Is anyone carrying on the Lenny Bruce/George Carlin legacy?

[wtmusic]

Carlin was able to get his message out in a day when anger in comedy was tolerated. Record companies actually made money from his albums, because he was unabashedly pissed off about current events, and it struck a nerve.

Sad to think that genre might haved died with Carlin.

[polichick]

1. Does anyone have the balls (or ovaries) these days??

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Bill Maher isn't angry enough, IMO.

[JI7]

23. i'm not sure Bill Maher gets the economic situation the way Carlin did

and Maher is more the type that goes on whatever the current event/issue is. Carlin just seemed to get it overall.

[stellanoir]

3. Lewis Black

[villager]

10. Yes -- just saw Lewis Black live the other night

He was talking about the need for salary caps, among many other things. "You can't live on $20 million a year!? Fuck you!"

[darkmaestro019]

14. OMMFG, THIS.....

I'll have to check him out. I've been wailing about salary caps for about five years now. It gets me called a communist pretty often.

Nobody is worth three-hundred-eleventy-times more than ANYONE else, ever.

[Arugula Latte]

20. Commie. Why do you hate the massivelymegarich?

Stop waging class warfare! :P

[krispos42]

43. Damn straight

Listen to any of his albums. He's a bit.. piqued.

[Melinda]

4. David Cross:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5tldEQg6is&eurl=http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/11/youtube_gems_david_cross.php

[nashville_brook]

21. that would be my answer too. maybe Zach Galifianakis has potential to go this direction.

[nashville_brook]

26. Patton Oswalt.

[FreepFryer]

42. Patton is definitely in the running, he's got some excellent political comedy...

AND he's the recurring D&D/Renaissance Faire nutball on Reno 911. Very funny guy.

Love Zach G. also...

[book_worm]

5. I doubt it. Comedy today is aimed at twelve year olds.

But we still do have the brilliant Smothers Brothers and Bob Newhart, who is still awesome doing his standup (or sitdown act).

[parasim]

6. I'd say Lewis Black and perhaps Bill Maher are the closest. nt

[JI7]

25. yes on Lewis Black

[libnnc]

7. I may get blasted for this...

but there's Kathy Griffin...

she's not as deep as Carlin but she does harass our sacred cows. She pokes fun at the industry and her place in it on the "D-List". She's been to Iraq, HATES Bush and all the other neocons. And she loves her "gays"...in fact we're her most loyal audience.

Remember her Emmy acceptance speech? "Suck it, Jesus!"

[Warpy]

11. That's who I was going to suggest

so there won't be any brickbats from me.

Jeanne Garofalo was also doing some of this beautifully cynical stuff when she was doing standup.

The problem with carrying this particular torch is that you don't get to do it until you're already famous. If you start out that way, you'll just turn nervous comedy club owners off and there go the jobs.

[nashville_brook]

29. i LOVE her!

[libnnc]

30. I am such a D-List whore

me = token lesbian Kathy fan

She's always had a corner market on the gay boys.

[nashville_brook]

34. her and Margaret Cho. ...i think Griffin's humor is slyly revolutionary -->

she's really puncturing crass culture when she lampoons the D-list. it's so sly, many people don't get it b/c we hate that culture so much we don't even care about its ridicule.

[King Bacon Fat]

8. It won't be long and they'll all be gone...

The age of the truly great comedian is long gone.

George Carlin was an immensely funny man, a brilliant comedian who could really make you think.

The comedian coming out today, however, plays to the cheap, thoughtless laugh. There are some good comedians out there who are still thought-provoking and funny at the same time, but they're the exception.

Why, oh, why did it have to be Carlin? He was so brilliant!

[wtmusic]

9. Good point. It wasn't just anger

but the insightful way they both exposed the raw underbelly of American society.

Apparently self-examination is no longer in vogue.

[King Bacon Fat]

12. THIS is what's funny today...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VROn7ZvVoW8

Warning: this "comedy" sucks.

And I mean really sucks.

The only thing worse than this is what this moron's doing now!

[nashville_brook]

31. that's really not fair or true -- the CableGuy/Foxworthy phenom = what Carlin/Bruce rebelled against

there's always going to be crappy, least-common-denominator comedy. thing is, we actually have mainstream "cutting edge" comedy with Stewart/Colbert/Chappelle. Lenny Bruce never had a television show (read: giant audiences). Nor did Carlin. their comedy was an "underground" thing.

seems to me, humor-wise, the glass is half-full rather than half-empty.

[nashville_brook]

32. Sarah Silverstein.

[FreepFryer]

36. Silverman :)

[nashville_brook]

38. jesus christ on a matzo ball. brain no workee today.

[FreepFryer]

41. That's okay, I love Shel Silverstein too :) :) (n/t)

[JackRiddler]

13. The culture has changed - the legacy is everywhere, but....

you will never have these guys again... Bruce, Pryor and Carlin.

I'm not saying the culture has declined - in some ways it has, but for a great comedian that can be a good thing. More to the point, it's fragmented. The old master narrative is no longer there to slay in quite the same way that these guys got to do. Everyone's off in the niche markets, 1000 brands of belief. Carlin is succeeded by 10,000 performers and bloggers of every type, but no one within institutionalized comedy will ever be able to do the same thing again. And let's face it, "edgy" as it must be, what's on the Comedy Channel etc. is no longer ever going to challenge the status quo, only pretend. A new Carlin would have to come from out of some unguessed at left field.

[NightWatcher]

15. let's not forget Bill Hicks

[AngryAmish]

16. Mitch Hedberg?

[monmouth]

17. Richard Lewis???

[CBGLuthier]

40. I think they are looking for the living

He been dead for a few years now.

[AngryAmish]

44. Sam Kennison?

[Lex]

18. Dave Chappelle.

nt

[jmowreader]

19. The genre died with Carlin

There are exactly two kinds of comics working today:

1) comics who can't get any sex, and want you to know it

and

2) "blue collar comics" like Larry the Cable Guy, because it's fun to laugh at people dumber than you--and this guy acts like the dumbest man in America. I don't care who you are, that's funny right there. (It's funny he has to TELL people it's okay to laugh at his unhumorous jokes.)

[nashville_brook]

37. what about Stewart, Colbert, Chappelle, SilverMAN, Leary, Black, Cross, Oswalt, Posehn...

etc etc.


maybe it's that this humor is no longer an underground phenomena. maybe it's that people who were young when Carlin was an up and comer, don't seek out this sort of entertainment anymore.

[Gato Moteado]

22. doug stanhope?

nt

[nashville_brook]

28. thanks for this, i'd never heard of him --> link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THDamlNsuuA&feature=related

[scheming daemons]

24. Bill Maher, Lewis Black, Jon Stewart.... all in bits and pieces....

...nobody who could do it like GC, though.


Every 100 years, America gets one of 'em. We had Mark Twain... then we had George Carlin. It will be a century before we have another.

[nashville_brook]

27. if Stephen Colbert's Correspondent's Dinner routine doesn't get him into Carlin heaven, I don't know

what does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa-4E8ZDj9s

[Blue_Tires]

33. Dane Cook?

just joking! just joking!!

[KharmaTrain]

35. Lewis Black

A couple months ago the History Channel did a show on stand-up comedy hosted by Black...Carlin was one of the featured stand-ups. I hope they rerun it soon.

Carlin said of Black "He's one of the few guys I'd pay to go see".

[Initech]

39. Lewis Black, David Cross, Dave Chappelle

And dare I mention the late, great Bill Hicks as well?