Who was Bill Hicks?

[Rats]

There are loads of comedians who just shout and look smug instead of telling jokes. Were people doing it before Hicks?

[Santa's Boyfriend]

I am a huge fan of Bill Hicks, and he's the only comedian whos style I have never got bored of, or failed to find hysterically funny.  He says a lot or implies a lot that I do find insightful, and I find that he is endlessly quotable.

The recent Bill Hicks Deathaversary in the Cube in Bristol was totally sold out - people were sitting in the aisles because they couldn't get a seat, and watching his work with a crowd was like seeing it all again for the first time.  Everyone was laughing.

Regarding the whole advertising thing, I think what Hicks was saying was that if you are trying to make a point in life, you can't sell your opinion for money and still expect to be taken seriously.  That's a little clear-cut for me, as not everyone famous is trying to make a point, and at the end of the day we all need to make money somehow - but the concept is not that far away from Morris' attacks on celebrities on Brasseye for being experts for hire.

[dan dirty ape]

There are loads of comedians who just shout and look smug instead of telling jokes. Were people doing it before Hicks?

He didn't 'just shout' though. He had a great way with a descriptive phrase and his stance was often more resigned bewilderment with what he saw as illogical thinking than a big sweary rant.

[Bert Thung]

Can anyone tell me what Bill Hicks innovated?  The problem I've always had with him as a "thinker", is I could pretty much predict what his opinions were going to be on everything.  War = bad, government = bad etc Whereas with Sadowitz or Kinison, they don't align themselves to any agreed viewpoint. Hicks, although a good comic, it just seemed bog-standard liberal viewpoints said angrily.

[Peking O]

Can anyone tell me what Bill Hicks innovated?  The problem I've always had with him as a "thinker", is I could pretty much predict what his opinions were going to be on everything.  War = bad, government = bad etc Whereas with Sadowitz or Kinison, they don't align themselves to any agreed viewpoint. Hicks, although a good comic, it just seemed bog-standard liberal viewpoints said angrily.

Well you may think his opinions are 'bog standard' and 'liberal' but there are still not enough people out there (in American society certainly) saying "look, this is wrong". Hicks did that, and he did it with a great passion.

[rjpeters]

As someone who came to Hicks' work after he died, the only thing that springs to mind when I think of Hicks is thoughts of what might have been. He could have been the most revered stand-up of his generation rather than an above average Texan comic with an obsession with Advertising and Pornography. He could have been what Michael Moore is today. Actually, no, someone better than Moore. Hicks would someone who truly stood up for what they believed in and certainly wouldn't have courted publicity in the same way that Moore does now.

True, some of his thoughts on aspects of society werent that original and, at times, not that funny but at least he was wasn't one of the growing number of Jim Davidson style comics, who seem to just read the newspaper before going out on stage and attempting to pass there jokes off as wit as a way of avoiding actually having to come up with proper material.

"Oh, look at me, I can read a newspaper, recall a story from it and then say a rude word while making a slightly distasteful joke about that story" Which as far as I am aware is pretty much Jimmy Carr's act, isn't it?

Hicks tried to open peoples minds up to the idea of thinking about life and the way you live you're life differently and not just living off what the state and the media spoonfeeds you. He was trying to make people aware of opening up the 'collective subconscience' and making us all more 'evolved beings'. He simply wanted everyone to become better people, both in body and mind. Hardly the worse message anyone has ever had, is it?

I'll shut up now, shall I?

I'm sorry if I've upset  many of you by my ignorance, but I often see Bill Hicks mentioned on these boards in what seems to be tones of adoration. So I just wondered who he is and what he does.

This thread HERE provides a nice bio of Hicks' life and I also suggest you head over to the BOOTLEG ARCHIVE as well, if only to do some homework.

[thatmuch]

Can anyone tell me what Bill Hicks innovated?  The problem I've always had with him as a "thinker", is I could pretty much predict what his opinions were going to be on everything.  War = bad, government = bad etc Whereas with Sadowitz or Kinison, they don't align themselves to any agreed viewpoint. Hicks, although a good comic, it just seemed bog-standard liberal viewpoints said angrily.

