Return of Bill Hicks: Letterman Right in ‘93, Wrong Today
by Jeffrey JenaI did a short interview yesterday with talk show host Marc Germain about my old friend the late, great comic Bill Hicks. You can hear the interview on Marc’s Web Site wwwtalkradioone.com.
The Late Great Bill Hicks
Bill died at age 31 fifteen years ago but is still a cult celebrity among comedy mavens. His last national television appearance was on Letterman’s show. The set was cut due to controversial content. It was aired last Friday by CBS with Bill’s mom making an appearance on the show. Letterman was profusely apologetic about the censorship of the material fifteen years ago. You can watch the set here.
Before I get into this next bit, let me say I was a huge fan of Bill’s and was honored to have been a friend and have had the chance to watch him artistically develop from the Comic’s Annex in Houston into a major force in comedy both here and in Great Britain. This set, even though it has some very funny bits, is not Hicks at his best.
I’m not sure why Letterman cut the segment back in 1993. Some thought it was because of his roasting of gays or pro-lifers. Others thought it was his attack on Christians for wearing crosses. I think it was the opening minute where he called for, in a comic way, the killing of some celebrities he didn’t like. I’m still of the opinion that the opening minute is unacceptable for broadcast television, and I’m sure many find Bill’s take on the pro-life movement offensive. I’m sure others would find his ribbing of gay children’s books homophobic and his take on smoking in heaven a little over the line, but comedy is supposed to be offensive and irreverent. However, it should never advocate violence against individuals even in a comic way.
If Hicks had gone on TV and said he had a new show called, “Let’s Hunt Down and Kill Bill Clinton” instead of Billy Ray Cyrus, he could have been arrested. When Alec Baldwin was on Conan and “joked” about killing Henry Hyde and his family I was outraged. It’s a crime if you name the wrong person, and even though we may not like Billy Ray Cyrus or the other “Bill’s” named at the top of his monologue, calling for violence against anyone on national television is morally objectionable.
Dave was right to use his good judgment back in 1993. Maybe he’s been in New York too long, but the opening minute of this set still isn’t funny and shouldn’t be shown on the public airwaves.
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53 Comments
By that criteria, I guess that means George Carlin wasn’t funny. After all, particularly late in his career, Carlin advocated violence against just about all of the human race.
Comedy is subjective. He doesn’t think it’s funny. You do. Just a difference of opinion and no more.
It’s obvious the man is in a lot of pain. If you feel you’ve “had it” it is much easier to say whatever’s on your mind. I don’t see this bit as being about talent or censorship; it’s more like a swan song.
Agree that the opening sequence is objectionable, though. It reflects the man’s hate; there are MUCH better and funnier ways to get laughs by making fun of celebs than threatening to kill them.
Hick’s brand of comedy reflects a nihilistic view which unfortunately can be contagious among susceptible people, especially young people.
Carlin was VERY funny earlier in his career, but being hateful and ugly because of one’s own cynicism is NOT funny, and the man lost his touch with many fans because of this. It’s sad to see someone go down that road.
I thought Baldwin talked about Ken Starr.
“I’m sure many find… his take on smoking in heaven a little over the line”
Frankly, I hope smoking is permitted in the afterlife, as I’m sure God could make some unbelievably awesome cigars…
Tell me again why comedy is “supposed to be offensive and irreverant?”
Not sure that is in my book of rules.
I didn’t think any of it was funny.
There were a few bits where one could detect faint glimmers of actual wit, some insight into the human condition and its basic absurdity, but most of it was the kind of stuff you’d expect from a 15 year old trying to impress his friends – and failing.
Dave was right to cut it not so much because it was offensive, but because it wasn’t entertaining. That’s not censorship. That’s good show-biz judgment.
Charles, hey, if you don’t like art that offends you, don’t look at it. No one is forcing you to, jackass.
Was Letterman ever funny? Did you see Cabinboy?
Pete – True, no one is forcing us to look at offensive drivel masquerading as art. But they are forcing us to pay for it, which is worse.
Interesting to see this posted here, considering Hicks would have nothing but contempt for a site like this and those who read it. He was one of the greats, calling b.s. where he saw it, which brings me back to why he would have contempt for a site like this and those who read it.
Another +1 for Joan.
When I read “…comedy is supposed to be offensive and irreverent.” My first thought was, we have VERY different ideas about what constitutes ‘funny’.
Tastes vary, of course, but I don’t find Bill Hicks funny. I always found him hate-filled, arrogant and mistaken. I’m not even sure he was a comedian.
Two things you can’t ‘convince’ someone of: ‘what’s funny’ and ‘who’s attractive’. Both are just too subjective.
