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EDMONTON - Trying to pry the answers to life's questions from George Carlin is like taking a long trip to seek wisdom from a yogic guru in a remote Himalayan village, only to be told, "The answers are inside you, my child."
Thanks a bunch, o' enlightened one.
First of all, the 70-year-old comic refuses to divulge specific details, i.e., jokes, from his new show It's Bad for Ya, on stage at the Jubilee Auditorium Thursday night and on his new live HBO special March 1.
"The main focus of the show is the bulls--t that Americans live every day," is as far as Carlin will go. "It's the bulls--t! It's all bulls--t, folks, and it's bad for ya."
He claims he is not pointing out bulls--t for the good of humanity. He's doing it for fun.
BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES
"I don't care about the culture. I'm just trying to point out how badly the culture is doing. I think it's an enjoyable sight, personally. I enjoy watching the United States Empire crash and burn. It's just a lot of fun. It seems quite a spectacle. I don't have a stake in it. I don't care how it ends. I'm not a cheerleader for a certain outcome. I have an emotional detachment from it that allows me to function as a writer and to see things in a pure light."
Has he no sympathy for the people hurt by the bulls--t?
Carlin sighs like a weary Zen master lecturing a dim pupil. He's gone over this before: "People who know me and come to my shows understand that my point is that the culture is highly toxic, and people are not smart enough to do anything about it. And they've given up their power for material goods and for the sake of an invisible man in the sky, so I have no sympathy for the people. I'm interested in people one at a time, that I'm able to feel empathy for when I meet someone who deserves my sympathy, empathy and compassion, but that's an individual. When it comes to groups, they sacrifice their individual beauty. And they've already sacrificed all their right to a good outcome by being slaved to material gain and superstitious beliefs. That's where I come from with anything I do."
Carlin's road to detached enlightenment more or less started with the Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television, his famous 1971 routine, which still holds up (unlike most comedy written that long ago). The words, by the way, are (politely): excrement, urine, sex act, sex organ, sex act, incest and mammary glands. Society is still pretty uptight about these things.
OFFEND AND ENLIGHTEN
Carlin honed his unique style of observational humour over years of cycles of tours, HBO specials, books and the occasional role as a bearded weirdo in a Bill & Ted movie. The very title of his latest book - When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? - manages to offend at least two major religions, and is filled with observations like this: "Women are crazy and men are stupid. And the main reason that women are crazy is that men are stupid. It's not the only reason, but it's a big one."
From his perch of the mountain of topical comedy, no sacred cows in his way, Carlin merely watches the world without attempting to change it in any way (kind of like God, ironically). Carlin strives to be the perfect iconoclast, the perfect dispassionate journalist - and he is more popular than ever. This lends weight to the idea that the smartest comedians and comedy writers are able to find truth in an increasingly confusing modern world, and so are reaching more people than they ever have in human history. Right?
The inscrutable comic replies, "Well, there are more human beings now, so I guess it's true."
Makes you think, doesn't he? Wrong again, Grasshopper.
Carlin says, "Sometimes I get asked if I try to make people think. I say NO, capital N, capital O. That would be the kiss of death, to set out to make people think. But what I want them to know is that I'm thinking."
Speaking mind expansion, it's widely known that Carlin used to have a cocaine problem. He beat that, but continued to smoke marijuana as a way to "punch up" his material. He doesn't even do that anymore.
"I found I can write without it. I found out it was me all along."
Sage words for anyone considering a long trip in search of wisdom.