Classic Gold

George Carlin introduced us to subversive comedy before we even knew what "subversive" meant. In fact, we often get together with friends and bust guts to Occupation: Foole and Class Clown, ROTFL to the fart jokes, drug references, self-deprecating digs at his whiteness and "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." All of this and more appealed to us adolescent '70s boys, but Carlin also promoted an anti-authoritarian worldview that was as cathartically cranky as it was sensible-and funny because it was, like, true. The septuagenarian humorist has only become more incisively witty and substantive with age. He's now more caustic editorialist/philosopher than mere joke machine, inspiring as much enlightenment as he does laughter.
Sun., May 18, 5 & 7:30 p.m., 2008