Amazon.com Review Standup comic George Carlin follows up his dark-horse smash bestseller __ with another compendium of cranky meditations, cinching his reputation as the Andy Rooney of boomer hepcats. "Road rage, air rage," Carlin rails. "Why should I be forced to divide my rage into separate categories? To me, it's just one big, all-around, everyday rage. I don't have time for fine distinctions." Carlin is not into the lengthy essay--he's a sprinter of the mind. Most sentences in the book could be lifted out to stand alone and provoke deep thought: "How can it be a spy satellite if they announce on television that it's a spy satellite?" Good question. "Why do they bother saying 'Raw sewage'? Do some people cook that stuff?" Yuck, but yes, Carlin's got a point. He can do an extended bit too, most memorably the transcript of Jesus on a talk show plugging his new tell-all memoir about the Trinity, Three's a Crowd. Carlin is funny, but genuinely angry and poignant at times: "You live 80 years and at best you get about six minutes of pure magic," he says. Sad, but about right.And how did Carlin get into his line of business, "thinking up goofy s---," as he puts it? There's a clue in one entry in this book: "As of 1995 the number of people who had lived on earth was 105,472,380,169 ... it means that at this point there have been almost 1 quadrillion human bowel movements and most of them occurred before people had anything to read. These are the kind of thoughts that kept me from moving quickly up the corporate ladder."Thank god Carlin stayed low on the corporate food chain and high on his own utterly idiosyncratic ideas! --Tim Appelo From Publishers Weekly Politically incorrect comic and Grammy winner Carlin has shown no signs of burnout during a four-decade career arc as solo stand-up, TV writer and sitcom actor (That Girl; The George Carlin Show), with 18 hit recordings and 10 solo HBO specials, plus film roles (Dogma; The Prince of Tides). Living in L.A. and Vegas, he continues to take his act to stages across the country. Four years ago, Carlin's huge fan following kept his Brain Droppings on the New York Times bestseller list for 40 weeks, so it's no surprise he's back for another round of acrid and oblique observations on modern mores. He covers a wide range of issues from rape and religion to the homeless: "There's no war on homelessness... it's because there's no money in it." And any topic is fair game: abortion, airport security, cars, funerals, language, organ donors, sports, technology, TV and war. On the latter, he says, "Men, insecure about the size of their penises, choose to kill one another." Over 100 scintillating short pieces are interrupted by loony lists and hundreds of clever one-liners. The fragmented format and colloquial style of writing suggest that much of this laugh-out-loud book is drawn directly from Carlin's stage act. Several satires here ("A day in the life of Henry VIII," a nine-page interview with Jesus, an avant-garde play program) indicate a different direction Carlin might consider for future books. (May 1)Forecast: HighBridge's abridged audiocassette and CD might lead some to peruse the book, which splashes in the wake of a massive Carlin retrospective ("From Class Clown to Social Critic") two months ago at the Museum of Television & Radio (N.Y./L.A.). With a 10-city author tour and national publicity, sales could equal those of Brain Droppings (700,000 copies).Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
I've often thought that George Carlin wrote books, less as a means of transferring information and knowledge, and more as a means of making some cash. Each portion of his books are often very similar to his standup routines throughout the years, but reading them pale in comparison to watching George do what he did best!Now that aside, I love reading his stuff...just like I indicated in my review for "When Will Jesus Bring the Porkshops." I say that his written word pales in comparison to his spoken word, and it does, as if it is a bad thing, but it's not. His written word is very entertaining and critical of the very things I think we all need to take a closer look at in our world, but his spoken word is just that much better.If you don't like Carlin, you won't like this book...
What do You think about Napalm & Silly Putty (2002)?
I needed something to cleanse my palate after two novels set during the Holocaust. This did the trick.While George Carlin is eminently funny, I noticed the same problem with this book as I did with Stephen Colbert's book. That is, comedians who make their success by playing off a live audience do not translate well to the static written word. The whole point of a comedy routine is to interact with others, soliciting reactions and feeding off of them. Listening to Carlin read his book was the same as listening to Colbert read his: it sounded like a guy trying to be funny in an empty room. It sounded a little pathetic. Also, if you know Carlin's live stuff, then you will notice a distict reduction in energy level, timing, and punch as he simply reads into a microphone. There's a little bit there, but it's just not the same as his hilarious live performances.Still, the guy's an absolute riot. You can't go wrong with Carlin.
—Katie
Gretchen Young, AB'84, AM'84EditorThe #1 New York Times bestseller with more than 450,000 copies in print offers up a hilarious and "entertaining" [Chicago Sun-Times] collection of razor-sharp observations. Spending more than 15 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in hardcover, George Carlin, the thinking person's comic, has made it very clear how successful he is at the transition from stage to page. In Napalm & Silly Putty, Carlin's characteristically ironic and hilarious take on life shines through.
—University of Chicago Magazine
George Carlin was a genius, and this book is seriously funny, it contains some of the best comedy bits in history. But that's also my problem with this book, maybe I should have read up on the book before buying it, but I was kinda dissapointed to find out that a lot of the content of the book was routines that he has done on stage, so the funniest parts of the book weren't really new to me as I have seen most of his shows more than once. So if you're a Carlin fan (which I guess you have to be to read this) you should expect to find a lot of routines you have heard before. But if you haven't watched any of his shows you will probably be laughing your ass off reading this.
—Anders Madsen
