An artificial intelligence-driven comedy special has attempted to resurrect comedy genius George Carlin‘s signature humor, 15 years after he died in 2008 of heart failure. Following the special’s release, the comedian’s daughter responded and said that “No machine will ever replace his genius.”
The hour-long special, titled George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, is a product of Dudesy, a podcast run by AI and curated by humans. Chad Kultgen and Will Sasso host the podcast and YouTube show, and allow the Dudesy AI to draw from their emails, texts, social media accounts, and even their own work — from Sasso’s performances on MadTV to a long-ago feature script written by Kultgen called, Pizza: The Movie.
While the specifics on the company behind Dudesy’s AI system aren’t clear — Sasso denied the AI is fake in an interview with Business Intelligence and claimed an NDA prevented him from revealing the legal entity — the Carlin-generated impression is uncanny.
The special begins with an explainer, with Dudesy clarifying that “what you’re about to hear is not George Carlin,” with the AI adding that in order to nail the comedian’s style it “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 result: an eerie revival of the legendary comic.
The AI-driven “Carlin” proceeds to launch into some of today’s biggest issues from mass shootings to social media. At one point, Dudesy/Carlin takes on 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,” quips AI-Carlin. “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.’”
Following the video’s release on YouTube, the comic’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, took to X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday evening to respond. “My statement regarding the AI generated George Carlin 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,” wrote Kelly. “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.”
She 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.”
