This Is the Reason George Carlin Didn’t Consider Himself A Cynic

George Carlin was never much of a joiner. When comedian Paul Provenza suggested he might be a nihilist, Carlin resisted the notion. “‘Nihilist’ is definitely an identity, and I shy away from identities,” he explained in Provenza’s Satiristas: Comedians, Contrarians, Raconteurs & Vulgarians. 

So Provenza tried some more adjectives to pinpoint Carlin’s life philosophy. “Some might describe your worldview as cynical or dispassionate,” he suggested, but once again, Carlin shot down the categorization. 

“If an outsider wants to say that, fine, but I don’t think of myself as cynical. To me, cynical is when Ford refused to retool gas tanks that were exploding and killing people. It cost more to retool than it did to pay the widows, so they chose to just continue paying widows. That’s cynicism.”

Cue the rants! “I understand that a person who doesn’t believe in a lot is called a cynic — but I think of myself as a skeptic and a realist,” Carlin clarified. “I look at things and say, ‘Wait a minute… I don’t fuckin’ buy that.’ I have a realistic, skeptical viewpoint; if someone thinks it’s ‘cynical,’ fine. But they say if you scratch a cynic, you’ll find a disappointed idealist, and I’d have to cop to that. It’s just who I am.”

Carlin wasn’t always a disappointed idealist. He told Provenza that his outlook changed after his personal and professional transformation in 1970, but his latest iteration of self didn’t take hold until the 1990s. His HBO special Jammin’ In New York highlighted his changing values:

One bit in particular, “The Planet Is Fine, the People Are Fucked,” crystalized everything. When Carlin watched the special later, he noticed something in his stand-up had changed. “In fact, several comedians, names you and I know and most people recognize, went to the trouble of telling me that that particular show was important. No one’s ever done that before or since, with any other show I’ve done.”

“That show was a life-changer for me,” Carlin said. “It made me realize I was more of an artist than a performer; that I was performing my art rather than just writing stuff and putting it on stage.”

Ever the prophet, Carlin anticipated today’s arguments about what you’re allowed to say on stage. (He should as a guy who once spent time in jail for reciting his seven dirty words in Milwaukee.) As you might expect, Carlin knew that he could get away with anything, as long as he’d earned that privilege.

“I’m a great believer in context. I say you can joke about anything,” he insisted. “Baby rape is a very difficult subject to do three or four minutes on, but if you created a context — and that includes not only the context you’ve created for the jokes but your bigger context, too; your act, the persona they know when they buy a ticket — if all that’s in place, you can, let’s call it ‘get by’ with it. You’re still gonna turn off some people, but they’ll be right back for the next piece of material.”