Louis CK honors George Carlin
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN finds the story inspiring beyond comedy: getting good by throwing out your old work and starting over.
What it is
Louis CK speaks at a 2010 NYPL tribute to George Carlin about how Carlin's habit of discarding material and writing a new hour each year changed his own career. He becomes emotional describing it.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2011 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec shinykitten · 2011-12 · on “Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage”
In this video [1], he explains what happened "somewhere along the way". TL;DW: He failed at being a successful comic by telling the same jokes for 15 years, then got inspired by and emulated George Carlin, threw everything away and started over. His story is not only inspiring, it transcends comedy. The idea that a mixed but passionate reaction is better than a lukewarm one applies to startups as well as entertainment. [1] [this video]
Recommends goatforce5 · 2013-04 · on “The Joke’s on Louis C.K.”
Here's 10 mins or so from Louis CK at a tribute to Carlin: [this video] He says his first hour of comedy took 15 years to build up, and he hated all of it. Then he heard an interview with Carlin where he said every year he threw all his old jokes away and would have to come up with a new hour of material, forcing him to get to the core of what was important and real (or something)... And that's when Louis says his career took off.
Cites ineedtosleep · 2011-12 · on “Louis CK self-produces, self-publishes content on his webpage”
Since I'm not willing to pay for an app just to listen to one podcast, the "2 hours of new material every year" bit (I'm assuming) is also explained in Louis CK's speech about the late George Carlin. [this video]
Cites dave_sullivan · 2016-09 · on “South Park's creators on how the series has evolved”
This kind of reminds me of something Louis CK said during this talk about George Carlin: [this video] He talks about how he got good at standup after 15 years of doing the same thing. He threw away all his material (material he'd been working on for 15 years) and just started trying different things. Then he started throwing away his material every year and creating new material. He noticed that he got better and better by doing this. This also reminded me of another anecdote I'd heard somewhere where you have a pottery class with 20 students. The class was split: 10 students would make a new sculpture every day while the other 10 would have to produce only 1 sculpture for the class (which of cou
Cites dijit · 2025-01 · on “Google is making AI in Gmail and Docs free, but raising the price of Workspace”
If I'm being honest with myself, the "Happy Birthday" pre-written text forces me to choose something else to write as my personal message. Yeah, it's frustrating in the moment that the exact sentiment I want to express (have a happy birthday) is already taken and repeating it seems lazy, but when I think about it: it's lazy to just express such a generic sentiment anyway. Asking them to think on the year, and to look ahead, maybe reminding them of some things they've done and achieved is not only nicer to receive, it's nicer to write too. I don't hate Hallmark for this (though I do in the moment that I'm confronted with this random creative challenge). Lois C.K says this about George Carlin: