his hippie comedy. A

This is George's first HBO Special from 1977 - "On Location with George Carlin"... his earliest concert performance available on video. He is playful from the very start. Even before he has spoken, he tries to get laughs from the mic lead. He doesn't seem completely comfortable, and talks about being nervous - which seem quite genuine. A new phase of his career is starting... after the age of 40! He begins as gently as he can, with observations of shared modern life. The comedy of common experience. Stuff he's done on his albums, which he knows is reliable, and very audience-friendly. He clearly feels the need to get off to a solid start. He tries so hard to be visually funny that his mimes are probably too exaggerated, and to me sometimes distract from the material. Not everything he does works, but the encouraging audience lets him miss a few times as long as keeps trying to come back with another hit.

Unfortunately, some of the observations seem inane to me in 2005. Dogs and cats! I ask you. I suppose it's not his fault that subject has been done to death since then... to such a degree to make that a comedy cliché in itself. In the middle of the show, George takes time out to do his contrived news items - showing his mastery of set-up punchline jokes.

What George Carlin also does that no other comedian has done to such a degree is to analyse language. Not just phrases, but individual words. And things like oxymorons (look it up if you don't know what it means!). The stuff that flies by in our daily lives, that we all accept without thinking about it. There in practiser we have a principle that George talks about when describing how to create comedy - "Anything we ALL know about, nut NEVER talk about... is FUNNY." George ends this show with his stuff on language concerning "the words that can't be used on TV." Here we have another principle in practiser. Leave your most controversial or edgy material till last, because you won't be able to follow it.

I started watching his specials in chronological order. This one is interesting not because it is funny (which it's not), but because it is interesting to see how far he has come. I always remember him being funny from the get go, but revisiting this one clearly shows that his act has evolved significantly (and for the better). Here he relies more on his mannerisms for humor, while much of the material is pretty banal & doesn't hold up that well. His later career is much more focused on language & politics. It seems that as he has gotten older he has become less concerned with offending people, which means a much funnier act. The only parts of this show that still seem funny are those that are the crudest (ie. farting, bad language...).