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this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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For starters, his famous "think of how dumb the average person is, half of people are dumber than that."
Only a small percent of people would be perceptibly below average. Like single digits. It's circlejerk humor.
And as far as humor goes, I think he's great. Just not a genius nor a prophet.
It's not though. But I like your take on it, except you butchered it lol
Or can you substantiate that claim with broader context? I can't remember the setup to the premise.
I guess we could ask Carlinbot.
In a scenario where the average IQ is 200? Do you understand what you're talking about? You realize that the majority of people are exactly average, with a bit fuzziness, right? No? Then I guess Carlin is for you.
I don't think he was trying to make literal statements with things like that. Yes, he used sociopolitical commentary as his medium, but he was still a comedian.
He's not trying to convince his audience that everybody is stupid, he's speaking to a feeling most of us have had when looking at what others are doing. Everyone sometimes feels like like everybody around them must be stupid, just like we all sometimes feel like we're the only one missing something.
He's beloved because most really talented comedians can derive humor from relatable or absurd situations and stories, but Carlin could make a rhythm linking broad abstract concepts of human experience to really specific examples.
He's not a god, he was just a really talented comedian that had a unique style and medium.
On your last point I disagree - he was and is my personal savior
But how is that anti-intellectual? Maybe it's literally saying most people aren't intellects? But taking the literal interpretation of this joke misses the joke as the other guy pointed out.
I'm not reading into it literally, that's the point. On the surface, Carlin "tells it like it is." He says things that the people agree with.
You know what? Just look at the praise for Carlin. You'll see things like "genius" and "prophet" or "brilliant insight."
Then look at people criticizing him like me. Suddenly people defend his character by pointing out he's just a comedian, it's just jokes, judge him as a comedian, it's not serious, etc.
He's the Trump of his domain.
You didn't really answer the question...