George Carlin

[Treebeard]

Best stand-up comedian of all time?

Discuss.

[Trevor K]

He's pretty kickass.
But dunno about my fav.

It's hard to say, "best" vs "fav."

[freetibetwpurch]

I have never thought he was that funny. He has done some of the most classic bits, but not many. I think that whole contrived anger thing really applies to him or at least the reborn George Carlin. The Simpsons caught what I feel really well when they did that Krusty stand up episode. I read part of When will jesus bring the porkchops, and it is unreadable. He's not even that insightful even though he tries to be. Why do they call cough drops lasanges now? To steal your money. Huh, fellas?

[fritter]

yep.

everybody gets old and a bit irrelevant if they live that long. the reason people cut down in their prime turn into untouchable icons is because they never had a chance to get shitty, or in some cases maybe were afraid to. he did it longer better than anybody, and changed the subject matter of mainstream standup to include politics, religion, sex, drugs, etc. plus he was rufus. i don't think it's all that close, frankly.

[kulguyssj4]

I hate his goddamn voice, but man, Mitch Hedburg's voice is ranks up there with Ron Perlman and Orson Welles in terms of kick assness