Comedy CD Reviews

Mitch Hedberg & George Carlin

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Published: Sep 30, 2008

Before his fatal overdose in March 2005, Mitch Hedberg was a comedian at the height of his standup career and getting ready to record another full-length album of his work. Sadly, that CD, the newly released Do You Believe in Gosh? (Comedy Central), will stand as a posthumous postscript for a tragically brief career.

Gosh, much of which was recorded just two months before Hedberg passed away, is full of his characteristic one-liners ("A burrito is a sleeping bag for ground beef." "My girlfriend works for Hooters in the kitchen.") as well as musings on whatever he was thinking about in his spare time (on avoiding any jellyfish except for those from Smuckers: "Swim toward me and land on my English muffin!"). Unfortunately, writing out Hedberg's material doesn't do it justice; everything was made exponentially funnier by his slow, deliberately lazy delivery.

Hedberg knew the comedic value of profanity for his adult audiences, but a lot of the time his act had a charming, kid-like quality that was completely endearing: "It'd be cool if you lived with a monster. You'd never get the hiccups." And sure, he was full of carefully plotted quips, but he was quick on his feet, too. When an audience member shouts out, "What are you drinking?" Hedberg responds, "NyQuil on the rocks. For when you are sick but still feeling sociable." Hedberg would laugh at his own jokes in a warm and goofy way. He even tweaked standup's tropes: "You guys know what I'm talking about?" (Audience gives variety of verbal assents.) "I don't."

In the end, though, it was Hedberg's smartest-hippie-on-the-block approach that will be remembered. About seeing a guy in a leather jacket eating a hamburger and drinking a milkshake: "Dude, you are a cow. The metamorphosis is complete. Don't fall asleep or I will tip you over."

—Lori Hill

It's more than a little jarring to hear George Carlin on his posthumously released album proclaim, "You know what I've been doing? Going through my address book and crossing out the dead people! ... Kinda gives you a feeling of power, of superiority to have outlasted another old friend." Carlin's material grew increasingly bitter, and It's Bad for Ya straightforwardly addresses aging and mortality.

Admittedly, some of his observations ("Every child is clearly not special") sound like 1990s Bill Hicks rants, and even the live audience loses enthusiasm during some of his darker comments. But in the last section of this final album, Carlin's as whimsical as ever, wondering why we remove our hats whenever the flag goes by: "What the fuck does a hat have to do with being patriotic? What possible relationship exists between the uncovered head and a feeling that ought to live in your heart? ... What's so bad about hats that you have to take them off? Why not take off your pants?"

From the self-esteem movement to the Religious Right, Carlin never stopped tilting at windmills. He saves special rancor for George W. Bush ("I call him 'Governor Bush' because that's the only elected office he ever held legally in my opinion"). Add Carlin to the list of outspoken critics of the current administration who didn't make it to Jan. 20, 2009.

—Andrew Milner

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