44. “This title offends all three major religions, and even vegetarians!”

STATUS: UNCONFIRMED

“This title offends all three major religions, and even vegetarians!”

(regarding his book “When Will Jesus Bring The Porkchops”)

It’s not clear whether George Carlin really used this line to describe his book When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004). It showed up a lot on-line, but I never confirmed a source for it. It’s possible he could have said this, or a variation of it. But to date, I haven’t been able to verify it. But here’s what I’ve been able to find so far.

  • The quotation doesn’t show up in any of his albums, books, or HBO specials. So if he really said it, it’s likely to have been in an interview to promote his book.

  • When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? (2004) was released in October 2004, which means that if he said it, it was most likely in late 2004 or early 2005. He did appear on The Daily Show in 2004, and instead was asked about the film Jersey Girl (March 2004).

  • Many reviews for the book say “In a TV interview on CNBC with Tim Russert, Carlin said the title offends all three of the major religions, and the vegetarians.” Others say “In an interview on NBC, Carlin recounted how ‘it offends all three major religions, plus the vegetarians. So there’s a bonus in there.’” As I understand it, Tim Russert (who coincidentally died about a week before Carlin) had two shows at the time: Meet the Press on NBC, and Tim Russert on CNBC. Some links (see below) confirm that it was Carlin being interviewed on the latter of these two, airing Saturday November 20th, 2004. Somebody uploaded this to YouTube at some point, but it was later taken down.

  • Carlin may have indeed said something similar on the Today show. I found an article that states “Atheists were represented in an NBC interview with comedian George Carlin, who was promoting his book ‘When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?’. Lauer joked: ‘Let’s say right off the bat, anything offensive here is not my idea, it’s all your idea, okay?’ Carlin said of the title: ‘I realized about a week later, and it might have been my brother who pointed it out, that it offends all three major religions, plus the vegetarians. So there’s a bonus in there.’” I’d like to believe that this is legit, but again, the exact original source of the quotation isn’t here (they say “NBC”, and I have to wonder if this is getting confused with the CNBC one. Searching around, it seems that it would have been the Monday October 22nd, 2007 episode.

Once I can hear either of these two interviews for myself, or see a transcript from a first-hand source, I can confirm the quotation. I like to keep my list of “real” quotations limited to ones that I’ve been able to read or hear myself from a first-hand source (not somebody quoting somebody else’s interview with Carlin). Please contact me if you know where I can find either! Again, that’s the Today show from October 22nd, 2007, or CNBC’s Tim Russert from November 20th, 2004.