Norm on Bill Hicks

[EraGodless]

Carlin and Hicks do not hold up well at all. Even their apolitical stuff is not really funny nor amusing. And neither of them were ever edgy because they only ever mocked Whites or Christians. And even then their mockery was in the faggiest ways possible. When Kinison mocked going to church it came from a unique place because he was a former evangelical preacher who toured all of America.

I would argue that even someone like Artie Lange is funnier than Carlin and Hicks. His stories of drugs and alcohol are mostly true. Stuff like him getting arrested for robbing a bank as a teenager. His stories of his father being crippled and likely being suffocated and mercy killed by one of his friends are extremely dark.

Artie Lange's standup is fucking awful.

 

[EraGodless]

Were you even around for Hicks? Because I remember things differently. Hicks was seen as a poor comedian in America. His tours were small and no one found him funny even outside of the political ranting. Everyone I know hated his act and he would bomb and walk off stage often in US shows. His whole being censored from Letterman was him knowing he would be censored and doing his jokes on a family friendly show and then whining like a bitch as if his eating pussy and cancer jokes were ever going to air. Going on a family friendly show and doing adult humor and then not getting your act aired is not censorship it is just a bitch move.

Hicks gained a massive audience in the UK and Europe because his entire act was basically "America is shit!! White people are SHIT!!! CHRISTIANITY IS SHIT!!!". He was so popular in the UK he recorded most of his specials there and had signed a TV gig to be a talk show host in England. He would do jokes like "Blacks have bigger penises than Whites!!!" that didn't even have a punchline or thought to them. Only liberal fags in modern American ever liked Hicks. But Hicks had tons of mainstream attention in Europe because his entire act was built around European audiences.

I believe the "cancelled" appearance on Letterman was due to a couple of abortion jokes he made and some jokes on fags (supporting them). It was pretty tame stuff and it eventually aired- Letterman had Hicks' mom on and he apologized to her.

 

[LingerLonger]

I believe the "cancelled" appearance on Letterman was due to a couple of abortion jokes he made and some jokes on fags (supporting them). It was pretty tame stuff and it eventually aired- Letterman had Hicks' mom on and he apologized to her.

Imagine going on a family friendly G rated show and then being OUTRAGED that they dared censor your pro fag and abortion jokes. This is what qualifies as 'edgy' to liberal fags and pussies. If Bill Hicks had been born a few decades later he could have opened for "drag queen story" hour at the local elementary school to really show the right wingers.

 

[EraGodless]

Imagine going on a family friendly G rated show and then being OUTRAGED that they dared censor your pro fag and abortion jokes. This is what qualifies as 'edgy' to liberal fags and pussies. If Bill Hicks had been born a few decades later he could have opened for "drag queen story" hour at the local elementary school to really show the right wingers.

The Late Night wasn't exactly G rated or particularly family friendly. It aired at 11:30 when mostly adults/college kids are still awake. He had also been on the Letterman show several times before-

 

[Imager]

The Late Night wasn't exactly G rated or particularly family friendly. It aired at 11:30 when mostly adults/college kids are still awake. He had also been on the Letterman show several times before-

Gotta say that I usually love @LingerLonger ‘s takes, but he’s got this one wrong.

Hicks had been on Letterman before without issue. When you do a set on a late night show the producers vet it first, in a well run show anyway (I know of an early Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance of a comic that wasn’t vetted and caused issues). So Letterman’s people 99% likely vetted it.

The show is taped without incident but then the network people see it and don’t air it due to concerns about pissing off sponsors.

Given that I think Hicks had a right to be pissed. If he had been confronted beforehand he could have changed his set and it would have aired.

I want to know why he hated Jay Leno so much. I don’t think it was merely that Jay sold out.

 

[Wild]

Carlin and Hicks do not hold up well at all. Even their apolitical stuff is not really funny nor amusing. And neither of them were ever edgy because they only ever mocked Whites or Christians. And even then their mockery was in the faggiest ways possible. When Kinison mocked going to church it came from a unique place because he was a former evangelical preacher who toured all of America.

I would argue that even someone like Artie Lange is funnier than Carlin and Hicks. His stories of drugs and alcohol are mostly true. Stuff like him getting arrested for robbing a bank as a teenager. His stories of his father being crippled and likely being suffocated and mercy killed by one of his friends are extremely dark.

