Haven’t seen it yet. It’s waiting for me on the TiVo.
Carlin’s gone very, very south in recent years. I suppose it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that he’ll enjoy a late return to greatness, but, well, I’m not holding my breath.
Who watched it? How shall I calibrate my expectations?
ETA: show description at HBO’s site
I was half-listening from another room when I heard a gruff voice yelling “and fuck Dr. Phil” and getting huge applause. I figured it must be Carlin – he’s one of those guys who (I think) audiences appreciate for what he’s done in the past. He used to be relevant. Lately, he’s just cranky.
I’m gonna try and catch one of the repeats.
ETA: Anyone saying “Fuck Dr. Phil” is gonna get a hand. That’s just too easy.
Carlin was on Letterman a few years back, trying to do some material in line with his older stuff, and all of it just fell flat. Even his terribly unfunny stuff in Life is Worth Losing was better than what he was doing on Letterman. A shame, really, because he used to be brilliant.
Carlin is not in his prime, and “fuck Dr. Phil” was really weak. It was preceded by “fuck Lance Armstrong,” a less frequently expressed sentiment I can also get behind. It seems he’s gone back to some themes he’s covered before, like how irritating people are when they’re talking about their kids, how people use stupid euphemisms, and other annoying linguistic quirks. That said, we did laugh at a bunch of it. He’s still pretty funny.
If you have HBO On Demand and you like old Carlin, you might want to check out Doug Stanhope, who has a stand up show on right now. He’s carrying the torch of the cranky old fuck, but he’s 40 and not 70, so his stuff is much edgier. YMMV.
Never mind. Thanks, R.
Hey, cut Carlin some slack. He’s an Old Fuck[sup]TM[/sup]! 
Seriously, I liked it all right. Probably because I am approaching Old Fuckdom[sup]TM[/sup] myself.
I really liked it when he was talking about deleting your friends’ names from your computer’s address book after they pass on. You could either wait a decent interval of time (six weeks) and put them in your trash can, or you could create a special folder named Purgatory and drag them there and leave them.
I agree, I thought that was one of his best bits. A nice combination of his old-style observational humor with his more recently developed morbid outlook.
Overall, one of his better specials in the last few years. Not so much incoherent ranting, a few dead spots and falling back on obvious punchlines, and more polish than we’ve seen from him in a while. Quite a few highlights, I think.
Will also check out Stanhope’s set. Thanks for the suggestion.
I used to really like Carlin but it’s harder for me to respect his intelligence after he came out in favor of the 9/11 conspiracy theories.
I guess his funny stuff is still funny, but I probably won’t be tuning in from now on.
I haven’t seen his newest, but the last time I saw him he just seemed to be a bitter angry old man. I don’t think I laughed once.
I think I’ll miss this one.
Well, Life is Worth Losing is one of his worst. Not only was it not great material, but he was carrying around pounds of fluid in his lungs, so his performance was off.
Bad for Ya was way better, in my opinion.
Life Is Worth Losing may not have been his strongest set, but I could at least get behind his point of view. (I like the mordant.) Bad for Ya seemed terribly unfocused and soft; not just the performance itself, but the material seemed to meander with no focus or consistent viewpoint. (It was also very wordy, as if he hasn’t been performing it long enough to really hone it down.) Some bits were good, like the Digital Purgatory and the inane conversations routine (“It was NINE years!”). On the whole though, this might be the worst set I’ve seen him do.
I thought that this was pretty good.
His most recent one before this was terrible (the one in the graveyard, I think). In that one, he looked 5 years older than in this one. He was using a TON of recycled material. It reallly felt like someone shoved him out on stage, and said, “dance monkey”.
This one was basically how I imagine Carlin to be as an old man. No patience with idiots, jokes about people dying. Distinctions between being an old fuck and an old fart.
Not rip-roaring, but all right.