George Carlin at USC

Early Carlin is in full "Didja ever notice" and "Do you ever" mode and a far cry away from his later brilliance. It's still important for the live version of the seven dirty words. The tape I saw this on actually stopped right before the skit and warned people of upcoming vulgar language, leave the room if you will be offended!

A bit of everything is thrown in in Carlin's debut recording, some of which sticks, some doesn't. There are a few cute gags and most of his play-on-words stuff is great, but other jokes were old hat even at the time, and too much of the observational stuff is below par for this level. A polished performer even this early in his career, still he seems a little flaky at times - attempting then abandoning a few ideas - but that can be put down to the lenses on him.

Aged, of course, because stand-up is an industry that naturally resorbs the style of older material, but nevertheless classic. Carlin will, I think, always be my all-time favorite.

So this is how it started. It's weird to see what a big deal hearing curse-words on TV used to be. Lots of good observational jokes, but it feels really out of date.