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

George Carlin is probably my favorite comedian. I have seen so many of his specials and even had the opportunity to see him perform live. He had a certain cynicism that always appealed to me. His last special (Life is Worth Losing) lacked spirit & more importantly, humor. George appeared overweight, old and tired (not to mention coming out of rehab). "I SAID NOT TO MENTION IT"! Anyway. Life is Worth Losing was especially tragic as he was overweight, disgruntled, coming off of rehab (there we go again...) and extremely unfunny. If there was a way to feel sorry for a comedian without heckling him off stage, George achieved it with Life is Worth Losing. It is as if the New Millennium and Post 9/11 America was trampling George's spirit. The bs had become too large to manage.

The comeback is partially successful with It's Bad for Ya! This special is the transmutation completed. George is no longer trying to rekindle his glory days. He is in full acceptance of his age, being old and dealing with the looming prospects of death. He has accepted being a crusty old SOB and is relishing in it. This is better than his previous specials, yet far from Jammin' in New York. It is a little tragic. His observations are not cutting edge anymore and seem more Andy Rooney than Lenny Bruce. George isn't George anymore. He is no longer criticizing us but is the man in the high castle pointing out how things were and how dissimilar modern life is.

This is an improvement over the previous two specials, but George does not, as of yet, recoup his old glory (if ever). He has been reduced from critical social and political stinging commentary to mostly personal peeves. When he goes political, he still has something to say. It is heavily derived (especially if you have seen any of his previous work), but it still works somehow, as opposed to his random rantings which lack a certain relevance outside of the baby boom generation. The last 25 minutes is the best this special has to offer.

For now I will worship the Sun and pray to Joe Pesci that George can recreate himself as a cutting edge septuagenarian. It's a 50/50 chance. Life seems to have become more tedious for George and his "art" is now his life. This is a step in the right direction from his previous 2 specials, but is far from his old self. Where does he go from here? He may never recoup but maybe he can further metamorphosing/refine this new ornery old man routine. Heres to hoping for 7 more words you can't say on TV or at least a windmill he can handle.

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.

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.

Same old tired worn out routine. The words, the rhymes, all done better before. All that's left is a mean nasty little guy without a funny bone in his body. Just an angry little man, on a last cash grab from his diehard fans. Time to rest in pieces, Gramps. Your funny moments are over.

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.