Complaints and Grievances

George Carlin was scheduled to film a special called “I Kinda Like It When a Lot of People Die.” Then September 11 happened. Forced to scrap the original title and nine minutes of material about mass casualties shortly before taping, Carlin pivoted to a meticulous, angry inventory of everyday human behavior. Instead of reveling in catastrophe, he focuses his hostility on petty irritants and modern inconveniences.

Filmed at the Beacon Theatre in New York City in November 2001, “Complaints and Grievances” is his 12th HBO special. It finds him settling fully into his late-career persona as a cultural antagonist. The set runs through the compulsion to gawk at traffic accidents, the gross realities of things that fall off the human body, and an extended argument on why the Ten Commandments should be condensed down to two.

The hour ultimately earned a Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Comedy Album.