I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die

I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die
Live album by
George Carlin
ReleasedSeptember 16, 2016
Recorded1957 (Boston Rant)
June 23, 2001 (Bonus track)
September 9 & 10, 2001 (Main show)
2016 (Interviews)[1]
GenreComedy
Length56:18
LabelEardrum/MPI Media
ProducerGeorge Carlin
George Carlin chronology
It's Bad for Ya
(2008) 		I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die
(2016)

I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die is the 20th and final album by American stand-up comedian George Carlin, released posthumously on September 16, 2016.

The album opens with an unreleased home recording from 1957, and proceeds with live recordings from shows Carlin performed at the MGM Grand Las Vegas on the nights of September 9 and 10, 2001. In the set's 10-minute closer, "Uncle Dave", Carlin explains why he likes "big, fatal disasters with lots of dead people", asking: "Y'know what's the best thing I can hear on television? 'We interrupt this program' ... y'know the worst thing I can hear? 'No one was hurt' ... I'm always rooting for a really high death toll, that's why I like natural disasters."[2] He goes on to list the pros and cons of various natural disasters, culminating in a doomsday scenario in which Earth collapses and "trillions" of disgruntled "Uncle Daves" everywhere are finally happy. An earlier joke in the set includes reference to Osama bin Laden and an exploding airplane.[3]

Carlin planned to use the material at the taping of his next HBO special in November, which was to be titled "I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die".[3] The special was shelved due to the September 11 attacks the very next day, in which nearly 3,000 people died in airplane hijacking attacks orchestrated by al-Qaeda.[4] Carlin abandoned much of the set, including the closer;[3] the renamed special, Complaints and Grievances, was recorded at the Beacon Theatre in November.[5] The original title was planned to be re-used for a special in 2005 but was again discarded due to Hurricane Katrina.[citation needed] The special, Life Is Worth Losing, features a re-worked version of "Uncle Dave" titled "Coast-to-Coast Emergency".[5]

The original September 2001 set was lost until cassette recordings were discovered in Carlin's archives.[3] The material was arranged as an album by Carlin's daughter Kelly, his long-time manager and confidant Jerry Hamza, and archivist Logan Heftel,[3] and features liner notes written by comedian Lewis Black,[6] plus interviews with Hamza and Carlin's long-time comedy special producer Rocco Urbisci. The album streamed on SiriusXM's Comedy Greats channel hosted by Ron Bennington two weeks prior to its release.[7]

  1. ^ "George Carlin's 'darkest' material to receive posthumous release", Consequence of Sound
  2. ^ King, Spencer (19 August 2016). "New George Carlin Album I Kinda Like It When A Lotta People Die Set for September Release". Paste. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e Crouch, Ian (10 September 2016). "George Carlin's Shocking Prescience on the Nights Before 9/11". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  4. ^ Bacle, Ariana (August 16, 2016). "Never-released George Carlin bit recorded day before 9/11 resurfaces". Entertainment Weekly.
  5. ^ a b Edgers, Geoff (7 September 2016). "Fifteen years after 9/11, we can hear the only bit George Carlin ever cut for taste". The Washington Post. Retrieved 12 September 2022.
  6. ^ "George Carlin album 'I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die' will be released Sept. 16". Laughspin.com. August 17, 2016. Archived from the original on October 24, 2016. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
  7. ^ "George Carlin’s Unreleased Album ‘I Kinda Like It When a Lotta People Die’ Is Out Next Month" Archived 2018-05-04 at the Wayback Machine, Splitsider