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Napalm and Silly Putty

Napalm and Silly Putty

List Price: $18.95
Your Price: $12.89
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One Yuk Every Two Pages Doesn't Do It For Me
Review: This is the first Carlin book I've read, and I would not write him off for his other work. But this was a big disappointment. If you like a book of one-liners that you can pick up and put down once in while, like during commercials, this should be on your coffee table. But so much of this material is simply not funny. I had to scan through it just to find the nuggets. Very few and far between. For every 20 one-liners or short paragraphs, I found 1 genuinely amusing. I gave it a full 2 days before returning it to the library. Yes, I was interested enough to request it (they ordered it and I got first dibs), but not impressed enough to keep it for the full 30 days. Now, there's an insult! Too cheap to buy it but arrogant enough to slam it!

Carlin's craft relies a lot on delivery, especially since much of his material is subtle; sarcasm, semantics and word play are the keys to his success. The laughs come from his facial expressions, exasperation!!, change in tone, physical antics, context, etc. Keeping the audience off balance is a well known trick of the trade. But this does not translate well into the written word. This is especially true for the book's many one-liners and one-paragraphs that are lumped together but are at best remotely related.

One more thing, I love profanity and use it myself whenever it adds an exclamation. But his overreliance on the "F" word seems a bit desperate. Either that, or he's just padding this F-ing book!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Old stuff, but still funny
Review: If I had not heard any of GC's live stuff (and I have everything he has ever released) then I would have given this 5 stars BUT when you buy an album and over 70% of the material is on the other albums, it really is a rip-off. Do not get me wrong, george is still extremely funny, but more new material would be welcome. For those of you that want an introduction to GC, buy this album and forget the rest. It seems that GC is becoming somewhat hypocritical in his old age, he rants against materialism but releases a rip-off for the dollars. Shame on you, you cantankerous, nihilistic, anarchic, venomous old man. (This IS the essence of GC, which is why we still love him)

For the reviewers who disagree with the content of GC's material, lighten up, it's called humour and if you truly are christian, then FORGIVE HIM.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: If You Like George........................
Review: If you like George you'll enjoy this book. You'll know what to expect. I give George a lot of credit for saying what's on his mind about everything, and I do mean everything. He's not afraid of what people think. He proves this in every book he writes, and in his stand-up comedy act. Here's a man who's not afraid to be politically incorrect. If you offended by four letter words (profanity), realistic religious evaluation, drugs, or humor about incompetent politicians stay away from this book. If you're open-minded, intelligent, and not afraid to think for yourself, grab this book and enjoy an evening with George's thoughts. This man is crazy, but in a wonderful way. There's a lot of funny stuff in this book.

I loved his section on "Your Children Are Overrated." I think he has the right answers. "Don't Blame the Leaders" puts the blame where it belongs for the state of our current leaders, and that blame is totally on the people. George has a lot of gripes, and whether you agree with them all is up to you as an individual. I know one thing, he really makes you think, and at the same time makes you laugh at our human short comings.

I think the world's a better place because of people who question life the way George does. I enjoyed this book. The only reason I didn't give it five stars was that I enjoyed his other book "Brain Droppings" by him even more. Bravo, George, keep it coming, you're one of a kind in this world!!!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: "An Angry Old Man"
Review: I made many attempts to read several pages of Carlin's book. I even tried to imagine Carlin's voice with the printed page. However, the book is sorely lacking in imagination and orginal thought.

It appears that Carlin just wrote the first fleeting thoughts that crossed his mind and made no serious attempt of editing or attempting to be funny or thoughtful. He uses four letter words when he can't think of any others. Don't waste your money

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What happened?
Review: I was looking forward to this book after seeing George win a well-deserved lifetime achievement award at the American Comedy Awards. Sadly, this book seems like it was written on cocktail napkins on an airplane in between gigs. Nothing here seems well-thought out, which is unusual for George Carlin. He's at his best with words and our perceptions of language, but this book shows none of that. These are cranky, sad one-liners. Save your dough and buy one of his albums/CDs instead.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: No second comming
Review: George Carlin's first book, "Brain Droppings," is hands down the funniest book I ever picked up. It was totally original, not just a rehash of his standup albums, something he announced proudly. His second book, "Napalm & Silly Putty," has a lot of repeats from his recent albums, something that was very disappointing. The content is as funny as it gets, but if you've seen the act already, the laughs are gone. This being said, I still recommend the book. If you don't own all his albums, you'll laugh the whole way through. And if you've heard a lot of the lines before, the new ones in between will bust you gut.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Sequel
Review: Caveat: I'm a HUGE Carlin fan. Have been so since my 12th grade Government teacher had us listen to Seven Dirty Words as part of a unit on Constitutional Law. I've heard just about everything he's ever done on vinyl and CD and seen most of the videos. Mr. Carlin can do very little wrong in my estimation.

This book is the essence of short attention span/bathroom reading. The one-liners are biting and/or thought provoking. The longer passages explore subjects in detail most writers would generally leave alone.

While I've given this review 5 stars, I liked Braindroppings better. A little better structured, a bit smoother (though it's sort of like comparing the smoothness of crunchy vs extra crunchy peanut butter).

The binding is certainly not safe on this one. Great stuff.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: If we're gonna recycle, then let's get serious!
Review: Much like its literary predecessor 'Brain Droppings', George Carlin's 'Napalm & Silly Putty' is arranged in a haphazard fashion. You can pretty much open a spot anywhere in the book & start reading. There's no chapters, and nothing that really links one page to the next. You can read the 'Interview with Jesus', skip over to the 'Seven Death Wishes' near the end, then head over to one of his numerous 'short takes' pages for a cool-down. I find this method of reading to be more fun than going from beginning to end, since you never know if the next random page you go to is something new or old. It makes the experience interesting!

Unfortunately, it's these attempts to find that something new in Carlin's latest printed offering that became something of a hassle for me. The proportion of original material to the almost-verbatim writing down of his standup acts leans significantly more towards the standup material here, unlike 'Brain Droppings'. Although a few bits were changed here & there to better fit in with the times- like him wanting to watch 'Survivor' when he's clinically brain-dead rather than 'Geraldo', or putting executions on pay-per-view to save Social Security, rather than balance the budget- I'm more entertained by him actually performing these bits, complete with the voices, gestures, and facial expressions rather than me reading them. There's also more than a few pages taken from Carlin's very first book, the obscure 'Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help'. Just a few of the recycled bits include 'The Miscellaneous Ailments Foundation', 'The 20th Century World Hostility Scoreboard', and 'Punk Bands I've Known'.

But despite the relative lack of original material compared to his previous tome, I did find more than a few pages to be highly entertaining. Many of his infamous & mostly-new 'short takes' really hit the mark, especially the one about Hitler. I'll not reveal it here, but let me just say it'll definitely be something you'll be keeping in the back of your mind the next time you're headed towards the polling booth during the next election. And his tips on how to sneak a smoke in a commercial airliner bathroom and not set off the smoke detectors is both entertaining and informative.

But in my opinion, he saved the best, 'Seven Death Wishes' for last. It's seven sure-fire ways to get yourself headed for the great hereafter without having to resort to 'suicide by cop'. All you need is the right social setting and the proper accoutrements, and you're good to go!

'Late

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Carlin's comedy books are still my favorites.
Review: With so many comedians writing books I just wish more could be as funny as George Carlin. The book is a great collection of many of Carlin's thought and opinions. Some of the stuff I have heard in his standup routines, but most was new to me. Even though you may not agree with everything George says you have to at least respect the fact that he has such strong opinions. The book is written much like his previous book, Brain Droppings. Both books are must reads for comedy fans. A laughed out loud many times reading it and look forward to his next one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Been there,done that
Review: I listened to the audiobook on this one so I had the full effect of Carlin and the material. I'm sure it's funnier listening to him than reading him but he's a bit trapped in a time warp. Needs to load up on new material and rip at it but it's always fun and good for a few yuks to listen to the old rants one more time. I think he's publishing so he hits the talk show circuit to hype his laugh.com.


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