Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help [Paperback]

George Carlin (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers (1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0894712713
• ISBN-13: 978-0894712715
• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 8.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars George's first book- a minimalist dream, June 1, 2000

By 

Zagnorch (Terra, Sol System) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help (Paperback)

I remember my parents getting this book as a Christmas gift when I was ten. Even at that age, I was already a casual fan of Carlin's standup performances, and was curious about what was contained within this thin (about 60 pages long) coffee-table size paperback. But, being at that impressionable young age, the folks made every effort to hide the book from my eyes. Luckily for me, without much success.

As I matured, I found the book to be somewhat interesting and insightful, if not overtly funny. Extensively illustrated with a fair amount of text, Carlin's first literary effort is a minimalist's dream. My favorite parts are the two bits, "Tumors and Sports" and "Tumors and Food". Both poke fun at peoples' tendencies to compare the sizes of tumors to sports balls ("It was the size of a volleyball"), and different citrus fruits ("It grew from the size of a tangelo to a small grapefruit in a matter of days!"). Another weird, to say nothing of sacrilegious, moment, is Joseph and the pregnant virgin Mary wondering what they should name their child.

A little bit of the material contained within the covers of "Sometimes A Little Brain Damage Can Help" was reprised in Carlin's second tome, "Brain Droppings". His strange little random thoughts known as "Short Takes", as well as "George's Book Club", "People I Can Do Without", and "Things You Never See", have been re-hashed and even expanded on in his second book.

The chapter that warped me the most is The Incomplete List of Impolite Words, featuring hundreds of dirty and suggestive words & phrases. I managed to memorize most of them, and still to this day use them at opportune moments...

'Late

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quirky fun, December 26, 2001

By 

Scott C. Smith (Happy Valley, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help (Paperback)

Published in limited quantities in 1984, Carlin's first literary effort is a quirky collection of jokes, lists and routines; in fact, some of the same material appears in "Braindroppings" and "Napalm and Silly Putty." However, as a piece of Carlin memorabilia, "Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help" is worth the effort in tracking down. It's not as focused a work as "Braindroppings," or "Napalm and Silly Putty," but still entertainting and a great piece of Carlin history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars his first literary attempt...., June 2, 2000

By 

Craig Chalquist, PhD, author of TERRAPSYCHOLO... (Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help (Paperback)

....and it came out pretty well, with some funny stuff mixed with silly stuff. Wild photos. He has a good scoreboard of world hostility and a good predictions section, and of course there's the Book Club...The back cover sums it up pretty well: "Please buy this book, or I'll kill you."