While I don't think Artie is a great comedian, I can agree with the rest of your post. They were the New Wave of edgy comics just "telling it like it is". It's not hard to see why a naive pre-internet audience would go apeshit for someone like Hicks or Carlin. There was nothing else like it at the time, but, like you said, they've aged terribly. It's just pretentious ranting with few laughs. Hicks whole "Why do people like the beach? It's where dirt meets water." bit was one of the most tryhard and cringiest things I've ever heard uttered from a comedian's mouth.

 

[BonnieMcFarlaneMe2]

While I don't think Artie is a great comedian, I can agree with the rest of your post. They were the New Wave of edgy comics just "telling it like it is". It's not hard to see why a naive pre-internet audience would go apeshit for someone like Hicks or Carlin. There was nothing else like it at the time, but, like you said, they've aged terribly. It's just pretentious ranting with few laughs. Hicks whole "Why do people like the beach? It's where dirt meets water." bit was one of the most tryhard and cringiest things I've ever heard uttered from a comedian's mouth.

Carlin’s golf course bit sounds like something a 15 year old Joe Derosa would have said. I think Carlin’s material aged worse than Bill’s by a lot.

 

[EraGodless]

Carlin’s golf course bit sounds like something a 15 year old Joe Derosa would have said. I think Carlin’s material aged worse than Bill’s by a lot.

Carlin's takes on euphemisms, germs, and deleting someone when they die- and suicide are pretty good. The special It's Bad For Ya (is pretty cringe) as he keeps repeating the title of the standup and that everything's bullshit. And the "It's a big club and you ain't in it," has aged pretty well. He was an interesting enough guy that both political parties think he was generally speaking truth to power (yuck) and he would probably have a much better take on today's culture than most comedians.

 

[guest]

Jackie's ass. Officer Nigger Beater. God put you here to test my faith. Hitler had the right idea, he was just an underachiever.

Unfortunately many of the popular, martyred stand ups don't age well because popular comedic tastes change a bit with the times. If you listen to early Steve Martin or George Carlin they're absolutely not good at all and the audience is HOWLING.

Bill Hicks was a product of his time. And a liberal Texan who hated Republicans definitely had an audience. Before he died he saw that Clinton was no different.

What makes Hicks different is that there wasn't much mainstream attention on him until Letterman canceled him and then he died. And even then he was underground so it was like you were discovering something.

But yeah his stuff doesn't hold up. Very few comedians will be as timeless as this:

Aye nie! I wuz roiped!! I’m funny becuz I hate min! Min roiped me! They forced me to ‘av seeks wit dem! Lee-afff at me jokes!

 

[LingerLonger]

Given that I think Hicks had a right to be pissed. If he had been confronted beforehand he could have changed his set and it would have aired.

You can tell when someone is a liberal fag with their humor because they cannot criticize their heroes like Hicks or Carlin or Stanhope. Hicks had no right to be upset that his jokes were censored. He was warned not do them beforehand. His set was rewritten by CBS before he did it and he did the first version he submitted knowing it would be censored. He was already told "no" by the adults but threw a tantrum anyways.

The reason he did the unapproved material is because he had just signed on a multi-year deal to be a host in the UK. And for a European tour. So he knew he would not be in the US to do shows like Letterman for a few years possibly. So why not get some free press in the UK and become "the most censored comic alive". It was him knowing he would be censored the entire time. Hicks knew that doing his worst material would get him taken off of the air and it would be free press. He was no free speech martyr.

Bill Hicks is reddit's favorite comic. Faggot.

I want to know why he hated Jay Leno so much. I don’t think it was merely that Jay sold out.

The first reason is that Hicks was a professional comedian so he knew the secret stuff about Jay going behind Letterman's back to get the Tonight Show. So literally everyone hated Leno for hiding in the closet and sabotaging Letterman but saying to his face "I bet you get the Tonight Show over me". Leno is known as one of the biggest backstabbing pieces of dogshit in all of comedy. People like Mencia or Schumer and other joke thieves are probably held in higher respect.