“Ben – February 4th, 2009 at 5:38 am
By that criteria, I guess that means George Carlin wasn’t funny. After all, particularly late in his career, Carlin advocated violence against just about all of the human race.”
You are correct, Ben. Carlin wasn’t funny late in his career. He was obviously a bitter (albeit talented) old man. His few shining moments later in his career were in acting, and not his stand up comedy.
bill hicks will always rock.
he was right about the r-tards way back then.
you people wouldn’t know funny if it kicked you in the bowls.
but comedy is supposed to be offensive and irreverent.
I’ve got to go with Joan on this. How offensive and irreverent was Jack Benny? Or Laurel and Hardy? Were Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton offensive? Was Harold Lloyd ever irreverent? How did Bob Hope mange to have a career in show business without ever talking about how much he wanted to shoot somebody?
If you are doing satire it helps to be irreverent but there are other ways to do comedy. A real comedian can tell a funny joke without offending people.
The best jokes about human nature get people to laugh at themselves.
“Ha, ha, he just said something mean about someone I hate,” doesn’t qualify.
I actually saw Bill Hicks perform here i nAustin, at the Laff Stop, back in the late Eighties.
My take: he was Andrew Dice Clay with delusions of grandeur.
That is, he was frequently hilarious as long as he was telling dick jokes. Problem is, he thought he was an intellectual with an important message for the world. He wasn’t. When he THOUGHT he was at his best, he was a bully and a pompous windbag.
While he was making jokes about porn, the audience I was part of cracked up. When he started ranting about politics, we dozed off.
Evil right-winger here.
Bill Hicks had some hilarious and brilliant insights. Please don’t judge his entire body of work by this one late example. Yes, he was hard left, he was crass and abrasive, and politically speaking he probably would’ve hated me.
I get that, and I’m okay with it. I can laugh at it even if it chaps my ass. Because thanks to Bill Hicks, I can’t see the word “hooligans” without thinking “ruffians,” “scalawags,” or “dustbins in ashbury.” I can’t see a banana without thinking “SMART FRUIT.” I can’t see a jaywalker without thinking “speed up and turn on the wipers.”
And he might’ve worn the skin and attitude of a misanthrope, but he wore it imperfectly. The guy had hope for this flawed tribe of chimps.
Take, for example, Louie Anderson (???) at the Guthrie… laughed so hard I hurt because he was making jokes about me and my culture and at least half the time it wasn’t “I know someone who did that!” it was “I’ve *done* that!” Ended up with a belly ache and sore cheeks.
Or how about those “red neck” comedians that did a sort of tour or something or other that was on television? They’re sitting up there making fun of their audience and everyone is laughing… it sure wasn’t that they were in front of urban sophisticates making fun of the hicks. People were laughing at things they recognized from their own lives.
There’s a reason most Christians I know like Ned Flanders.
Hi:
Well I’m a prolife, Christian, non-smoker, and I thought it was pretty funny. I really didn’t think that the comment about Billy Ray Cyrus was so horrible, it wasn’t a comment on the man’s humanity but on his talent. They gay joke wasn’t anti-gay at most is suggested that two guys doin it in the bedroom is kind of a gross subject for a children’s book. The joke about the cross was pretty funny, may have even meant something theological since cross Christianity vs resurrection Christianity is a source of disagreement among Christians, though most Christians don’t know anything about this.
Pretty funny, not crude or vulgar. Didn’t attack down. I have to give the guy a 10.
Greg Marquez
goyomarquez@earthlink.net
Letterman’s liberal bias has really over shadowed my enjoyment of him. Let me preface that by saying that 98% of the media I consume is produced by artists I don’t agree with and it doesn’t stifle me in the least. I’ve been to a taping of Letterman and enjoyed it. What bugs me is that Letterman tries to act classy while really acting like a vindictive little kid, throwing rocks at a neighbor’s window, then ducking behind the fence with a snicker.
IIRC, this was in the pre-Hugh Grant era of the Leno Tonight Show, where Jay was still groping for a way to make the format fit him instead of Johnny, and Letterman actually had the late-night ratings lead, even though there were still questions about Dave’s “warmth” when it came to attracting enough of Johnny’s viewers away from NBC. So my guess is Hicks’ set was cut as part of a don’t-rock-the-boat/frontrunner type of thing, where Letterman wanted to prove NBC wrong for picking Jay over him and didn’t want to create any controversy that would drive viewers back to The Tonight Show.
