George Carlin: Back in Town (1996)

good back-story, and good acting

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is not the first thing of Carlin's I've listened to, but it's in my top 3. No other comedian has had the nerve to start up with a line such as "Why? Why? Why is it that most people who are against abortion are people you wouldn't wanna **** in the first place?" Classic! Carlin sounds really ticked in this one, but nearly as much as he did in "You Are All Diseased." This one he wasn't but only so serious. The man is very insightful, and makes some very good points through-out the entire show. If you don't laugh at this one, you are either heavily sedated or have no sense of humor in any shape or form. He has jokes that anybody who knows what subjects he's tackling at can laugh at. It's just that great! His bit on "State Prison Farms" was pure gold. I have yet to hear a comedian with the imagination as George.

Arguably George Carlin's most famous and best performance in years, "Back in Town" came late in his career but combines all his best trademarks - rants on abortion, religion, sex, politics, bodily functions, and capital punishment.Opening with a vicious rant against "pro-life conservative Americans," Carlin begins bringing up points such as, "These people value the sanctity of life - while you're a sperm." He then bitterly moves on towards the death sentence, noting its proposed expansion to cover drug dealers. "You can't give the death sentence to people who don't care about dying!" If you are new to Carlin this is the best place to start - it's easily accessible and is funny, witty and a scathing attack on American society.

In this special he is still on his trek of going after the big topics in the world, some of his classic standards (i.e. fart jokes), little things with language, and of course a topic that never gets old, "Free-Floating Hostility", featuring some of the funniest lines Carlin has ever spoken. Even if you might not agree with all he says on the abortion issue early on, it's hard to argue that he isn't on the ball with his thoughts. In fact, one of the great pleasures of this special is how the first half-hour is all connected together, flowing from Abortion to Sanctity of Life into using Capital Punishment to balancing the budget, and then into what he calls "prison farms". This is for just a general fan of stand-up something that still gets better on repeated viewings (one line he has about people who wear different colored ribbons makes me grin whenever I think about it), and should be in any Carlin fan's collection.