It's bewildering that George Carlin's latest book, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? is surfing the edge of the nonfiction bestseller lists. The book is pretty much what you'd expect from the irreverent comedian, composed partially of one-liners like the following:
"I've never seen a homeless guy with a bottle of Gatorade."
"One great thing about getting old is that you can get out of all sorts of social obligations just by saying you're too tired."
"We oughta have a name for the day before yesterday - Dayforday? Yesterforday? Why don't you people just come up with something and get back to me."
And while this sort of stuff plays really well for Carlin onstage, it has everything to do with his delivery and next to nothing to do with actual comedic content. Which is why When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? is one of those few publications whose audio incarnation far surpasses its written form and is rightfully read by the author.
"I've never seen a homeless guy with a bottle of Gatorade."
"One great thing about getting old is that you can get out of all sorts of social obligations just by saying you're too tired."
"We oughta have a name for the day before yesterday - Dayforday? Yesterforday? Why don't you people just come up with something and get back to me."
And while this sort of stuff plays really well for Carlin onstage, it has everything to do with his delivery and next to nothing to do with actual comedic content. Which is why When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? is one of those few publications whose audio incarnation far surpasses its written form and is rightfully read by the author.
I grew up with George Carlin. As far as I remember, he was the original comedian your parents probably didn't want you listening to. This was before Richard Pryor. His "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" prompted legal action by the FCC in 1973 which resulted in a Supreme Court case in which Carlin's routine was judged "indecent but not obscene." As is always the case with this sort of publicity, Carlin thrived. In 1975, he was the Saturday Night Live's first guest host.
Always happy to shock audiences with his uncensored and oft perverted take on everything, George Carlin's true ability is in his use and his dissection of language. Even in his early days, Carlin turned a flair for language into comedic brilliance.
It's not surprising then that the best parts of When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? are the chapters on "euphemistic language," in which he examines phrasing designed to "dress up language that sounds too negative." He does quite a bit of this in the book, exploring social distinctions between words like "free" and "complementary," but rolling quickly more interesting matters such as the language of advertising, war, and politics.
Always happy to shock audiences with his uncensored and oft perverted take on everything, George Carlin's true ability is in his use and his dissection of language. Even in his early days, Carlin turned a flair for language into comedic brilliance.
It's not surprising then that the best parts of When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? are the chapters on "euphemistic language," in which he examines phrasing designed to "dress up language that sounds too negative." He does quite a bit of this in the book, exploring social distinctions between words like "free" and "complementary," but rolling quickly more interesting matters such as the language of advertising, war, and politics.
Carlin does nothing to obscure his political leanings, opening the book with a quotation describing how simple it is for the leaders of a country to drag its people into war by telling them that they are being attacked and then denouncing the pacifists for their lack of patriotism. The quotation is from Hermann Goering.
George Carlin is an iconoclast's iconoclast, and he proves himself relevant in this book by taking swings at everything from reality television to religion (a staunch atheist, he invented a mock religion in his early days called "Frisbeetarianism," proffering the belief that when a person dies, "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there."
I could never recommend actually reading When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? in book form, and would love to know the percentage of copies that were purchased for the sole purpose of bathroom-reading. But if you're a fan of his comedy and thick-skinned enough to handle his various demented wanderings, I would highly recommend the audio version (available from Time Warner Audiobooks or as an Audible.com download). At its worst, it is offensively mediocre, and at it's best offensively hilarious. But George Carlin's writing is best delivered by George Carlin.
George Carlin is an iconoclast's iconoclast, and he proves himself relevant in this book by taking swings at everything from reality television to religion (a staunch atheist, he invented a mock religion in his early days called "Frisbeetarianism," proffering the belief that when a person dies, "his soul gets flung onto a roof, and just stays there."
I could never recommend actually reading When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? in book form, and would love to know the percentage of copies that were purchased for the sole purpose of bathroom-reading. But if you're a fan of his comedy and thick-skinned enough to handle his various demented wanderings, I would highly recommend the audio version (available from Time Warner Audiobooks or as an Audible.com download). At its worst, it is offensively mediocre, and at it's best offensively hilarious. But George Carlin's writing is best delivered by George Carlin.