(On the other hand, given Dave’s actions for the past five years, if someone went on the show today with Hicks’ routine, only replaced Billy Ray Cyrus with George W. Bush, they probably would have made it to the couch before the midnight station break.)
That Letterman program was just bizarre. More than “profusely” apologizing, Dave was almost groveling. And for what? For making a wise decision both from the standpoint of entertainment and moral sensibilities. I’d rather see Dave apologize for the profuse waste of viewers’ time during such drawn-out, “played” bits like “WIll it Float?” and “Know your cuts of meat.” Maybe those are not on anymore, but I would not know becasue they drove me from regular viewing of his show. And while I’m ripping Dave, how can a guy who has had some serious stalking incidents not only talk about but also show pictures of his son HArry on the show? Seems like he’s asking for tourble.
you jerkoffs just dont like it because he wasnt catering to YOUR agenda. All he had to do was make a joke about killing Hillary or welfare queens and you would have thought this was genius.
You shallow faitheads will never be able to remove your agenda from your lapel and enjoy real art, this is real art and that is why most of you are repressed (see Ted Haggart).
When I was younger I used to like Hicks but it’s true: he was just an elitist prick. I don’t even think he’s funny anymore since I’ve heard so many liberals aka “progressives” repeat his punch lines by rote as if they were quoting some great philosophical pearls of wisdom.
I watched this last week, and it confirms that Letterman is just a pathetic coward. If I were Mary Hicks I would have told Dave where to stick his 15 year old tape.
USAFJeeper: Like David Letterman, George Carlin had ceased to be funny decades ago.
Joan of Argghh!: Um… no. [Comedy is] supposed to be funny. First rule. Fun-ny.
Both are dead on. You don’t have to be vulgar to be funny (Bob Newhart comes to mind, but the early Bill Cosby, or Flip Wilson, or even the early George Carlin are good examples). That said, I think the vulgar or political stuff can be funny. The problem is, as someone else pointed out, you have to rise above the level of saying something mean about someone you don’t like. For me, Whoopi Goldberg is a good case in point. She’s always been political, but she was often pretty funny, at least until she just went full on lefty in her rants. I’m willing to laugh at Chevy Chase making fun of a few slips by Gerald Ford on SNL, or Ferrell making fun of GWB’s problems with the English language, but that’s a far cry from the vindictive nastiness that pervades much of what passes for comedy on the left these days.
revhatchell – February 4th, 2009 at 7:49 am
bill hicks will always rock.
he was right about the r-tards way back then.
you people wouldn’t know funny if it kicked you in the bowls.
Sam Kinison was funny. Chris Rock is funny (at least his first HBO special was). Richard Pryor was ALWAYS funny. I have no problems with comedians using whatever they need to work their act, but first it has to be funny. If you’re missing that, you’re just a bitter, sad human being.
Watched Bill Hicks’ set. Didn’t laugh once. Don’t see what the big deal about Hicks is.
Bill lived down the street when we were kids. one of those class clowns, yep. i thought the bit was pretty innocuous compared to today. bill’s live stuff was a lot funnier; used to see him at the Improv when he was in L.A. Word is this is a pre-publicity buildup for a biopic. Us ex Houston peeps have heard Russell Crow is going to/wants to play him. Guess bill really was big in Oz and England. Letterman seemed old and tired. Talk about too little too late.
Cosby for all of his good guy image on stage has a reputation off stage among people that have worked with and for him.
Yeah, but it’s the onstage Bill Cosby the rest of us know and love. Same with Steve Martin and Jerry Seinfeld to a lesser degree. I’ve gotta go with the others here who see the angry, shock comic as a relatively recent development [insert obligatory Lenny Bruce reference here] and a cheat for lazy comics rightly unsure of their own comedy chops.
Seinfeld has famously said he generally avoids doing blue material because he wants to be sure he’s getting an “honest laugh.” That speaks volumes IMHO.
Whoops… Fumbled the ole HTML code there. Hope this fixes it.
Word is this is a pre-publicity buildup for a biopic. Us ex Houston peeps have heard Russell Crow is going to/wants to play him.
Russell Crowe does look a little like him at that. What’ll the angle of the biopic be – that Hicks had to die young because he was so “on the edge”? Meh, seen it before (remember Oliver Stone/Eric Bogosian’s ridiculous, self-aggrandizing “Talk Radio”?).
I don’t get you people who don’t think comedy should be irreverent. You clearly don’t know comedy. Comedy is by its very nature an assault on the institutions and values of society. That’s why some societies seek to ban certain kinds of comedy. I tend to think that having our institutions and values assaulted through comedy is the best way for them to be assaulted.
