First impressions can be difficult to overcome.
Especially when they’re reinforced.
I came of age in the late ’60s and early ’70s, and I was never a fan of stoner humor. There are few bits that are as similar to fingernails on a chalkboard than Cheech and Chong’s “Dave’s Not Here,” and I never really developed a liking for the duo’s comedy or their films.
In fact, one of my favorite lines I ever wrote was in a review in my college newspaper panning their first film, “Up in Smoke.” I said the movie had so many problems with continuity that it looked as though it had been edited by a lunatic with a meat cleaver.
I managed to miss most of their later albums and movies, and my biggest contact with either of them was when Cheech Marin was the guest speaker at Cal State Northridge’s 2007 graduation.
I was in the vicinity because my son was graduating from CSUN that day.
I certainly didn’t attend to hear Cheech, with or without Chong.
But this story isn’t about Cheech, Chong or any of their friends or relatives. There was another comedian at the time who wasn’t quite as popular but wound up having a much better career.
Plenty of people I knew at the time loved George Carlin as the Hippy Dippy Weatherman. I could hardly bear to listen to it.
Of course, there was a lot more to Carlin than Al Sleet, from his bit about the seven words you can’t say on television all the way to his ridicule of the American Dream.. By the time he died at age 71 in 2008, he had worked his way into nearly every list of greatest comedians that existed.
When Rolling Stone published its list of the top 50 comedians ever, Carlin was second. Just ahead of Lenny Bruce and trailing only Richard Pryor. Tough to argue with that, just as it would be difficult to complain if the top two were reversed.
By the latter years of his career, Carlin was doing his best to ridicule government and education.
“Governments don’t want a population capable of critical thinking. They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.”
It has been 13 years since he died, but his material holds up extremely well. Listen to some of his less sarcastic bits. I love “A Place for My Stuff” and his explanation of what makes a class clown is still hilarious.
There are plenty of other funny people, but very few worth considering for the top two. The only one I would say had the potential to be there was Robin Williams, who was as manic as Carlin was deadpan.
There are so many others I love, from old-liners like Rodney Dangerfield and Robert Klein to newer ones like Patton Oswalt.
But Carlin is the king.
I’m glad I overcame my initial opinion of him.