Splitsider

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. [...]

George Carlin's daughter has started a petition to rename the block Carlin grew up on "George Carlin Way." "I know my dad loved his neighborhood deeply and you know, I think it's important that New Yorkers know where he came from," Kelly Carlin says. You can sign the petition here and change the fate of the 500 block of West 121st street forever.

With any luck, this story will set the precedent for other awesomely named geographical areas, like Cosby Court and Pryor Park and Mel Brooks Brook. And they could play classic comedy albums on the corresponding streets! Okay, I just invented the nerdiest theme park ever.

While the funniest part of this video is that incredibly blase host (you know she's just finishing her sudoku up there), the rest of Louis CK's George Carlin tribute will having you tearing up like Louis CK giving a George Carlin tribute. In a video from NYPL's "A Tribute To George Carlin" from March 2010 (which was just uploaded to YouTube), CK credits Carlin with making him seriously laugh for the first time (what do dogs do on their day off?), as well as teaching him the value of systematically throwing away your material. "When you're done telling jokes about airplanes and dogs, and you throw those [...]