But most comedians were sellouts who wanted to go on the Tonight Show for promotion so they kept silent and never confronted Jay. Hicks decided to go the opposite way and just shit on Jay at every gig to try to force Leno to respond. Because Hicks didn't want to be tempted to have Jay invite him on the show and then Hicks to be "in awe" of the Tonight Show set and then act like a fraud for plugs. So Hicks poisoned the well on purpose to ensure he would never be like the other sellouts. But later Hicks would become a corporate tool in the UK with his tours doing the usual promotions that every other hack comic had to do. The song and dance routines.

Probably every comic that ever did the Tonight Show with Jay Leno secretly despised Jay. They were just too afraid to say it to his steam burned face. Because the plugs were more important.

 

['THE NIGGER MAN']

You can tell when someone is a liberal fag with their humor because they cannot criticize their heroes like Hicks or Carlin or Stanhope. Hicks had no right to be upset that his jokes were censored. He was warned not do them beforehand. His set was rewritten by CBS before he did it and he did the first version he submitted knowing it would be censored. He was already told "no" by the adults but threw a tantrum anyways.

The reason he did the unapproved material is because he had just signed on a multi-year deal to be a host in the UK. And for a European tour. So he knew he would not be in the US to do shows like Letterman for a few years possibly. So why not get some free press in the UK and become "the most censored comic alive". It was him knowing he would be censored the entire time. Hicks knew that doing his worst material would get him taken off of the air and it would be free press. He was no free speech martyr.

Bill Hicks is reddit's favorite comic. Faggot.

The first reason is that Hicks was a professional comedian so he knew the secret stuff about Jay going behind Letterman's back to get the Tonight Show. So literally everyone hated Leno for hiding in the closet and sabotaging Letterman but saying to his face "I bet you get the Tonight Show over me". Leno is known as one of the biggest backstabbing pieces of dogshit in all of comedy. People like Mencia or Schumer and other joke thieves are probably held in higher respect.

But most comedians were sellouts who wanted to go on the Tonight Show for promotion so they kept silent and never confronted Jay. Hicks decided to go the opposite way and just shit on Jay at every gig to try to force Leno to respond. Because Hicks didn't want to be tempted to have Jay invite him on the show and then Hicks to be "in awe" of the Tonight Show set and then act like a fraud for plugs. So Hicks poisoned the well on purpose to ensure he would never be like the other sellouts. But later Hicks would become a corporate tool in the UK with his tours doing the usual promotions that every other hack comic had to do. The song and dance routines.

Probably every comic that ever did the Tonight Show with Jay Leno secretly despised Jay. They were just too afraid to say it to his steam burned face. Because the plugs were more important.

Is Doug Stanhope carrying on the Carlin/Hicks gimmick?

Hopefully it dies with him, and soon.

 

[Queefer Sutherland]

 

[HeyItsVos]

I don’t mind Jay Leno. Him hiring Stuttering John just to piss off Howard is enough for me to never hate him.

 

[BonnieMcFarlaneMe2]

Carlin's takes on euphemisms, germs, and deleting someone when they die- and suicide are pretty good. The special It's Bad For Ya (is pretty cringe) as he keeps repeating the title of the standup and that everything's bullshit. And the "It's a big club and you ain't in it," has aged pretty well. He was an interesting enough guy that both political parties think he was generally speaking truth to power (yuck) and he would probably have a much better take on today's culture than most comedians.

I haven’t seen a bunch of his stuff. His rhythm kind of annoys me. I don’t like his last special where he just rattles off technical sounding words. I’m more defending Hicks because I think he is funny. Arizona Bay makes me laugh. “I sleep 8 hours a day and 8 at night too.” The fake death thing at one of his specials is beyond cringy though. “A new game show called let’s hunt and kill Billy Ray Cyrus” is very funny to me.

 

[LingerLonger]

I don’t mind Jay Leno. Him hiring Stuttering John just to piss off Howard is enough for me to never hate him.

He paid Jon a good six figures every year just to piss off Stern. Jay's hope was that others would quit Stern and look for jobs. It took a lot more than that to get the staff to turn on Howard though as most stayed loyal. But that was definitely a wake up call to Stern (that he ignored).

“A new game show called let’s hunt and kill Billy Ray Cyrus” is very funny to me.