I don't think his attitudes to non-smokers, having sex with ?teen year old girls who haven't grown more than a wisp of pubic hair yet, women who put up with abusive husbands, or priority for pedestrians on roads in Los Angeles fit comfortably into the category of 'bog-standard liberal views'.

About his rant about people who've taken part in advertisments - it's a howl of disgust. The 'preacher' label is wrong because Hicks tended to talk from the gut as well as the mind, and his shows were a kind of disturbed and contrary mix of the two. He would rant against non-smokers after he'd given up smoking himself.
I despise people taking part in advertisments unless they're really desperate, and it makes it harder for me to take them seriously again. Hicks merely hyperbolises that reaction.

hyperbolisessssssssssssss. Dreadful last sentence there.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Can anyone tell me what Bill Hicks innovated?  The problem I've always had with him as a "thinker", is I could pretty much predict what his opinions were going to be on everything.  War = bad, government = bad etc Whereas with Sadowitz or Kinison, they don't align themselves to any agreed viewpoint. Hicks, although a good comic, it just seemed bog-standard liberal viewpoints said angrily.

Much of his comedy was about challenging established beliefs that were prevalent in American society at the time, often because it was the media that were promoting them.  Hicks never aligned himself to any viewpoint other than his own, and genuinely didn't seem to care if anyone agreed with him or not.

To be outspoken about your own opinion is hardly innovative - but what you've got to remember is that you have to tow the party line to a degree in order to get to where you want to be if you're a comedian or presenter or entertainer of somekind.  If you want to be successful, you can't afford to piss off the wrong people or say things that people in power genuinely don't want heard.   Hicks never, ever agreed to meet anyone halfway, which is why he remained relatively obscure as a comedian for his whole life, despite being so obviously talented.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Why do we think Hicks hasn't influenced any young comedians on today's circuit though? After all, the only 'political' comedians who get cited these days (Michael Moore, Mark Thomas, Rob Newman, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel) are all contemporaries of Hicks rather than people from the next generation. Is political stand-up incredibly unfashionable? If so, isn't that more reason to do it?

[rjpeters]

Why do we think Hicks hasn't influenced any young comedians on today's circuit though? After all, the only 'political' comedians who get cited these days (Michael Moore, Mark Thomas, Rob Newman, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel) are all contemporaries of Hicks rather than people from the next generation. Is political stand-up incredibly unfashionable? If so, isn't that more reason to do it?

I think because it is too easy. Any old idiot can do jokes about how stupid George W. Bush is or how evil Donald Rumsfeld is. And if you don't believe me, then watch Weapons of Mass Distraction (such a clever title, wonder how they came up with that?) on ITV late on fridays. Actually, don't but I hope I've made my point.

The good stand-ups around now are the ones who steer as far away from politics as possible. Harry Hill, Ross Noble, that's the sort of comedy that works for me at the moment. I've had my fill of these 'fevered egos' and their humorous routines about Iraq, Bush, WMD's et al.

[alan strang]

Why do we think Hicks hasn't influenced any young comedians on today's circuit though? After all, the only 'political' comedians who get cited these days (Michael Moore, Mark Thomas, Rob Newman, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel) are all contemporaries of Hicks rather than people from the next generation. Is political stand-up incredibly unfashionable? If so, isn't that more reason to do it?

I'm always amazed by the amount of panicky, aggressive anger generated towards the above comedians by comparitively young comedy fans these days. It's the same snipery that Ben Elton got in the 80s from seasoned Tories - all insisting that he was just a hypocrite in a sparkly suit getting cheap laughs by playing to an easy audience of studenty left-wingers.

Are today's youth now right-wing by default because there's no viable force for leftism to follow?

I think because it is too easy. Any old idiot can do jokes about how stupid George W. Bush is or how evil Donald Rumsfeld is.

That's not political comedy - that's Dead Ringers. Good political comedy is borne out of a genuine interest in the subject matter. Dead Ringers is only interested in creating caricatures. The issues are very much secondary (in fact I'd say that it has more in common with right-wing political comedy, which by its very nature also avoids actual issues in favour of silliness and frivolity)

The good stand-ups around now are the ones who steer as far away from politics as possible. Harry Hill, Ross Noble, that's the sort of comedy that works for me at the moment. I've had my fill of these 'fevered egos' and their humorous routines about Iraq, Bush, WMD's et al.

