I really like George Carlin (R.I.P) but this was... not up to his usual standards. I expected vulgar, irreverent, offensive and abrasive - it wouldn't be Carlin if it wasn't, but I was kind of disappointed with it. It reminded me a lot of I Am America by Stephen Colbert. Truthfully, Colbert probably ganked a lot of his material from this book, because it was so similar. If I had read this one first, I'd have probably liked it better. OK, maybe not. Every time Carlin would get onto a good bashin' topic, it wouldn't take off. It was just... flapping around like a wounded bird. Ineffectual, in other words. Neither one is getting anywhere. This book consisted of a whole buttload of vignettes and skits and segments. They were assorted topics, with a strong emphasis on language, specifically euphemisms, or any other word or phrase that basically means calling something something else so that it sounds better or softer or more socially acceptable. That's cool. Those were my favorite parts. Trust Carlin to put shit out there and be blunt as fuck about it. I like that.
What I didn't like was the overlong way that a lot of the rest of the book was handled - take this section:
NINETY-NINE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
There are ninety-nine things you need to know:
1. There are more than ninety-nine things you need to know.
2. Nobody knows how many things there are to know.
3. It's more than three.
4. There is no way of knowing how many things you need to know.
Blah blah blah... This goes on for 12 more "things"... Around the 4 point is where I got tired of listening, and I'm not exactly dying to type them all out, either. It's just... get to the point already. A lot of the joke/skit/sections were like that. Descriptions of things would go on for way too long and I find myself zoning out, and by the time the punchline rolls around, I forgot what the hell the joke was about. 'Moment of Silence' was another one.
Anyway... Not his best - but there are some good parts. That's all.