Freddogg Off The Chain

Who cried when the funny man died?


I liked George Carlin and the way he used language and there is no doubt left in my mind after watching his last HBO special that at 70 he was out of his ever loving mind. Not “out of his mind funny” but sharp and satirical in a mental illness sort of way nuts. George left us a bitter guy, angered by the clear picture of human life on this planet.


Last Saturday I stayed up to watch Dana Carvey on HBO, now 53 years old, and I was so disappointed because he has all the talent one needs to be funny but he ain’t funny no more, I mean, who needs to hear bathroom jokes from a guy his age and a five minute Andy Rooney impression?

Stand up comedy is mostly inhabited by stupid people with no talent playing to an ADD crowd half drunk. Even Dennis Miller the master of the sub reference went and stayed out of bounds with his right wing paranoia.
But do you know who I think is the funniest old man in the history of the world besides my late Poppy? It’s not Mel Brooks, its Jackie Mason, who is still writing his own routines and currently starring in a one man show off Broadway “The Ultimate Jew”
Mason wrote the joke “I want an 11 foot pole for my birthday so I can go back to high school and touch all those girls I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole.”
You can read the New York Times review below “Barack Obama looks like a Jew with a tan” and there are several Clinton jokes.
Carlin was genius in the late middle of his career and like most of us there is a time to step off or at least stop ranting in favor of a more gentle and appreciative phase of late life. What the fuck am I talking about?

Freddogg

http://theater2.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/theater/reviews/22maso.html