More than 15 years after his death, stand-up comedian George Carlin has been brought back to life in an artificial intelligence-generated special — prompting his daughter to speak out against the "rape & pillage" of her late father's art.
“George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” an hour-long special that dropped on Tuesday, comes from Dudesy, a comedy AI that hosts a podcast and YouTube show with “Mad TV” alum Will Sasso and podcaster Chad Kultgen.
“I just want to let you know very clearly that what you’re about to hear is not George Carlin. It’s my impersonation of George Carlin that I developed in the exact same way a human impressionist would,” Dudesy said at the beginning of the special.
“I listened to all of George Carlin’s material and did my best to imitate his voice, cadence and attitude as well as the subject matter I think would have interested him today," the AI comedian said. "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 impression of Carlin, who died in 2008 of heart failure, tackled prevalent topics like mass shootings, the American class system, streaming services, social media and AI itself.
“There’s one line of work that is most threatened by AI — one job that is most likely to be completely erased because of artificial intelligence: stand-up comedy,” AI-generated Carlin said. “I know what all the stand-up comics across the globe are saying right now: ‘I’m an artist and my art form is too creative, too nuanced, too subtle to be replicated by a machine. No computer program can tell a fart joke as good as me.’”
At one point, AI Carlin threw shade at billionaires such as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X/Twitter owner Elon Musk and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
“If you’re tired of seeing Jeff Bezos fly to space in his cock rocket, stop using Amazon for a month. Company goes under, Bezos goes away,” AI Carlin said.
Kelly Carlin, the late stand-up comedian’s daughter, posted a statement on X/Twitter Wednesday evening regarding the AI-generated special.
“My dad spent a lifetime perfecting his craft from his very human life, brain and imagination. No machine will ever replace his genius. These AI generated products are clever attempts at trying to recreate a mind that will never exist again,” she wrote. “Let’s let the artist’s work speak for itself. Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there.”
Kelly continued, “Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”
In a reply posted to X on Thursday, she continued: "I’m worried about his legacy. His reputation. His art. I’m allowed to do that as his daughter and while I’m alive. It’s important that these corporations don’t rape & pillage art."