Yes, I'm writing about George Carlin again.

This week a slew of George Carlin products hit my mail box, including the CDs What am I Doing in New Jersey?, Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics, Complaints & Grievances, Life is Worth Losing, and the books Napalm & Silly Putty and the quite good When Will Jesus Bring the Porkchops?. I've also been surfing YouTube a lot looking for Carlin videos. Every now and then a YouTube commenter brings up a contemporary name they think compares to Carlin, so I check them out.

It's a tough question: Who will take over the torch from George? In one of his last interviews he seemed to recommend Bill Maher. He told the Huffington Post, "If you want to hear good political comedy with some knowledge base to it, Bill Maher is the person." He added, "Lewis Black does a good job with that, too."

My jury is still out on Lewis Black; after watching some of his stuff on YouTube he's a lot funnier than his TV and radio interviews had led me to believe, but I find his herky-jerky delivery style distracting and offputting. On the other hand if Bill Maher is on Larry King I drop whatever I'm doing to listen. Sometimes that includes masturbating, so he's really performing a feat. However while I'm a definite Bill Maher fan...can he really fill Carlin's shoes? George seemed like a guy who might've been running a hot dog stand in Brooklyn if he hadn't been a big star. Maher, on the other hand, shows a little too much of his prissy Cornell University Ivy League roots to be popular with common men.


Doug Stanhope

A YouTuber recommended Doug Stanhope. Hmm...some really funny stuff there, but the delivery is really sloppy and, frankly, half-assed. Carlin hit the stage at 120 bpm and kept it up for over an hour, even in his last days. I'm also hearing Stanhope doing too much of that, "I remember this one time I was sooo drunk..." humor that every C-list comedian I've ever seen does.


Dane Cook

Someone else brought up Dane Cook. Sorry, but this guy sucks! But look at the size of the place he's playing! Apparently he's popular with somebody. Is it just me?

So there' s a few names that have been tossed about. Is there anyone else out there on the horizon I should be aware of?