More than 15 years after his death, comedian George Carlin has been brought back to life in an AI-generated special called “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.”
The hour-long special, which premiered Tuesday, comes from Dudesy, an AI comedy show host who hosts a podcast and YouTube show with Mad TV alum Will Sasso and podcaster Chad Kutlgen.
“I just want to tell you very clearly that what you’re going to hear is not George Carlin. My impersonation of George Carlin is one that I developed in exactly the same way that a human impressionist does,” Dodici said at the beginning of the special. “I listened to all of George Carlin’s material and I did the best I could.” To imitate his voice, cadence, and attitude as well as the topic that I think would have interested him today. So think of it like Andy Kaufman impersonating Elvis or like Will Ferrell impersonating George W. Bush.
In the stand-up special, the AI-generated portrait of Carlin, who died in 2008 of heart failure, tackled prevailing topics such as mass shootings, the American class system, streaming services, social media, and artificial intelligence itself.
“There is one area of work that is most threatened by AI — and one that is likely to be completely wiped out by AI: stand-up comedy,” said AI-created Carlin. “I know what all the comedians around the world are saying now: ‘I’m an artist and an art form that’s too creative, too precise, too precise to be replicated by a machine.’ There’s no computer program that can tell a fart joke as good as I can.
At one point, AI Carlin overshadowed billionaires like Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X/Twitter owner Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“If you’re tired of seeing Jeff Bezos fly into space in his rocket, stop using Amazon for a month. The company is collapsing, and Bezos is gone,” Carlin said.
Kelly Carlin, the late comedian’s daughter, posted a photo Statement on X/Twitter Wednesday evening regarding the AI-generated special.
“My father has spent his life perfecting his craft out of his human life, mind and imagination. No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI-created products are clever attempts to try to recreate a mind that will never exist again,” she wrote. We let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we cannot allow what has fallen into it to remain there.
“Here’s an idea,” Kelly continued, “How about we listen to some living human comedians? But if you want to hear the real George Carlin, he has 14 special songs that you can find anywhere.”