George Carlin dropped a new comedy special on Tuesday, an impressive feat given he died in 2008. The stand-up comedian appears to have artificial intelligence to thank for the hourlong special, called “I’m Glad I’m Dead.” In it, he’s in signature provocateur mode, putting his usual satiric spin on modern phenomena from social media to smartphones, streaming services and mass shootings.
“Other countries are fine killing one person at a time with guns, but this is America, where we do things bigger and better, and more often,” Carlin cracks. “There are so many mass shootings in America, it’s replaced bad traffic as the No. 1 excuse for being late. ‘Sorry I missed the morning meeting. A maniac with an AR-15 shot up my son’s preschool.”
The hour-long special comes courtesy of Dudesy, which describes itself as a comedy AI that created and writes a podcast and YouTube show hosted by Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen. Sasso’s a comedian best known as a cast member for five seasons on “Mad TV,” and Kultgen’s a producer, novelist and journalist.
The pair describe their setup as a media experiment aimed at exploring AI’s creative potential and limits. They say they’ve given the AI access to their personal emails, text messages, social media accounts and online purchase and browsing histories and that the AI uses that information to create comedy segments tailor-made for them. Some on Reddit and beyond, however, have speculated that Dudesy isn’t really an AI, but just an AI-generated voice spouting words written by humans. (In an interview with Business Intelligenc for B.C., Sasso denied the AI is fake and said he can’t reveal the company behind the AI due to an NDA.)
Regardless of how much of Dudesy is AI, it’s now branched out into impersonating Carlin, a cussing anti-establishment comic famous for his biting cultural commentary.
“I tried to capture his iconic style to tackle the topics I think the comedy legend would be talking about today,” Dudesy says in a YouTube description of the video. “The chaos of the current American political landscape and class system, the influence of reality TV, and the increasing role of technology in society as AI is poised to change humanity forever are just a few of the subjects I cover.”
The title of the new special, “I’m Glad I’m Dead,” captures Carlin’s posthumous eye-rolling at the state of the world. AI-generated images overlay his rapid-fire observations.
“The current state of technology makes it a great time to be alive, especially if you’re dead,” he says, going to talk about all the enlightening ways people could use technology, but don’t.
“Right now, every single person in the connected world could be watching Harvard philosophy lectures for free on YouTube or listening to Nobel Prize-winning physicists explain the fundamental nature of reality on iTunes or reading about the history of literally anything on Wikipedia,” the resurrected Carlin says in the special. “What are they doing instead? Using the powerful computers in their pockets “to watch monkeys jerk off with frogs.”
This is the second comedy special from Dudesy. The first, out in April 2023, featured retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady joking about football and dating apps after splitting from former wife Giselle Bündchen. Brady didn’t take kindly to his animated joke-cracking version, threatening legal action if Sasso and Kultgen didn’t take the special down.
So far at least, Carlin’s estate hasn’t threatened legal action, and his fans are heaping praise on the comedy set.
“This blew my mind,” one wrote on YouTube. “Sounded authentically Carlin and made me laugh out loud multiple times. Unbelievable.”
Wrote another: “Man, this made me miss Carlin even more than I already did. Thanks Dudesy, this was something special. Totally brightened my rainy day.”
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