LogFAQs > #980205194

Grouchy old man is also an awful take. He did it a few times in his youth, a few final times in old age, but his hobbling old man bit was just a bit. Even if you watch interviews near his death he was very soft spoken, polite and kind.

He started his early years of comedy just by being the censorship envelope pusher, making fun of banned words or media. Then he switched to a little bit of absurdism, starting his "scenarios" he'd keep until the end. Pocket dimension all your stuff got lost in, banned words skit, etc. His 70s-80s stuff was very pro-stoner and safe but contrarian.

He became politically jaded in the 90s and never, ever looked back. There's a long list of reasons for this and they're actually pretty sad/well reasoned. He had an abusive family, hated fame, and struggled with detaching from a very draconian catholic schooling system in his teens and youth. The beatings kind, not the finger wagging kind nowadays. His last string of specials eventually just became tedtalks/one sided philosophy debates we see people watching more regularly in this era, arguably veiled as moderate politics. I agree with some of his takes, disagree with most of them, even if they're colored in absurdism we should not have gladiatorial arenas for inmates.

His very last tour was a glimpse into philosophical nihilism/pessimism that, luckily, we didn't see a lot more from. Very, very sad and bitter takes on literally all walks/aspects of life. Calling everyone stupid, the system broke, kids pointless, votes didn't matter. It got scary. Poor dude was broken down to oblivion by the end.

Edit: as is frequent in modern culture and the amalgamation of political spectrums into 1s or 0s, he was actually very far left and progressive even for his time up until his death. Hated corruption from either party, which is why I briefly mentioned moderate coded above which is where he'd fit today just left leaning. Not surprised, but hate, that misguided fans of him use him as a conservative bugle. And left leaning younger generation from today dismiss him as a codgy old man when he's more similar to Sanders than Trump.