George Carlin was one of the greatest comedians of the 20th century.Taking leads from the style of Lenny Bruce, Carlin introduced his "hippy dippy weatherman" in the mid 60's on the show that was the week that was, featuring David Frost, and an up and coming comedic actor Allan Alda, who took his style and lead from Groucho Marx. Carlin stayed relatively mild for many decades unlike Bruce whose off Broadway stage gave little censorship, and would not have been acceptable for television. His second most famous skit was the 7 words you cannot say on television. Staying with standup, unlike Alan Alda, Andy Griffith, Bob Newhart and others, he was an invited comedian on late night TV throughout his career. After the death of his wife, he took a few years to cuss up a storm, but he would land with a less vitriolic slap as he came to the end of his career.
Stand up is one of the most difficult mediums of theater. All alone on stage, lights in your eyes and an unknown crowd, waiting to laugh or boo. Laurel and Hardy, Abbot and Costello, George and Gracie, Jack Benny and two set-up comedians, the two for is most similar to the standup, sitting and talking with the likes of Jonny Carson and other softball throwing hosts of late night. Johnny took the tonight show over, when Steve Allen left, and unlike the combination variety show of Allen, Johnny held his own with Ed and Doc, and other than his own skits, he held the space like no one before or since.
Johnny had a few favorite comedians, Don Rickles, Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams were the most notable from public fame, but he also loved doing shows with Tim Conway and Harvey Corman, Dean Martin, and a tribute to Don Rickles as his single favorite comedian, next to Ed and Doc, the single most frequent guest on the Tonight show. He was conservative enough to not invite guests who advocated for political change, which would not hold under Jay Leno and the others who followed. The first host's Steve Allen and Jack Parr, were by their nature clever political satirist's with improv. 50 years from now we may judge the best comedians of the first half of the century. Some are not even performing on stage yet, but we will see both creativity and emulation, Groucho gave us Allan Alda and Woody Allen, Mae West paved the way for Lucille Ball, and to a lessor extent Carol Burnett, but Hollywood was a male dominated city throughout the 20th century. It will be nice if 50 years from now, comedy is represented fairly by all peoples who care to share. I will follow Carlin today on my live podcast, stealing more than emulating from a skit I watched a few days ago. Enjoy, live laugh and dance.
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