Back in Town

By 1996, George Carlin had settled firmly into the hostility that defined his late career. Back in Town opens with an aggressive, prolonged breakdown of the American pro-life movement and conservative hypocrisy. It is a stretch of logic so blunt that audiences reportedly walked out during the workup shows. Instead of backing off, he made it the centerpiece of the hour.

This was his ninth HBO special, and his first time shooting at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. After taking care of the heavy ideological lifting with routines on capital punishment and state prison farms, Carlin spends the back half of the 61-minute set letting off steam. A massive nineteen-minute chunk titled “Free-Floating Hostility” operates as a rapid-fire list of minor annoyances. He complains about air quotes, men who wear earrings, personal water bottles, and whining baby boomers. Decades later, the opening abortion material found renewed circulation following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.