He stole that from Kinison. Who did a joke about how someone should become a serial killer who kills rappers because they are not real musicians. Kinison used to do that joke when actual rappers were in the audience and shine the spotlight on them as a goof. "You want to be famous.....be the rapper killer!!! You kill people who can't play instruments and talk over pre-programmed music!! I'll pay for your lawyers!!!".

 

[Imager]

You can tell when someone is a liberal fag with their humor because they cannot criticize their heroes like Hicks or Carlin or Stanhope. Hicks had no right to be upset that his jokes were censored. He was warned not do them beforehand. His set was rewritten by CBS before he did it and he did the first version he submitted knowing it would be censored. He was already told "no" by the adults but threw a tantrum anyways.

The reason he did the unapproved material is because he had just signed on a multi-year deal to be a host in the UK. And for a European tour. So he knew he would not be in the US to do shows like Letterman for a few years possibly. So why not get some free press in the UK and become "the most censored comic alive". It was him knowing he would be censored the entire time. Hicks knew that doing his worst material would get him taken off of the air and it would be free press. He was no free speech martyr.

Bill Hicks is reddit's favorite comic. Faggot.

The first reason is that Hicks was a professional comedian so he knew the secret stuff about Jay going behind Letterman's back to get the Tonight Show. So literally everyone hated Leno for hiding in the closet and sabotaging Letterman but saying to his face "I bet you get the Tonight Show over me". Leno is known as one of the biggest backstabbing pieces of dogshit in all of comedy. People like Mencia or Schumer and other joke thieves are probably held in higher respect.

But most comedians were sellouts who wanted to go on the Tonight Show for promotion so they kept silent and never confronted Jay. Hicks decided to go the opposite way and just shit on Jay at every gig to try to force Leno to respond. Because Hicks didn't want to be tempted to have Jay invite him on the show and then Hicks to be "in awe" of the Tonight Show set and then act like a fraud for plugs. So Hicks poisoned the well on purpose to ensure he would never be like the other sellouts. But later Hicks would become a corporate tool in the UK with his tours doing the usual promotions that every other hack comic had to do. The song and dance routines.

Probably every comic that ever did the Tonight Show with Jay Leno secretly despised Jay. They were just too afraid to say it to his steam burned face. Because the plugs were more important.

I should have never doubted you.

 

[FingerofGod]

I haven’t seen a bunch of his stuff. His rhythm kind of annoys me. I don’t like his last special where he just rattles off technical sounding words. I’m more defending Hicks because I think he is funny. Arizona Bay makes me laugh. “I sleep 8 hours a day and 8 at night too.” The fake death thing at one of his specials is beyond cringy though. “A new game show called let’s hunt and kill Billy Ray Cyrus” is very funny to me.

Everything about hicks you mentioned sounds naht funny to me! I’m thinking of referring to him as Bill Hacks from now on

 

[Coonskin]

He was married once but he had been divorced many years by the time he did that bit. He got separated around the time he was rumored to be fucking Elle McPherson. There's a Stern interview out there where Howard makes him confess to being separated. He's dressed as Bob Dole so that was mid-late 90s.

 

[Riccardo Bosi]

I think Hicks was one of the first people or things to "redpill" me when I was 16.

It's weird, because out of all those guys - Hicks, Kinison, etc. - the two guys whose material holds up the longest is Norm and Dice.

 

[JoeCumiawearsDIAPERS]

Carlin and Hicks do not hold up well at all. Even their apolitical stuff is not really funny nor amusing. And neither of them were ever edgy because they only ever mocked Whites or Christians. And even then their mockery was in the faggiest ways possible. When Kinison mocked going to church it came from a unique place because he was a former evangelical preacher who toured all of America.

I would argue that even someone like Artie Lange is funnier than Carlin and Hicks. His stories of drugs and alcohol are mostly true. Stuff like him getting arrested for robbing a bank as a teenager. His stories of his father being crippled and likely being suffocated and mercy killed by one of his friends are extremely dark.

I went to the comedy cellar one random night back in 2014 or 15 and Artie stopped in. His entire set was about being a junkie and buying heroin. It was uncomfortably funny because it was all obviously true.