I certainly don’t agree with Hicks politically, but he was very good at what he did. Was he a callous, evil man? Perhaps, but that is not mine to say. He was certainly imperfect. Part of comedy is exaggeration and bravado. People think that they are really smart and insightful, even when they aren’t– it’s part of the human condition. Hicks was no exception.
So I don’t begrudge him his hatred of Christians, pro-lifers, Republicans, all of humanity, or whatever. He’s a comedian. Part of what makes him so funny to me is that, being a comedian, he took himself way, way too seriously. Like Pagliacci with a microphone. A disaster on stage.
I think those right-wingers who are seriously offended by him are like Hicks without the humor– unfunny and insecure in their beliefs and values. If you can’t laugh at or with Bill Hicks, then ignore him. He was a danger only to himself.
Word is this is a pre-publicity buildup for a biopic. Us ex Houston peeps have heard Russell Crow is going to/wants to play him.
Russell Crowe does look a bit like him at that. What’ll the angle of the biopic be – that Hicks had to die young because he was so “on the edge”? That he was brave for taking on the terrible right-wingers? Meh, seen it before (remember Oliver Stone/Eric Bogosian’s ridiculous, self-aggrandizing “Talk Radio”?).
I don’t get you people who don’t think comedy should be irreverent.
Has anyone said that? What various people on this thread have objected to is the idea that comedy has to be irreverent and offensive.
Moviebob..Paul Giamatti probably has the chops to do it, but will too many people still see him as either the Sideways or American Splendor guy?
Crowe is WAY too old to play Hicks at this point. If he did, it would look as strange as Kevin Spacey’s attempt to portray Bobby Darin.
I would vote for Sam Rockwell of Galaxy Quest/Confessions of a Dangerous Mind to play Hicks.
I gave up on Letterman early in the primary.
Actually, I was slacking back more and more before, recognizing his liberal tilt descending after his heart surgery. I would lay the blame on that – and old age, what I call the Goldwater syndrome – but watching the man over the years, almost religiously, I saw that it was the Iraq war as presented by the leftist propaganda machine (mainstream media) that made the poor man go daft.
I will miss the pie guessing with his mom. I will miss the football toss at the meatball Xmas tree.
But I will not miss Letterman. Just another simp on the air.
My problem with Hicks was always that, like many leftists, he had a persecution complex. No phrase better explains his occasional habit of ending his act by making a final, sweeping Utopian statement of his ultimate optimism and hope for humanity — and then pretending to be shot by some nefarious person concealed in the audience. (Denis Leary’s “heart attack” at the end of No Cure For Cancer was almost an unconscious parody of this schtick.)
Still, I think he had a few good routines — like the smoking gags, or his theory that CNN is Ted Turner’s attempt to make the rest of America depressed. It was his apparent need to say something bigger, something more meaningful, that kept dragging his act down; I agree with Astorian that Bill Hicks was only funny when he was doing dick jokes… and I think that he knew that and was incredibly aggravated by it.
Bill Hicks is playing at Club Cocytus in The City of Dis for an very long extended engagement.
I laugh more in a day than I’m betting most people do in a year. The adage I live by is, “To those who feel, life is a tragedy: To those who think, it is a comedy.” (I know I’m talking to a leftard when they start every sentence off with, “I feel…”). No, I can’t remember who said that, but it wasn’t me, which really pisses me off. Anyway, the guy didn’t make me laugh. Sorry (Not really). Much less was it, “tremendous.”
What makes me laugh then? Running out of windshield washer fluid at the beginning of the first muddy rain after a year-long drought. A three year old girl in the grocery store line in front of me telling her mom that I look like a nice guy. Dropping an empty beer bottle right onto my left great toe, after just cutting the nail too short so it’s already bleeding (And so now it’s bruised too). Having my phone butt-dial South Africa, and getting a $86.47 bill for it… from the South African phone company my butt mysteriously rang up. Having my mom and I drain a MAGNUM of Dom I bought her for her eightieth birthday… in under two hours… just the two of us.
Stuff like that. Everyday stuff like that. I don’t hear comics talking about stuff like that. Pity.
Since I’ve already slammed Bill Hicks (somewhat) as a comedian, I should add this postscript:
I never met Hicks offstage, and never got to know him one on one. But I know several people who DID know him well, and all of them seemed to think the world of him as a human being.
If these people are to be believed (and I have no reason not to believe them), for all the venom and bile Hicks spewed on stage, he was an exceptionally kind and generous person in “real” life. I’m told he was devoted to his family, so it’s not surprising that his mother appeared on the Letterman show on his behalf.
He may well have been a much better person than he was a comedian.
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