A Few Last Words with George Carlin and Tony Hendra: Satire

http://www.georgecarlin.com

Never before heard conversations between the late, great George Carlin and his friend and co-author, Tony Hendra.

George Carlin: I began to see in my files there was like Well lets just kill everybody. And now I see oh, oh, I said heres the real art cause I honestly dont think it would be a good idea to kill everybody but, but at the same time I honestly think thats a pretty good idea to let loose, and to say, and if I can give a lot of semi, quasi, pseudo reasons and, uh, methods for getting rid of everybody in the world, except for what I call a nice workable 200,000, and Im not even sure I can find that many, I said I think weve got a chance. Is that satire, by the way Tony, cause you have a definition of satire and I dont really know what satire is and I know its misused all the time

Tony Hendra: I think satire is when you take on the coloration of someone else.

GC: Yes, yes, right.

TH: When did you do that bit?

GC: I havent gotten to it yet, awww, this is building in the fall and looking great, naw its going to be wonderful.

TH: But in a sense, it seems to me, that may be a very delayed reaction to what after all was Reagans basic philosophy, which is that we all may have to die in order to save his way of life. So in a sense youre taking on the oppositions basic theory which is, we may all die.

GC: Yeah, well that is what Im doing in this, what Im espousing here is, yes—

TH: Utter violence, ultra ultra violence. I mean I think thats satire.

GC: Thats what the killing people will do. I said this is getting out of hand, too many people. You know what I said, I said, I dont think you solve problems by electing different leaders, nor do I think you sit around in a circle and sing songs. So I dont think another Farm Aid is gonna do anything. I think widespread bloodshed, it has been shown in the past, it works. Change, we need change.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• george carlin
• tony hendra
• last words
• memoir
• lost audio clips
• comedy
• book
• legend
• capitol steps ronald reagan

[Keithed200]

@anonymouscrank Oh please. Reagan himself supported a number of dictators in South America, Middle-East and elsewhere who added a lot to the body-pile. Saddam Hussein was a friend of America's under the presidency of Reagan. He also oversaw huge increases in wealth disparities and a declining median income for the average American family. He may not have been exactly as bad as Stalin, Hitler or Mao but he was still a piece of shit.

[anonymouscrank]

Reagan? There's no shortage of twentieth century dictators (Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot) Tony could've cited who started with the very same premise--a "nice, workable 200,000"--to inaugurate their new, perfect societies. It's silly how Reagan is still the bogeyman to so many people. The Kremlin was once very busy cranking out anti-Reagan propaganda. Intelligent people shouldn't be spouting it 25 years on.

[tdp1909]

@ARyttz Cheers - I do tend to take Carlin a little too literally & sometimes, when he says proper dark sh*t, it's difficult to know whether he's joking. It's kinda like Bill Hicks with his "Hitler had the right idea" rant - was he joking or serious?

[ARyttz]

@tdp1909 Were you paying attention? It's satire.

He was largely a shock comedian, and unpleasant things offend people's tender sensibilities. With that sort of thing, the ones that are attentive enough to recognize when somebody's joking simply laugh. Of course, it's a fair assumption that a comedian is *always* joking, but some people struggle with such ideas.

The intellectually problematic members of the audience talk about how much the comedian has changed, or something similar.

[angusbarron]

I much prefer "the consensus reality is intentionally misleading" George Carlin RIP.

[tdp1909]

God George Carlin had a Black Soul towards the end.

Still, he is a diamond & the truth ain't pretty...

[ConserveCompassion]

RIP George. We love you!