Both were hysterically funny, but Pryor had too much potty humor, while Carlin was intelligent. WAY more intelligent than Pryor or most anyone else. A genius.
ETA: On the SDMB, Carlin would be all over the board, while Pryor would hang out in the Pit.
Carlin, by a pretty wide margin. He struck me as a lot smarter than Pryor, and could make a lot more things funny than Pryor, 90% of whose shtick was profanity and shock humor.
Carlin. I never liked Pryor’s crutch use of foul language. I remember a friend of mine had Pryor’s album That Nigger’s Crazy, and I listened to it when I was 13-14. One part I remember was along the lines of, “Whatch yo gonna do tonight?” “Wait til 11:30.” "“What happens at 11:30?” “Gonna pitch a bitch at 11:30.” There was more to that bit, but that’s what I remember after 35+ years. I didn’t think it was particularly funny.
Carlin, on the other hand, had the Amazing Record Commercial, a bit somewhere around 5-10 minutes, in which he told us about the greatest offer ever made–a chance to have every record ever recorded since the beginning of time! “Now these records are yours, not for $1,000, not for $500, but for 12 cents a pound! That comes to just over $27,000, but that’s okay, you can take a full week to pay if you’d like! Just take a leave of absence from your job and give 'em a listen. If you’re not completely satisfied, just let us know, and we’ll send a man out there to poison your dog!”
He also had newscasts, with great lines like, “A woman was killed today when she attempted to force breast-feed a wild cat!”
Not to mention, “My grandfather used to say something…he used to say, ‘Get the FUCK outta my way, man!’”
I’ll go with Carlin every time.
Having just happened to watch the Pryor-hosted episode of SNL from Season 1 (whose first episode had been hosted by Carlin), I certainly concur. If you just listened to comedy albums or read their material in print, Carlin would win hands down. You have to watch Pryor for his greatness to come through.
And Pryor’s humor does seem more personal, more grounded in his own experience, which may make him a more YMMV comedian, that some people can relate to better than others.
Of those two, Carlin by a mile. His early stuff had me rolling on the floor, but I can’t recall ever getting more than a chuckle from Pryor.
If the question asked for the funniest stand-up comic rather than the funnier, my top three are (1) Steven Wright, (2) George Burns, and (3) Johnny Carson.
Tough call, I really liked both guys, but I’ll go with Pryor over Carlin. Carlin’s material seemed more…crafted…for lack of a better word. Pryor seemed more naturally funny.
A few years ago, I watched the movie Little Miss Sunshine.
Big mistake.
Let’s just say I have trouble finding humor in pedophilia and child neglect (especially where heroin is involved). The “comedy” of the movie really pushed my buttons.
Then I watched the next DVD in the pile: 1978’s Richard Pryor: Live in Concert.
Never before had my laugher been so heartfelt and cleansing. Pryor took most of the same tropes that Little Miss Sunshine had played with (bad relationships, poor parenting, dysfunctional families, sexual confusion) and used his utterly impeccable wit to tame them, to point out how destructive they were, and use laughter as a weapon. I realize that Richard wasn’t able to use his own lessons in his own life (which was utterly out of control in 1978), but I was able to use them in mine. Seeing Richard made me feel good about myself and gave me tools to face the world on my own terms. He was quite a guy.
Carlin was good, too, but his hard-bitten cynicism doesn’t measure up to Pryor’s ability to pull joy out of hurt. I might laugh with Carlin, but Richard makes me feel it down to the bottom of my soul.
Carlin had stuff that was funny if you thought about it for a second. also stuff that was funny immediately and then funny again if you thought about it for a second later. also stuff that was funny the next day new again.
Both were incredibly talented comedians. I find some of Pryor’s stand-up less funny because he relied so heavily on profanity – everything was m-f’n this and m-f’n that, and lots of pussy humor. It’s fine as a seasoning but I thought he over did it. Kind of ironic, since Carlin’s most famous bit is Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV, but Carlin’s humor just seemed smarter.
Incidentally Pryor was much more talented than Carlin as a comedy actor. He played well of Gene Wilder and was also great opposite Jackie Gleason in The Toy.
