What Jon Stewart learned about comedy from George Carlin

Fourteen years after George Carlin’s death, his stand-up material remains as vibrant and relevant as ever. And in a new two-part HBO documentary about his life, his comedy disciples explain why.

In the exclusive clip below from George Carlin’s American Dreamwhich premieres Friday on HBO and HBO Max, Jon Stewart says what he always found “amazing” about Carlin was “that he would treat farting with the same level of scrutiny, language and deconstruction as the Pope, the Catholic.” Church hierarchy, the war machine.”

As the filmmakers – Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio – juxtapose two Carlin jokes about organized religion and flatulence, Stewart goes on to say, “I didn’t get that at all as a kid,” before literally giving the comedian a cook-kiss Cheek lift-up farts”.

Appearing on an episode of The Last Laugh podcast earlier this year, Apatow told me that while “most comedians’ work ages,” Carlin’s material “gets better” with age.

“Everything he talked about in the ’90s through 2007 applies to today,” he continued, emphasizing Carlin’s dedication to speaking “very difficult truths” before it was a must-do in stand-up comedy. But that doesn’t make the late comedian’s political views easy to categorize.

Quoting Carlin’s daughter Kelly, who served as the film’s executive producer, Apatow added, “Whatever you think he’s thinking, you’re probably wrong. And what it would be would blow your mind.”

For more, listen to Judd Apatow The Podcast “The Last Laugh”..