Solid material but his delivery was not as strong as it could have been. It is my firm opinion that this is why Denis Leary took his shtick (quite literally in a few cases) and parlayed it into much more success than Hicks ever had. It pains me to admit this because Leary is a Masshole tool, but there it is.
― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 20:22 (five years ago) link
D Leary's most trenchant observation was that peak-beauty DiCaprio looked like a hot 14-yo girl
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 20:39 (five years ago) link
anyway, i was barely aware of Hicks while he was alive, and most of what i know of him came from when i reviewed the documentary 8 years ago:
https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/american-the-bill-hicks-story-2/
(ie don't ask me to defend my opinions, bcz i'd forgotten them)
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 20:46 (five years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuQC6gvWEf8
― ☮ (peace, man), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 21:12 (five years ago) link
That's the only Bill Hicks thing I know other than Chicks Dig Jerks and no one has been talking about it on this thread, so.
― ☮ (peace, man), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 21:15 (five years ago) link
I had never heard of him but he had an appearance on a local cable show broadcast in New Jersey called Live From Rascals, which was a nearby comedy club. It was absolutely hysterical in 1988, but he sort of believed his own hype and became a dress in leather truth teller, which is never funny.
Anyway here is the clip from the Rascals show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGl88pvfX9c
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 27 February 2019 22:35 (five years ago) link
why are the "feminine" Debbie Gibson and George Michael bad and "real men" like Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones good?
a routine i hated even when i loooooved hicks
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
Sorry, I guess I was a 16 year old rockist
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 27 February 2019 22:48 (five years ago) link
i was too! but iirc the "joke" is that jimi hendrix is raping debbie gibson with his guitar dick, it's a bad joke
i mean i know it has been established that hicks did not trade in jokes but he was capable of being funny
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 23:34 (five years ago) link
i should prob revisit him before really assessing the quality of his jokes. i'm guessing i would prob still enjoy the incredibly vivid jay leno suicide by uzi bit
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Wednesday, 27 February 2019 23:42 (five years ago) link
I have a low threshold for the tellin'-it-like-it-is comics of the 80s/90s. Except for Carlin, of course, but that's not really fair because he was the best stand-up ever and could do about 10 other things (other than the truth-teller guise) better than anyone else. And his "Americans suck" bits at least had a bit of charm about them.
― Sam Weller, Thursday, 28 February 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link
I recall that Lenny Bruce's stuff when i was a kid was considered dated as all hell and in the UK at least he was rarely if ever referenced by the new comedians, you really could not get hold of his stuff anywhere either, it just seemed to have vanished. This is just 'a thing' that happens to comedy? It's interesting how Louie is being called out for his 'jokes' about school shootings which were obviously not funny at all but old fans have said it's no different to his early stuff, yet there's a million things in say Eminem lyrics that could be similarly criticised which.. aren't being. Yet. Or not in Guardian articles or whatever.
― piscesx, Thursday, 28 February 2019 14:40 (five years ago) link
Tbf nobody gives a shit about Eminem in 2019
― See me in mi heels an' tinge (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 28 February 2019 14:44 (five years ago) link
There are certain ILXors who care very, very deeply about Eminem and have in fact gone so far as to write up detailed rankings of his entire catalog in the past week.
― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 28 February 2019 14:47 (five years ago) link
Whiney cares about Eminem in 2019 iirc
― Uptown VONC (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 28 February 2019 14:53 (five years ago) link
Chart stats for Eminem's last album from 2018 FYI:
Australian Albums 1Austrian Albums 1Belgian Albums 1Canadian Albums 1Czech Albums 1Danish Albums 1Dutch Albums 1Finnish Albums 1French Albums 3German Albums 2Greek Albums 3Irish Albums 1Italian Albums 1 New Zealand Albums 1Norwegian Albums 1Scottish Albums 1Swedish Albums 1Swiss Albums 1UK Albums 1US Billboard 200 1US Top R&B/Hip-Hop 1
― piscesx, Thursday, 28 February 2019 15:03 (five years ago) link
May god go with him and his loyal fans
― See me in mi heels an' tinge (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 28 February 2019 15:28 (five years ago) link
99% of occasions where "dated" is used require the hard application of a sock o' manure to the offender
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 28 February 2019 15:36 (five years ago) link
― piscesx, Thursday, February 28, 2019 6:40 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
louis' material is attracting greater scrutiny because he's now an outed sex criminal. he used to be able to get away with edge-lord comedy because people's idea of him was that he was a nice, liberal (plenty of material paying lip-service to the existence of misogyny, inequality in his oeuvre) guy, most no longer think that, so the, very similar, material he now comes out with is demonized.
when eminem did that terrible trump rap there were articles online about how problematic eminem is and how that doesn't sit well with a makeover as a "resistance" guy
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 28 February 2019 17:20 (five years ago) link
been thinking a lot about this guy lately. what was his fucking problem
― frogbs, Wednesday, 14 September 2022 02:25 (one year ago) link
pancreas problems iirc
― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 02:42 (one year ago) link
dry squeegeed his third eye too hard
― look like Farley smoke like Marley (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:35 (one year ago) link
This is completely a recycled Bill Hicks bit.
