Bill Hicks reassessed by young comedians [split topic]

[Tony Yeboah]

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/feb/24/young-comics-verdict-standup-legend-bill-hicks

[Wentworth Smith]

'did he not realise he was recycling a violent patriarchal trope which has been the bedrock of an oppressive system for thousands of years?'

This made me laugh.

[ToneLa]

Most people I meet anti-Hicks are fuckin cunts who don't get the spirituality.

That said, never laughed at the cunt.

[Enzo]

#cancelled

[lankyguy95]

'did he not realise he was recycling a violent patriarchal trope which has been the bedrock of an oppressive system for thousands of years?'

This made me laugh.

Probably funnier than their act is.

Not even a big fan of Hicks but that article makes me want to be.

[Brundle-Fly]

"It felt very reminiscent of the era" - Kemah Bob. 

Hold on, were you even born in 1990?

[Brundle-Fly]

My then girlfriend back in the nineties was a huge Hicks fan and radical feminist. She was devastated when he died (she found out at a Tool gig, Quelle surprise!) She was eleven years younger than me and couldn't understand why I loved the likes of Oliver Reed, Keith Moon etc. "Horrible misogynistic drunken bores" she'd say. Quite rightly so. I'd be interested in what she would make of this Guardian article. 

In the reminiscing spirit,  "That's you, that is."

[Jittlebags]

Good Bill Hicks discussion on Rule of Three podcast.

[Mark Steels Stockbroker]

As Stewart Lee said: he was no Bret Wurst.

[St_Eddie]

Nope.  Not having it.  I like Bill Hicks.

So there.

[ToneLa]

I've found routinely the absolute worst people slag off Bill Hicks.

That said. Don't laugh at the cunt. Very watchable. Listenable. The lot, in fact.

Just don't laugh. Never had. Maybe a chuckle when he kicked off about Hulk Hogan...Been spellbound. Listened quoted met strangers and gotten engrossed. Nary a chuckle.

I reckon I'm doomed.

But I love him and I've yet to meet anyone feeling the opposite who isn't - without exception here, I'm not even exaggerating - a fucking embarassing car crash of a human being I pity and would help for eons before I laugh at em.

A bit like Bill Hicks

[up_the_hampipe]

A white man from the South doing stand-up comedy in the 80s and 90s didn't have all the progressive ideals we hold today, whoda thunken it!?

[Brundle-Fly]

I've found routinely the absolute worst people slag off Bill Hicks.

That said. Don't laugh at the cunt. Very watchable. Listenable. The lot, in fact.

Just don't laugh. Never had. Maybe a chuckle when he kicked off about Hulk Hogan...Been spellbound. Listened quoted met strangers and gotten engrossed. Nary a chuckle.

I reckon I'm doomed.

But I love him and I've yet to meet anyone feeling the opposite who isn't - without exception here, I'm not even exaggerating - a fucking embarassing car crash of a human being I pity and would help for eons before I laugh at em.

A bit like Bill Hicks

Agree.

'aeons' though

However, Bill Hicks has made me cough up blood with laughter.

[ToneLa]

Agree.

'aeons' though

However, Bill Hicks has made me cough up blood with laughter.

plural nouns!!

I was striding aboot in my early 20s with bootlegs on an IRiver MP3 player or whatever the fuck and fell in love. Just didn't laugh though.

It was weird first getting exposed to Bill as audio, because it was a - God, I'm really going to say this - revelation, eh readers, when I saw footage. Made much easier in the here and now.

I get it better. The visual performance - the expressions, the conviction, the incredulity - just hammered home how - here we go again - relentless he was, but how real.

I don't know if he's aged well. Frankly I don't give a fuck. I do hoot and holler these days at Goatboy in a sort of juxtaposition with "the climate".

He's in my top layer, my pantheon of comedy greats. I wish I could ascribe more laughs to him, but he was dead before I turned 10, and this past month I've seen Netflix has basically ALL of his fucking live shows so there we go. I've seen them all before, but these days it is like paying homage.

It's an odd kind of comedy. I'll bust a gut to Stanhope, who I adore but is just a dumb yuk-merchant, but Hicks is laughter-free. But I'll smile, and I'll love, and I'll stand by his comedy just as long as no psychopaths are measuring my chuckles per hour.

Anyone who slates him based on politics / drug use though needs to fucking die, get some fucking viable targets mate

brunds, would genuinely like to know what routines tickled you most. I find it hard to divorce my favourites from not-quite-comedy rants, though as a foley artist, wow, he showed some fuckin craft there. I'm in awe more than I giggle... and he might have hated me for that! :/

[St_Eddie]

All this talk of Bill Hicks failing to elicit actual laughs; I mean, that's kind of the point, isn't it?  I do find his material to be funny but primarily, I enjoy listening to his righteous indignation at the ills of society, expressed with such vigour and vile.  I will forever remember my Sister walking in on my Father and I, watching a VHS of Bill Hicks and commentating that "he's not at all funny".  Her favourite comedians were Lee Evans and Jim Carrey.

Makes you think.

[ToneLa]

All this talk of Bill Hicks failing to elicit actual laughs; I mean, that's kind of the point, isn't it?  I will forever remember my Sister walking in on my Father and I, watching a VHS of Bill Hicks and commentating that "he's not at all funny".  Her favourite comedians were Lee Evens and Jim Carrey.

Makes you think.

