Every stand-up comic I've met (maybe a baker's dozen over the years) has without exception told me that George Carlin is either the best or one of the best. The comics I've met varied widely in their opinions on what made a great comic and who was a great comic. I always found it noteworthy that they all agreed, in separate conversations, on the greatness of Carlin.

Happy Birthday, George.

Happy Bday George Carlin.

As an avid golfer, I have always appreciated Carlin's opinions on golf to keep the stupid thing in perspective.

My favorite Carlin quote: "Whenever anyone says 'Have a good one', I always respond 'I already have a good one, I'm looking for a longer one.'"

(Lastly, given Carlin's views on fanatacism and the human treatment of their fellow humans, I would LOVE to hear Carlin's opinion of Ayn Rand. THAT would make me smile.)

Many more, George, I hope you have many more.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/humor7.shtml

Meanwhile, one thing that fascinates me about Carlin is that in the '70s his stage posture was so loose and limber. He almost looked like a dancer. He also looked long and lean, punctuated his jokes with goofy faces, and had a calm, soothing delivery. Now he's like a clenched fist on stage. His body and face are almost frozen in a hunched scowl, and his jokes come in a harsh staccato. Maybe it's just because he got off the drugs. Maybe it's just age. But the weird thing is I've never seen footage of him from any sort of transition period between the two. It's as if he made an overnight transformation from the rubber-faced, loose-limbed guy in the purple v-neck shirt to the stiff, black-clad angry old man with the pony tail. If it his point of view wasn't so consistent I'd have a hard time believing it was the same guy.

In regards to the Oswalt piece, I'm unaware of it. Can't say I seen much of his act, outside of a few TV spots, so I'm sure you could be right. Just something I've thought for a long time about birthdays.

Searched more online about this and Cliff's right. Here is a segment from a review on Oswalt's standup.

"When you're one through nine, you get a birthday because you're a little kid," he explains. "After 21, you only get a birthday once for every new set of 10s you enter, until you hit 90. Once you hit 90, every year after, one law no longer applies to you. At 95, you can legally steal anything. Because if you own something and a 95 year old can get it away from you, it was never really yours. At 100, you can legally commit murder— you can't use a gun or a knife or poison, but if you can strangle or pummel someone to death with your bare hands, no one can convict you. That's how we weed out the weak people."

Parallel contstruction or not, way too close from my point of view to want to leave it up here. I plan on taking it down, as I don't want anyone thinking I'm guilty of pulling a Mencia. (Like almost everything I write here, this has never been in my standup, I want to note.)

Thanks for the heads-up, Cliff.

Steve Martin says hello.

And I don't mean the topics, I mean the lines, verbatim - in the middle of a conversation, for example, he tossed in the 'rancher f***s a sheep on the edge of a cliff' joke, which had nothing to do with the discussion. Also annoying was the fact that the other comedians there HAD to know what he was doing - if I could pick it up, they must have been able to as well... But they looked like they were about to pop a vein from laughing so hard; just rang fake.

It was very jarring, because Carlin's clearly extremely amusing and talented, and it made me wonder how successful he could be at being funny off-the-cuff.

Then I simply decided he was being satirical and attempting to simply destroy Quinn's show from within, and went with it. So here's to George Carlin and his irreverence. I'd say that any 'best comic ever' list that doesn't include him in the top 3 spots simply lacks validity.

-fp

Just got off the phone with Steve Martin. He called to say hello. I asked him about the subject and he said that he only did standup for about 5 years, so it's kind of hard to be considered in the class of Carlin and Pryor.

Martin was the first comedian I ever loved. He was rock star comic when I was 10 years old. I would say he was the biggest standup comedy sensation in the history of the genre. While artistically I really respect the absurdist style that it could be argued he invented, I don't think his career in standup is on the level of the 2 I mentioned, plus another select few.

Now if he wouldn't have gone to movies, Martin might be on this level, but he is an excellent screenplay writer and actor. The West Coast Woody Allen.

Sometime I will have to put up a top 10 list on the subject.

I later bought some Carlin records at Woodmar Records in Woodmar Mall in Hammond, IN. I'd ride my bike there, and come home all excited to hear Carlin's new xit. I even saw him live at the Holiday Star Theater in Merrillville when I was in jr high or so (the Carlin on Campus tour).

But now when I see him, he just seems to be a bitter old man to me. To me, I used to love his wordsmithing, his goofiness, his physical comedy. "I used to be an Irish Catholic" is such a superior bit to anything on religion he's done in a decade, IMO.

I don't think comedy is immutable, and my own tastes change (about everything, not just comedy). As his politics got more aggressive, mine changed. I got older; he got less funny. "Y'know, you grow."