George Carlin - It’s Bad For Ya (A Review)
Stars: 5/5
As you may recall, George Carlin died almost 2 months ago. At long last, his final HBO Special has been released as a CD, called “It’s Bad For Ya”.
Well, What can I say? It’s excellent. It is, I think, the best Carlin recording I’ve heard. It combines the youthful wonder and apparent naivete of works like “Class Clown” and “Occupation Foole”, the the sophisticated middle-aged observations and language studies of Carlin On Campus and Playin’ With Your Head, and the shamelessly frank exposes of the human tendency toward delusion and sheeplike behavior that drove Back In Town and Your Are All Diseased. It is a tour through what what those of us who loved Carlin loved about him, without being a nostalgia trip, just rehashing old material.
I really think George peaked on this one. He went out with a bang. He frankly discusses death and religion, getting lots of laughs. He takes merciess swipes at modern American parenting and the soul-crushing structure imposed on kids today. He lays bare the illogic of life after death and “being helped by the dead”. He leads us by the hand to the realization that “swearing on The Bible” and religious rules about when to and when not to don headgear are pointless, foolish, and without any value. Finally, he takes us on a tour of our non-existent rights.
…and he gets laughs. A lot of them.
Carlin was a human being, with flaws and frailties like any of us. Not everything he did was pure gold, but he did manage to produce a voluminous body of mostly excellent work, and “It’s Bad For Ya” is the culmination of his fifty years’ experience in show business, and it is good. It’s like the family matriarch, famous for her Thanksgiving dinners, having recovered from a stroke, gathers up all her best, offers up one last extravaganza, enjoys it with her family and friends, and dies in her sleep that night. Sure, it’s bittersweet. It’s sad he’s gone, but he gave us one last great show before he went, and it’s something to be thankful for. I just hope he knew how much he was appreciated.
Thanks, George. You’re missed.