Where are these political comedians of which you speak? You can keep Ross Noble spouting off about "little mooonkeys" and Camberwick fucking Green in exchange for non-negotiable giggles. Let's have a few more passionate viewpoints in comedy.

"Play from your fuckin' heart!"

[lazyhour]

Can I mention David Cross again now?

His albums "Shut Up You Fucking Baby" and the recent "It's Not Funny" are angry, funny, politcial, exciting and often thought-provoking things.  So such humour is most definitely not dead.

[Rats]

hehe, "little mooonkeys"

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Political comedy doesn't necessarily involve shouting 'Tony B-liar more like' at the top of your voice. Simply trying to change attitudes, howl against bullshit etc - that's all political.

You used to get real alternative cabaret 15 years back - strange 'happenings' that fused capital-P politics withall-out general weirdness. But it was rarely slick whimsy for its own sake. Last year, I went to a small comedy club which hosted a night of this kind of thing, featuring a dream line-up: Simon Munnery doing Alan Parker, Lorraine Bowen singing her superlative comedy songs, Kevin Eldon doing an entire act in French, and Rob Newman (who arrived on his bicycle) ranting about War On Terror humbug. What a night. But all those people are from the 80s generation - they're the one-night-only exception, not the rule. Listen to an episode of Brand Spanking on BBC7 and it's all very conservative stuff.

[pantstent]

I don't know, really. I always enjoyed Bill Hicks, but I can't say he stood out as much as the history-writers claim. I was more blown away by Denis Leary, to be honest - I can remember being very excited when he did his throat cancer routine on BBC1's Paramount City (cue bags of complaints on Points of View). Hicks was just one of these people who appeared on things like Just for Laughs on C4 - he made me laugh and think, but not as much as, say, an episode of A Bit of Fry and Laurie.
.

Fair enough if you like Denis Leary, but I think he should be strung up for the material he ripped off of Hicks and made more 'cool' and palatable for the mainstream. Leary and Hicks shared comedy bills in the US before Leary became big. Its pretty well known that Leary adopted his comedy style after that, even going as far as mimicking some Hicks jokes and lines (No Cure For Cancer). He prolly thought Hicks would never get big so no one would notice. Then again Tarantino should be strung up for ripping off scenes in rarely seen asian films without giving credit

I  know a little of Sadowitz's comedy, remember it being irreverent and anarchist maybe? Cool.
Hicks sometimes annoyed me with his patriotic hope for what the US 'could be' and some of his spiritualism. I suppose you could ally him with liberal viewpoints but he also showed a lot of anarchistic and libertarian ideals (puppet on the left/puppet on the right).

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

I've never heard David Cross, but the tracklisting to his album is very funny:

CD 1
1. WELFARE DENTIST ON A BENDER
2. LUNCH WITH FRANKENSTEIN
3. "YOU GO, GIRL!"
4. SOCKS AND SHOES
5. PLAYING POOL WITH MY WIFE
6. SPIDERMAN VS BATMAN
7. SHAVING THE POPE'S PUSSY
8. MONICA LEWINSKY AND THE THREE BEARS
9. FAKE TITS/REAL BEER

CD 2
1. PROM NIGHT WITH MELINDA HILDENBURGH
2. MY WIFE'S CRAZY!
3. FLYING ON A MEXICAN PLANE
4. SEX ON THE INTERNET!?
5. MY DAUGHTER'S FIRST DATE
6. DIARRHEA MOUSTACHE
7. IF BASEBALLS HAD AIDS ON THEM
8. GOODNIGHT ASSHOLES!

That's a parody of an American stand-up, surely?

[pantstent]

That's a parody of an American stand-up, surely?

yep it sure looks like it :-)

[rjpeters]

Are today's youth now right-wing by default because there's no viable force for leftism to follow?

