Bill Hicks C or D

oh great stuff. was there much new unseen concert footage in it? i think that's the one problem with the Hicks books, documentaries, CDs etc there's only so much stuff to hear before it's back round to 'that same routine' again. having said that i've been listening to his stuff since '91 so i'm sort of used to that aspect by now!

I saw the documentary tonight. I'm not a big follower of stand-up, but even so, I'm amazed that I'd never even heard of him until today. His brother was there for a Q&A after the film. Quite interesting. Looking forward, you could see Bill Maher all over the place (especially in the bit on the flag), looking backwards, George Carlin. It's not my favourite style of comedy--I'm more a fan of the Carson/Letterman style--but he clearly was important.

Hicks's brother talked at length about Letterman's mea culpa last night:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBC1dKGO2_A

I think it was gracious for Letterman to invite the mom on and to air the segment. As the brother says, fifteen years after the fact, there was no external pressure from any direction to do so. Guilt, yes, but gracious nonetheless.

Dave does go way overboard at one point: "There was absolutely nothing wrong with that." Really? In the context of Hicks's bit, a new television show, I laughed at the Billy Ray Cyrus/Marky Mark stuff. But does Dave really believe he'd let a comic come on today, change the names to 2011's equivalents (Justin Bieber, Kesha, whoever), and do the same bit? That'd be even less likely today--it would basically be the same kind of thing that Palin and Beck deservedly caught hell for.

gone 20 years ago today:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2014/02/bill_hicks_remembered_by_patton_oswalt_20_years_after_his_death_his_influence.html

Not linking to it but Patton Oswalt has a post up on his blog that has deliciously idiotic lines such as, "Luckily, Bill Hicks’ influence and legacy is more focused and active than what Bruce, Carlin, Cosby, Gregory, Pryor and Martin wrought."

I think that link from Slate is word for word Oswalt's blog. Who are the comedians with pretensions of Bill's best mate he talks of?

Won't be Denis Leary.

i really cringed at the opening -- 'lenny bruce isn't actually funny' is right down there with 'communism sounds great on paper' in the overused challops department.

The whole piece is cringeworthy, much like Patton in the past few years.

Not really bothered about Patton as a comedian, liked him in Justified and Young Adult tho.

I never thought Lenny Bruce was funny.

I am very aware of how important he was. But his stuff never made me laugh.

Cool, I feel the same way about you, PO.

I doubt that in the long run, that Patton Oswalt would be considered important by anyone. He's basically the last comedian in the fucking world who should be talking about broken barriers.

but who else will brave the uncharted depths of nerd rage

Still feel sad about Hicks. I hero worshipped the hell out of when I was a kid.

Would think Oswalts rants about SW prequels would resonate with Shakey considering how much time he's spending doing the same thing in the SW thread on ILX, but YMMV.

It's weird that Bill Hicks has gotten all the love from hipsters.

On an apples-to-apples comparison of late 80s mulleted comics who tell us the truth and died before their time, I'll take Sam Kinison any day. His bit about Ethiopia and the desert is one of the funniest things ever.

No it isn't, it's racist claptrap.

Oh come on. Don't even...

OH WHY DONT WE MOVE TO WHERE FOOD IS I GUESS BECAUSE WE ARE DUMB AFRICANS THANKS FOR SAVING US MR KINISON.

(And yes, I laughed at it at the time, because I was dumb then too.)

As opposed to now, when you're an enlightened laugh riot :)

Making fun of famine victims and victims of political violence = not funny, generally speaking.

It's weird that Bill Hicks has gotten all the love from hipsters.

On an apples-to-apples comparison of late 80s mulleted comics who tell us the truth and died before their time, I'll take Sam Kinison any day. His bit about Ethiopia and the desert is one of the funniest things ever.

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, February 27, 2014 1:40 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

congrats on the stupid post. "hipsters like bill hicks!" "racist fuck much funnier than anti-racist fuck!"

His 93 (iirc) show in Norwich is still the joint funniest stand-up I've ever seen (the other being Louis CK last year)

His pure funniness is, I feel, underrated today. People say "He spoke the truth, man" which is sometimes true, and often not. But goddamn he was funny. The whole "Do you think, if Jesus ever comes back, he ever wants to see a cross again" routine is all-time classic.

