Customer Reviews

Sometimes a Little Brain Damage Can Help

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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

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.

....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."