In James Gleick’s book about the physicist Richard Feynman, he (Gleick) asserts that there are two kinds of genius: folks who more or less think like the rest of us, but at a much greater capacity/higher level of function vs. “magicians” whose genius manifests in far-less-explainable ways - they truly seem to be coming from a whole 'nother place.
Carlin is, to me, an example of the former - a funny, observational mind that takes stuff we can all relate to, who is simply better at extracting the funny insight out of it.
Pryor is, to me, more like the latter - his humor comes from places I don’t always have access to, but once he comes out with it, blows me away.
Or, put another way, Carlin appeals to my brain; Pryor appeals to my heart/emotions.
I tend to favor Carlin with more time and attention - I enjoy picking the locks of his humor and peering inside to see the mental connections he makes - but am gob-smacked by Pryor’s delivery in ways I can’t explain.
I never really cared for either of them. Pryor just seemed to do foul mouthed characters who were supposed to be crazy, drunk, or high.
Carlin was okay to listen to and had some interesting observations but nothing about any of them ever suprised me or made me laugh. Old unidentifiable food in the fridge?
I was more a fan of Steve Martin’s stand-up. Just straight delivery punchlines that came out of left field.
I’m a bigger Carlin fan (and I’ve heard more of his stuff), but in terms of their achivement in standup, this is a Lennon/McCartney type of comparison.
I happened to like old, bitter George. He was a scathing satirist.
One of my favorite Carlin bits was an older bit where he spent several minutes riffing on airplanes. Yes, jokes about flying, that old comedy staple. But his observations and his smartass retorts (“Get ON the plane? Fuck that, I’m getting IN the plane! Let Evel Knievel get ON the plane!”), and his exasperation at all the stupid and mindless crap you have to be subjected to take it to another level.
Agreed.
I agree, although at some of the lower points it was more complaining than satire.
Mine, too. I think that’s the funniest standup act I’ve ever heard. It’s on Jammin’ in New York and lasts 16 minutes. As far as I know, no other standup comedian has half of Carlin’s sense of language. That was his bread and butter from Class Clown to the end.
I voted for Carlin, hands down. Both men are funny, but their styles are drastically different and Carlin’s style is almost a dead ringer for a lot of my sense of humor. He had no problem going for the random stupid pun or silly jokes but the real essence of his humor was intellectual and thought provoking. I loved that he would tell a humorous story and make a meaningful philosophical point at the same time.
And that sort of humor becomes relevant in every day life which makes it that much funnier. Sure, you can tell a silly story at any point and have fun with it, but when I hear a euphemism, I think of his whole bit on that, or when there’s censorship, I think about his bit on the 7 words. He’s quotable in a way that makes them useful for making points and injecting that humor into daily life.
Carlin. It’s not even close. Pryor I found only mildly amusing, but it could be physically painful listening to the best of Carlin, so hard did I laugh.
If you can find it, check out Blue Collar for a dramatic role.
Maybe it’s just because a lot of people have aped Carlin over the years, but when I go back and listen to his acts he just doesn’t have a lot of punch. He said some clever and true things (“other people’s stuff is shit but your shit is stuff”) but it’s not all that funny. I can name several comedians today who are far, far funnier than Carlin. Carlin was influential, but not necessarily the best.
Pryor, on the other hand, was downright unique. Even his best disciples like Chris Rock are only a shadow. Anyone could have come up with Carlin’s material; Pryor lived his. And I guess that’s what it comes down to for me for stand-up humor: if it’s real, it’ll make me laugh. If it’s too abstract or clearly contrived, it loses a lot of humor.
Look at Louis CK; he didn’t find real success as a comedian until he started talking about his family and his life. His abstract observational humor is/was funny, but it’s the stuff about his family and his life that really shines. (Ironically his breakthrough came by modeling Carlin’s approach to stand-up, but I think Louis is funnier than Carlin.)
So of those two, Pryor wins.
To me, the distinction was that Carlin had funny material but Pryor was funny. If Carlin had bad material, he could bomb. But Pryor made bad material funny (which he unfortunately had to do too often in his movies).