Behold a Pale Horse: AI George Carlin Comedy Special

[Corax]

https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/george-carlin-ai-generated-comedy-special-1235868315/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kONMe7YnO8&t=458s

[matt72582]

Very crazy. I do AI stuff, and have thought about trying to do Mort Sahl, but it's probably impossible, although I have used it for print interviews and music, especially those who have passed on, or seem a good fit.

I gave it a chance, but it's horrible. I don't mind the voice, but the material is weak. Maybe I'll come back to it one day.

[Yoda]

When I was a teenager, back when we listened to MP3s on Winamp, I downloaded a bunch of comedy specials. Steven Wright, Brian Regan, and George Carlin, of course. And I listened to them over and over. Some of them I've nearly memorized, albeit only in that "I always know the next sentence" sense, like with song lyrics. I listed the three above because they're the ones whose "voice" and rhythm I probably absorbed the most thoroughly.

So I can comfortably say that, yeah, this sounds like Carlin. The subject matter, of course. The voice, mostly. But even the cadence of the jokes. The preference for a setup followed by rapid-fire examples followed by blunt-force punchline.

Is it good Carlin? Well, I'm still in the middle of it, but so far: nah. Of course not. But it also does kind of sound real in the sense that, if he had kept performing this long, this is the kind of "on the nose"/parody-of-itself stuff that he could've very plausibly devolved into.

And, obvious, the title is perfect.

[Yoda]

Ethical issues aside, I admit, I really want this to create a Mitch Hedberg special.

[beelzebubble]

I saw this on my YouTube feed yesterday and I just couldn’t watch it. The idea seems blasphemous.

[John McClane]

I was looking forward to a world where dead people stay dead. Guess the cat’s out the bag. Furless and with its eyes hanging from its skull.