Like many comics, Carlin revels in societal hypocrisy. When we saw a few years back, he took on America's obsessions with gambling and capital punishment - the "joke" being that we cut the criminals head off at the top of a giant pegboard and place bets as to which slot the head will end up. Really. Made me cringe and laugh then. Does not. Carlin, of course, has long been a studier of words and semantics, not to mention sexuality or (as life goes on) failing sexuality. He is truly fearless up there on stage. Angry, funny, not unaware of his own frailties, but extremely aware of the dogma others have forced upon the world. In some ways, it's amazing he plays places as large as the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, which he does Sat. March 15 at 7:30 p.m. Maybe he's like the old Andrew Dice Clay, but one who swings from the opposite side of the plate and doesn't pretend - when caught - that it's just jokes. Oh, there's funny stuff. A Carlin show is no lecture. But it's not an escape from where you live, it's an evisceration. This Boston show will follow his latest HBO special, "It's Bad For Ya," which starts airing March 1.