World is 4000 years old. Dinosaurs were planted by god to confuse us— 𝔊𝔯𝔦𝔪𝔢𝔰 (@Grimezsz) September 13, 2022
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:38 (one year ago) link
Except for Carlin, of course, but that's not really fair because he was the best stand-up ever and could do about 10 other things (other than the truth-teller guise) better than anyone else.Hicks >>> CarlinHicks never made “jokes” justifying wiping out endangered species.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:39 (one year ago) link
I will poll my list of 50 worst Bill Hicks bits one day, don't think he made a joke about wiping out an endangered species but pretty sure most of them are worse than that.
― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:45 (one year ago) link
Yeah but he was brave enough to speak up about how contemptible a woman is for working in a restaurant
― Wiggum Dorma (wins), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:49 (one year ago) link
Hicks never made “jokes” justifying wiping out endangered species. dude just whined a lot
― brimstead, Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:51 (one year ago) link
Carlin asked where the blue food was while coked up and it's on tape
― look like Farley smoke like Marley (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:51 (one year ago) link
?
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:53 (one year ago) link
Admittedly Hicks deliver was usually strident but what I’ve seen of Carlin is even more overbearing. I don’t remember the “reader” bit being misogynist, it was mostly just pointing out the anti-intellectual strain of the American heartland, especially the South, and the butt of the joke happened to be female. I’m sure he did have some truly awful bits but again nothing I recall equivalent to “extinction lol”. Carlin is also the leading proponent of “rape is funny” iirc.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:56 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l04dn8Msm-Y
― look like Farley smoke like Marley (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:57 (one year ago) link
His funniest bits are trying to channel Richard Pryor. I know I know, Kinnison > Hicks too, given.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 17:59 (one year ago) link
Kinnison is the least funny human to ever live
― look like Farley smoke like Marley (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 18:01 (one year ago) link
he’s definitely funnier than me
― brimstead, Wednesday, 14 September 2022 18:02 (one year ago) link
ymmv wrt misogyny (helps if you ignore a shitload of evidence from his other routines) but the classism of “lol imagine working as a waitress what scum” is I think p indisputable
― Wiggum Dorma (wins), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 18:06 (one year ago) link
I was just parroting the lore on that one tbh. I usually get Kinnison and the Screaming Bob guy mixed up.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 18:06 (one year ago) link
(Xpost sorry)
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Wednesday, 14 September 2022 18:07 (one year ago) link
also I cannot forgive the kind of prick who would describe Thatcher's Britain or even post-Thatcher Britain as a "socialist nightmare".
― calzino, Wednesday, 14 September 2022 18:11 (one year ago) link
ILX folks really take incidental asides from an extended riff personally. That was somewhere near this rant wasn’t it?
I was in Australia, and the Australians had a big contingency at the Branch Davidian compound, and I’m from Texas so they were very curious. They were asking me all about it, you know. ‘Oh, this guy’s so weird, in’t he? This guy Koresh is so weird.’ And I was thinking, well, wait a minute. Frustrated rock musician with a messianic complex, armed to the teeth, and trying to fuck everything that moves. I don’t know how to tell you this: sounds like every one of my friends in Austin. I don’t know if this is gonna be an isolated incident.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Thursday, 15 September 2022 17:23 (one year ago) link
(I just read the script, didn’t listen, but I’m guessing his take on an Aussie accent is atrocious. Y’all can go ahead and chalk another demerit on the list for that one too.)
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Thursday, 15 September 2022 17:25 (one year ago) link
Ok I guess “demerit” is specifically American lingo too. Fuck me.
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Thursday, 15 September 2022 17:26 (one year ago) link
― frogbs
i don't know but whatever it is a lot of cis white dudes seem to have similar problems
carlin holds up surprisingly well imo, one of these days i might do a proper rewatch of "you are all diseased". he's doing a bit... this is something released in 2000 where he's complaining about airport security. and i'm thinking, "oh no...", but he turns it into, hey, you know what the real shitty thing about airport security is? it's systemically racist. (except he's funny when he says it because he's a comedian.) he starts out saying some kind of cringey white guy edgelord shit but he keeps twisting it _against_ white guy edgelords.
even when he says stupid shit, like complaining about vaccines (which is also something he does in that special), you're never quite _sure_ if he means it because it's like... wait, he's not _actually_ suggesting that kids should swim in raw sewage because it will "toughen them up", is he? if hicks did that routine i wouldn't question for a second that he genuinely meant it.
― Kate (rushomancy), Thursday, 15 September 2022 23:53 (one year ago) link