[also my response to kornules above was really douche-y, apologies for that]

You people are mischaracterizing the Sam Kinison bit. He isn't making fun of famine victims. He is making fun of their geology. And besides, who appointed you as the arbiter of what is appropriate to deem funny, anyway? You're all a bunch of sexists if you ask me.

Never mind....just saw the apology. Rewatch the bit. It's making fun of the land, not them.

And besides, who appointed you as the arbiter of what is appropriate to deem funny, anyway?

It was Vishnu The Destroyer, and I love my job.

His bro stans are offputting because they overrate the soft-target rockism the just-did-acid philosophising and, like you say, the "truth-telling", none of which would mean shit if not for the lols.

A mark of how good his jokes were is how often I see them quoted, often without attribution, eg "How do we know what weapons Iraq has?" "Er, we looked at the receipt." I remember the Shane "pick up the gun" riff being dynamite live, even though I've still never seen Shane.

Oh yeah, the Shane riff is godlike - as a performer, he was blistering.

The first two posthumous albums were so praised on their release, but I think the whole anti-Leno spiel and sheer negativity of those routines don't really represent his best work - but again appeal to a kind of rockist anti-establishment vibe that doesn't do his larger body of work justice.

That documentary from a couple of years ago was great, though.

One thing I remember - and this is something Louis CK does too - is his ability to flip between comedy and seriousness and back again with unsettling speed. It was like he could control the atmosphere in the room minute by minute.

Rob Newman's tales back in '92 of seeing him at The Wildcat in Edinburgh were amazing. He went back 4 or 5 times to see him and he just kept adding new bits, riffs night after night; whole new chunks of unscripted stuff that were better than most people's honed material. I read Brendon Burns say the same thing this week. This interview shows his innate funny-ness when totally unscripted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYPgs8aICt0

Sam Kinison was a hateful homophobic asshole who hung out with LA hair-metal bands, what's not to loathe?

Would think Oswalts rants about SW prequels would resonate with Shakey

the difference between me and Oswalt is that he is a true believer, he loves those original movies like nothing else. that, and I'll bet Patton continues to give Lucas money (I didn't bother seeing the last two prequels, somehow I bet Patton brought himself to buy the DVDs)

Bill Hicks died of cancer 25 years ago today. The Guardian ran a piece asking English comics born after Hicks' death what they thought of his act. After watching some clips, the consensus was -- you guessed it! -- negative. pic.twitter.com/jM51MpcRgu

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) February 26, 2019

Now, I'm not gonna shit on these kids. Their comic sensibilities were shaped in a very different time. But it's sad to see Hicks reduced to a toxic white mansplainer, lumped in with Dice Clay and Sam Kinison.

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) February 26, 2019

I'm sure he has some material that elevates him above Clay and Kinison, but "toxic white mansplainer" just about sums up my impression of Hicks.

Kinison is obviously Bill Hick's biggest influence.

And his material has aged terribly in that it isn't funny, and is very "trenchant"

See last year's actually trenchant Hannah Gadsby special on the "angry white male comic."

"hey, you don't like drugs? the beatles did drugs man!"

"george bush is shitty!"

oh my god, genius

English comedians are probably the least qualified group in the world to talk about comedy though tbf.

this is also true

everything i've read about Hannah Gadsby suggests that while her material has other merits, it also is not funny.

that's true also

a main theme of late George Carlin was "George Bush is shitty... and so are YOU"

I've always liked this conflicted take on Hicks:

https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2014/03/bill-hicks-sane-man.html

No amount of claiming context ever keeps an artist relevant when the moment has gone. Obviously as individuals we all still like what we wanna like but comedians more than most artists aren't well served by insisting on their value

I had learned from preliminary research that two of his main targets were advertising and consumerism, rather disingenuous things for a professional entertainer to rail against, wouldn't you think?

Hmmm, this writer seems somewhat stupid.

I mean, to a degree all entertainers who get paid are in the whorehouse, but why would they have to like it?

I agree that the statement you quote is incredibly simplistic, but I feel like he's working his way towards a larger argument of "good" and "bad" popular entertainment: why are the "feminine" Debbie Gibson and George Michael bad and "real men" like Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones good? The reviewer's discussion of Hicks' misogyny basically reveals his rants against consumerism as bullshit.

anyone who says "mansplainer" with a straight face is a fucking idiot