A year-long battle to name part of a Manhattan street after legendary comedian George Carlin is finally coming to a close after a process that lasted more than a year, according to The Columbia Spectator. A community board voted to name the 400 block of 121st Street, between Amsterdam and Morningside Park, "George Carlin Way," and now all that has to happen is for city council to approve the decision. The fight was led by stand-up Kevin Bartini, a warm-up comic for The Daily Show, who collected 9,000 signatures to support the renaming. Carlin grew up on the 500 block of 121st Street, which is where Bartini originally proposed [...]
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials, and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
On June 9th, 1980, in the midst of filming the movie Bustin’ Loose, Richard Pryor set himself on fire while freebasing cocaine as the [...]
George Carlin recorded his first solo album in late 1966. On it, he does a bit about a folk protest song that airs on a fictional radio station called Wonderful WINO. Carlin sings the song — by a group he calls Danny and the Demonstrators, no less — in a goofy, drugged-out voice. The song goes like this:
“Don’t want no war/Don’t want no war/Don’t want no war. Don’t want no job, neither!”
The audience goes nuts. The bit kills.
The album that bit comes from, Take-Offs and Put-Ons, was recorded at the end of the first phase of Carlin’s stand-up career. You could call it the straight phase. [...]
