George Carlin: Complaints & Grievances

Yes, I am talking about Carlin's late 2001 comedy special. I watched that for the first time in 20 years to tell a story: 

Or: I talk about the time I saw Carlin live.

A mutual on Letterboxd recently started logging his reviews of various George Carlin comedy standup specials he did on HBO through the years. I haven’t seen too many of those, although back in the day I did get some of the books he put out in the late 90’s through the early 2000’s. One special I did see when new was this one, late in 2001 when I was as a pal’s place and they had HBO due to an “illegal black box” they had, but shhh on that… many people at the time had those to see all the cable channels without paying for them. Last night, this was watched as I saw it was one of a few Carlin HBO specials on Tubi. Speaking of HBO, the next time I subscribe to HBO Max I'll definitely watch the documentary George Carlin's American Dream.

The reason why I’m telling this tale now is that when I saw Carlin live in Las Vegas the first half of 2002, much of the material was from this special. I was in Las Vegas for Spring Break, having just turned 21 and it was a lot of fun. I haven’t been back since but I’d love to return one day. That standup routine (at the MGM Grand) was mainly this Complaints & Grievances special mixed in with insults of Las Vegas and the people who frequent the place. Not bad for someone who presumably was paid well for performing in Las Vegas. No complaints w/ hearing the routines a second time-they still made me laugh plus I am sure not all the jokes or the setup were told the exact same way. There was someone who was the opening act; heck if I can remember who it was. For all I know it was actually someone who became much more famous later.

Said material included a mention of 9/11 (as it was filmed in NYC two months after that horrible day; it was addressed as the elephant in the room) which inspired laughs as it involved farts, traffic accidents, gross parts of your body, and of course there is no shortage of complaints & grievances against a litany of people. Yes, I did forget that he mentioned MY name as a “soft” one for men… you can blame my father for that if you wish. It’s largely the sort of ribald, vulgar humor and smart commentary that you expect from Carlin; of course I don’t always agree with it but his comments either make me think or laugh so I was happy to spend a little less than an hour with this. More standup will be in the future with me.