It makes me think aboot how the prophet-mystic shite got bandied around; perhaps as deserved recognition. I hate that kind of shite with for example music, it's reductive and serves the writer and their (ooer) organ more than the artist most times, but with Bill I can appreciate that slant (very much a UK slant as well) because he was adored, acclaimed, and other words you'd ascribe to people when you want them to be appreciated.

My whole adult life I've been in Hicks fandom but the adjective "funny" is kinda absent, yknow? And I saw that doc on his life at the cinema and my mate - new to Hicks - saw the Gulf War / Anti Bush quote in a malleable context and genuinely stood up and shouted RIGHT ON. I cringed to death, I am typing this now from hell (of course they allow acces to CaB).

I reckon if I got to see him live i'd a fuckin LOVED him as a COMEDIAN but retrospectively it just hit my drug phase / angry young man / philosophy shite and I looked back and, wow, so many sources and recollections seem to be framed within that too.

Though I liked buying Love all the People in HMV on Oxford St and the dude at the counter shaking my hand. Yeah, man. Counterculture, innit

[Sebastian Cobb]

Bill Hicks was great when i was a teenager and finding my place in the world. I doubt I could stomach his routines these days though.

Everyone involved in that article are wanks though. They'll be shitting on George Carlin next.

[Sebastian Cobb]

My then girlfriend back in the nineties was a huge Hicks fan and radical feminist. She was devastated when he died (she found out at a Tool gig, Quelle surprise!) She was eleven years younger than me and couldn't understand why I loved the likes of Oliver Reed, Keith Moon etc. "Horrible misogynistic drunken bores" she'd say. Quite rightly so. I'd be interested in what she would make of this Guardian article. 

In the reminiscing spirit,  "That's you, that is."

I knew feminists that like gangsta rap. It was the way things were before people got CANCELLED.

[ToneLa]

They'll be shitting on George Carlin next.

Don't even wind me up with that. Some podcasting cunt out there has probably already found a way. Laugh myself ill at Carlin though

[thecuriousorange]

Add me to the list of people who don't find Bill Hicks funny, the goatboy stuff being a particular low point.

[McChesney Duntz]

I noticed that the version of Revelations that just went up on Netflix chops out almost all of the Goatboy segment. Didn't mind.

[fucking ponderous]

I sort of like Bill Hicks, and I agree with most of what these people are saying, but what's the point? This is like last week when John Wayne was cancelled. He's been dead for decades. The statements that he made are decades old. Of course they're not going to align exactly with what's acceptable today.
I can understand disliking Woody Allen or Roman Polanski and boycotting their work, because they're still alive, and can still make a profit off it. But Bill Hicks is deeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaad.
This reminds me of the article that was going around in December, claiming SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIORS wanted Santa to BE GENDER NEUTRAL, which of course no one actually did. Stuff like this is published purely to cause dissent and to discredit actual social issues.

[ToneLa]

I noticed that the version of Revelations that just went up on Netflix chops out almost all of the Goatboy segment. Didn't mind.

What?? Not watching

[Rolf Lundgren]

Hicks was great. I always found him laugh out loud funny. The comment on advertising in that article implying that selling out has evolved in meaning is bollocks. Its an excuse people tell themselves to justify taking the money.

Some of his routines are dated but the poor bloke died so we're left analysing his body of work covering a relatively short time period. Hicks too would probably not be happy with some of his previous work but what can he do about it.

[ToneLa]

Hicks was great. I always found him laugh out loud funny. The comment on advertising in that article implying that selling out has evolved in meaning is bollocks. Its an excuse people tell themselves to justify taking the money.

Some of his routines are dated but the poor bloke died so we're left analysing his body of work covering a relatively short time period. Hicks too would probably not be happy with some of his previous work but what can he do about it.

Goddamn now this is the comment I came into this thread for

I want to wear it like a feedbag

[St_Eddie]

As much as I love Bill Hicks, I will concede that Goatboy was kind of shit.

[Gregory Torso]

What a shit, shit article. "The Kurt Cobain of stand up!" Chug turds forever.

Agree with everything Rolf Lundgren said above, so read his comment instead of this one. Cheers.

[hedgehog90]

I was a fan when I was 15, bought the DVDs, books, albums, etc. but looking back now, I must have quickly lost interest.
By the time I saw the 2010 doc it just reminded me what I was like when I was 15 and I remember cringing a lot.
I have no interest in revisiting any of his standup now, but there's a 2 hour public access call in show floating around on YouTube that he did about a year before he died which I still remember fondly, and will probably rewatch now that I've mentioned it.

[Steptoes_Son]

Fucking hell, that article was awful. They didn't try to find any balance in his act, in which I'd argue there certainly was between the anger and the spirituality, they just took the line of 'bad man says bad things and thinks he is a prophet!' God help them if they heard Derek and Clive or Sadowitz.

[Clownbaby]

I hate these kinds of reappraisals. I hated that series a couple years ago "It Was Alright In The 1970s/80s/90s" where a load of shit new comedians who were roughly my age (20s) and other peoole who were around then and have been told to pretend they've never seen it before were obviously told to act as righteous and disgusted as possible when they were shown a scene from Carry On Camping or something

"Omg it's so like misogynistic and patriarchal absolutely DISGUSTING.  DISGUSTING. I can't believe people used to think like that. DISGUSTING. I'm just speechess wow"

- Alex Zane