Straight-laced, then hippie, then tremendous wordplay (Seven Words, Stuff, Peas, Jumbo Shrimp), and then what felt like such an incredibly judgmental, angry, bitter phase that capped off what had already been a career of peaks and valleys.
I have tons of respect for Carlin, because being a successful professional stand-up comedian for half-a-century demands nothing less, but his vitriol at the tail-end of his career drove me bonkers and, like many others, away.
I dove forgivingly into this documentary thinking that it might change my mind, but as it entered its third and final hour, all those old feelings bubbled right back up to the top again.
Too often, many of us joke about becoming "the old man on the front lawn" hollerin' at neighborhood kiddos as we age, so for all the anti-establishment Carlin railed against for 3/5ths of his career to be overtaken instead by the words and viewpoints of a grumpy, judgy, raging senior citizen is just sad, if not also the epitome of irony.
