Rating: 
Summary: New Book, Old Material
Review: As much as I loved Brain Droppings, I was still surprised at the amount of new material. With Napalm & Silly Putty, that is NOT the case. I am shocked at the amount of rehashed material. Many of it lifted verbatim from all the way back to Carlin's first HBO special (which I watched) to some snippets from his newer material. They should have called this book The Best Of. Most of the rehashed sections are enhanced with a bit of further diatribe along the line of the original material, but it still feels like a greatest hits, with "remastered" material. Now, I like a greatest hits as much as the next guy, but at least I KNOW I'm getting old material because of the label. Skip it unless you've never heard George Carlin.It's interesting to read his little bit about airline security and terrorism in light of the September 11th tragedy. Before Sept. 11th it was probably semi funny, now it seems woefully childish and hideously short sighted. Such are the winds of change.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, as always
Review: George Carlin is one of the few things my dad and I have in common (which gets him bonus points because my dad and I are as similar as night and day). Napalm and SIlly Putty essentially covers all areas of his ranting - religion, airline safety, the government, and others - with nothing really *new*. However, the rants themselves have been updated and redone to cover new areas of complaint. This probably isn't the best work he's done, but I think it's awesome nonetheless. I highly recommend it for any Carlin fan. However, if you have "Your Are All Diseased" on CD, it's nothing new, but it includes more things that aren't on the CD. Buy it to complete or start a collection and I think you'll be amused.
Rating:
Summary: Hateful rantings by a bitter old man
Review: I was unable to finish this "humor" book.It failed to make me laugh once.George Carlin may have been funny at one time,but not anymore.Some of his writings,particularly about airport security and terrorism,were merely hateful rantings before Sept.11,but now seem almost obscene.Worthless!
Rating: 
Summary: Getting a little old
Review: Carlin is indisputedly one of the best comedians of all time.His razor sharp wit and patented outrage often has you laughing more at him than at the target of his bombs.He isn't afraid to slaughter the sacred cows and doesn't mind telling us that he despises us.All this is well and good,but the act is starting to get old.This book doesn't rip into anything he hasn't ripped into before.Oh my, could it be he has slaughtered all the sacred cows and catalogued all our human foibles and frauds so thoroughly that none are left?But I did love the chapter "F--- the children".It is the perfect antidote to all the syrupy and stupid child worship and idealizing of recent years.All in all I think George is at bottom a disapointed idealist,so it only makes sense that he would be so full of venom for everybody and everything.Its all good though,without his shattered ideals we would't have his brilliant comedy and George likely would not be a millionaire.
Rating:
Summary: Well, bad Carlin album is better than no Carlin
Review: I compare this to his other book (Brain Droppings), and get left with a bad taste in my mouth. I feel that Brain Droppings is probably 80% new material, whereas this book is maybe only 40% new material. Almost everything in it I had heard before. This disappointed me deeply. Not only that, but reading the book is much better, Carlin's book on cd was mostly kind of boring, as he did it much less emotionally than he does his live standup. If you read it, you can actually see him doing the standup in your head. So I do not recommend the cd version, go with the book, but only if you don't mind getting a rehash of older material.
Rating: 
Summary: YAKKERS AND BLOWOUTS!
Review: Good Lord! Carlin is so so funny. And the Short Takes can be considered words of wisdom! I hope his next publication blows the roof off!
Rating:
Summary: Great Throne Book!
Review: Although there is some repeat jokes from some of his other works this book has a lot of fresh material. The absolute best thing about a book like this is you can leave it in the John and read a bit at a time. I found most times I could read till I had to wipe and then I could find a great place to stop....if you don't like the book you could wipe with that too.
Rating:
Summary: Oh George...WHY?
Review: I've been a George Carlin fan since I was a small child. I was born in 1975 and brought up on George Carlin. I eagerly purchased this book hoping for a fresh jolt of that old Carlin magic. I was bitterly disappointed when I realized it was just a written transcript of his comedy albums and HBO specials. He even included parenthetical asides to represent his facial expressions or sound effects he'd use in his delivery. It read almost like evidence at a murder trial. In between chapters which were lifted word-for-word from comedy routines he's done dating back to the '70's, he included "Short Takes", most of which were new and funny, but only enough to fill about a chapter of a short book. It seems like the climate of Bill Hicks style social commentary is up for grabs, and Carlin hopes to take the reigns by offering up the views he had earlier in life as new to the people who may not have heard it the first time when he did it live. The problem is, so much is lost in the translation. There were some areas that absolutely require Carlin's delivery to be even remotely funny or insightful.
Rating:
Summary: Rant & Droll
Review: 80% desperate-for-laughs rant and 20% smart, incisive, funny commentary and observations -- that means about 50 pages of gotta read "stuff," and that's not too shabby, compared with a lot of the other comedians out there. (P.S.
After 9-11, skip the section on "Airport Security.")
Rating: 
Summary: Not as funny any more to me
Review: I used to be a big George Carlin fan. So I know what his material is like -- I wasn't offended by language or anything, but it just didn't make me laugh all that much. Maybe it's just the current climate in America that makes it harder to find humor in Carlin's crass, irreverant style. There were spots that I enjoyed, but it was an effort to read the whole book.
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