Louis C.K.’s success as a stand-up comic began when he opened up about his frustrations as a father. Since then, he has amazed fans other comedians by throwing away all of his jokes and creating a brand new hour of material for a 
recorded special every year. In this emotional tribute to George Carlin, C.K. credits that approach to the deceased comedian.
C.K. gave the speech at a New York Public Library tribute to Carlin back in March of 2010, but it was just uploaded to YouTube yesterday, and it’s now showing up everywhere because it’s terrific. Over the course of ten minutes, C.K. talks about how Carlin gave him his first real laugh, how Carlin inspired him to become a comedian, and– most importantly — how Carlin’s philosophy broke C.K. out of a 15-year rut that has given us hours of laughter and one of the best shows on television (keep in mind that this event happened before “Louie” debuted on FX). In the final two minutes, C.K. gets choked up talking about Carlin’s death, and you can see a glimpse of what Carlin meant to the world of comedy. If you care about stand-up at all, take the time to watch this video.
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…thank goodness that Dick Cheney was in power when it mattered….
…I DO like Louie’s fatherhood type jokes…..
…he’s like the Ray Romano of this century……or even Bill Cosby…
I expect Dane Cook’s tribute to sound exactly like this.
And … La Schmoove for the win.
Shit
Piss
Fuck
Cunt
Cocksucker
Motherfucker
Tits
RIP George Carlin
This guy continues to make me go crazy laughing.
I was 8 years old when I first heard Carlin’s stand up (Doin’ It Again) and my life outlook has been extremely vulgar since then.
Rat shit, Bat shit, Dirty old twat. 69 Assholes tied in a knot. Hooray. Lizard shit. Fuck.
That was cool, thanks for posting it Matt.
Don’t get me wrong, Louis is awesome, but the adulation for his ‘write a new show every year’ approach is really weird when you’re used to the British alternative comedy scene where that is standard. Guys start out working to build one hour, from which point they work on a new show every year to showcase at the Edinburgh festival, which they continue to do up until the point where they get big enough (some never do and play Edinburgh every year for decades) and can release a new special (as a DVD) and do a national tour every year.
There are even loads of hacks who take that approach. The only ones who really don’t are the awful club comics.
Grimoald – do you know any anti-establishment indie rock bands that I’ve probably never heard of?
@Grimoald – Or you can do what Michael McIntyre does and go around the comedy festivals and steal their jokes, then perform it on stage in a female voice and laugh like a three year old. Then make millions.
British comedy is not so good right now. We have great audiences that are open to different styles of comedy, but nobody to really perform them.
poonTASTIC wins!
Personally…..I’ll stick with the punch-line…”789″
I’ve gotta credit Dr. Demento for my introduction to Carlin. The heavily edited “7 words…”, the Ice Box man, a Place for my Stuff, and countless others were played on his show regularly when I was a kid. (And yeh, put La Schmoov wherever they hide the weekly nominations)
Whinging Brits need to make a push to claim the ultra pasty Jim Gaffigan as their own to fill this apparent void in your extremely refined and superior comedic palette.
Is it gay that I want to get a shovel, dig up Carlin’s corpse, and have a necro 3-way with him and Louis?