G.O.A.T. Status: Watch George Carlin Make Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy Laugh in Resurfaced Clip

Ask any group of people who they think is the greatest comedian of all time and you’ll get some wildly different answers. Hey, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, right? How can you even measure something like that objectively anyway? Count the total laughs every comedian ever got? Nobody’s got time for that.

But you still know who the big ones are considered to be, despite your personal preferences. It shouldn’t be a surprise to you when names like George Carlin and Richard Pryor are considered among the best to do it. You probably also wouldn’t bat an eyelash if someone like Eddie Murphy or Jerry Seinfeld were to come up, even if they’re not your cup of tea. The general consensus is the general consensus.

That said, every once in a while, a piece of evidence comes along that’s hard to argue with. Something that makes you wonder if it might actually be possible to label someone the greatest without bias. Today, we’re going to be looking at just that, in the form of a clip from The 7th Annual American Comedy Awards—the entirety of which has been uploaded to YouTube courtesy of Clown Jewels. In an isolated segment from the original 1993 broadcast, Carlin gives every other comedian of his time something to contend with, and in less than six minutes at that. Let’s break it down beat by beat…

From the beginning, we have Jerry Seinfeld and his Seinfeld co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus bringing Carlin up and paying homage to his famous “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television” routine. Joking that words like the ones on Carlin’s list can be used in context according to the censors, Louis-Dreyfus gives Carlin an appropriately vulgar introduction, and we’re off and running. Carlin starts, “I guess everybody knows the difference between show business and a gang bang is that in show business, everyone wants to go on last.” One joke in and he’s got Whoopi Goldberg laughing already. He also gets her with a line about Joe Piscopo going straight to the top if a bomb were to hit the building—a clear indication of how many funny people were in attendance that night.

At three minutes in, Carlin jokes, “Some people see the glass as half empty, some people see the glass as half full. I see the glass as too big.” This gets a good response from Billy Crystal, who nods affirmingly to another unseen member of the audience. So far, so good. What else do you got, George?

“I just thought of something. I’m willing to bet that no one…no one hooked on crack can play the bagpipes.” Huge laugh from Richard Pryor. Nicely done. Well, you can’t really hope for better than that, can you? Might as well wrap things up now.

Wait, there’s more? “W.C. Fields once said that to make most people laugh, you just have to show a guy dressed up as an old woman falling down a manhole, but to make a comedian laugh, it really has to be an old woman.” Now we’ve got Eddie Murphy laughing hysterically. And OK, maybe Carlin accomplished it with someone else’s line, but he still delivered it in his signature George Carlin way, so you know what? We’re counting it. 

And until a video surfaces of someone accomplishing an equally impressive feat, we’re just gonna have to go ahead and file this under G.O.A.T.

Check it out for yourself below.