My 7 Favorite Stand-Up Comics

I've been going through all of George Carlin's 14 HBO specials one at a time, and backwards too, starting with It's Bad For Ya! (2008) and just finished watching Playin' with Your Head (1986). I was not a fair-weather fan, either. I like all of his stuff, some of it less than others, and had seen 4 or 5 of his specials and downloaded various audio tracks of bits he did long before the evening of June 22, 2008. I had not been so torn up about a stranger's death since I learned that the brilliant Phil Hartman had been killed in a lurid murder-suicide, courtesy of his wife, Brynn Hartman. One could say that these people were not strangers, that they touched our lives without ever meeting us face to face, or some sentimental bullshit like that. Maybe there's some truth to it; I dunno. I loved George Carlin. He said things occasionally that I found despicable, but the worst comedians are the ones who are reluctant to probe the dregs, that is, the basest or least desirable aspects of the human condition. Some comedians can be profoundly hilarious discussing nothing but trivialities. One common theme in the following 6 comedians' acts is finding newfound layers of meaning/points of interest/absurdity in tiny, mundane things that people take for granted. Seinfeld popularized talking about nothing, with often amusing results, but George Carlin was doing it back in '86. I'm not sure if Carlin is the best, or Pryor is the best, or Lenny Bruce, or Bill Hicks. I hate arbitrary "Best of _________" lists, unless they're my arbitrary lists, which are good, unlike the other ones.


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