People like Thomas, Moore and Steel are so politically rabid that they are just too much for the mainstream media to take and as such are marginalised for the likes of Dead Ringers, 2DTV et al. Even Thomas, who used to have a great series on Channel 4, has been shunted off to the margins, simply because the channel controllers are scared of a fight or doing something that might go against the government of the day.  You can just imagine Yes, Minister being launched today? Blair would be having fits, much as in the same way Thatcher did when it first went out.  TV controllers nowadays are all businessmen who are so afraid of losing there jobs, that they don't want a fight. They simply give in so as to keep onto there jobs. Or don't bother in the first place and put on the likes of Dead Ringers, 2DTV et al because it makes keeping their jobs easier.

OR

You go down the Michael Moore route where you have to embrace the mainstream media if you want to get your message across.  On the Bowling For Columbine DVD, there is an interesting interview with Moore and he basically says that although all the studios in America hate him, they also know that they will make money out of him. Which explains why Miramax were so happy to give him the money for Fahrenheit 9/11. It may go against what their parent company Disney likes (so much so that they wont even release it) but as long as there is money going in the bank, who cares? Moore also adds that he hates this but he knows he has no option if he wants to get his viewpoint across.

To put it into Hicksist, you have to suck the scaly corporate cock if you have any chance of being heard. Hicks never did this and us such his voice was never heard by the people who needed to hear it. Which as I've said before, is the greatest shame about Hicks, he went before his work was done.

[lazyhour]

I've never heard David Cross, but the tracklisting to his album is very funny:

.....

That's a parody of an American stand-up, surely?

Sort of, yes.  His track titles for It's Not Funny are even better:

1. Certain Leaders in Government Look or Act like Certain Pop Culture References!
2. Women, Please Rinse Off Your Vagina and Anus!
3. A Rapid Series of Comical Noises!
4. I've Taken a Popular Contemporary Pop Song and Changed the Lyrics to Comment on the Proliferation of Starbucks in My Neighborhood!
5. Although Indigent, Rural Families Have Little to Say in the Matter, Third Rate Public Education Has Kept Them Ignorant and Thus, Great Sources of Ridicule!
6. My Child is Enthralling, Especially When It Says Something Unexpectedly Precocious Even Though It Doesn't Understand What It Just Said!
7. My Immigrant Mom Talks Funny!
8. When It Comes to Jews, Behavior One Might Perceive as Obnoxious and Annoying I Present as "Quirky" but It's Okay to Joke About It Because I, Myself, Am Jewish!
9. Pandering to the Locals!
10. Even Though I Am in the Closet, That Won't Prevent Me from Getting Cheap Laughs at the Expense of Homosexuals!
11. Weathermen Have Become, for the Most Part, Obsolete!
12. When All is Said and Done, I am Lonely and Miserable and Barely Able to Mask My Contempt for the Audience as I Trot Out the Same Sorry Act I've Been Doing Since the Mid-Eighties!

None of what he lists in these titles actually takes place during the recording, it should be noted.  And the exclamation marks at the end of each title are deliberate.  It's a great album.

[alan strang]

Quoting old material again:

HITLER - Slightly Blue
(Deutche Gramaphone 7389209A)

A welcome CD release of the classic 1979 comedy album (recorded live between World War 1 and World War 2) With Richard Wagner at the piano.

1. Announcement
2. Trouble Getting Here
3. Airport Security
4. Hotel Bathroom
5. Jews
6. Homosexuals
7. More Jews
8. Living in Germany
9. Cats and Dogs
10. Interval Announcement (Machine gun)
11. Introduction to Side 2 by Goeballs
12. The War
13. Improv
14. 'I Married a Giraffe this Christmas, Nicky Nacky Noo' (Song)
15. Awards Ceremony
16. Punchline Competition
17. Appeal on Behalf of the Society for Deaf Paranoid Kamikaze Instructors
18. Last Word
19. Record Scratch

[alan strang]

Fair enough if you like Denis Leary, but I think he should be strung up for the material he ripped off of Hicks and made more 'cool' and palatable for the mainstream. Leary and Hicks shared comedy bills in the US before Leary became big. Its pretty well known that Leary adopted his comedy style after that, even going as far as mimicking some Hicks jokes and lines (No Cure For Cancer). He prolly thought Hicks would never get big so no one would notice. Then again Tarantino should be strung up for ripping off scenes in rarely seen asian films without giving credit

I've always been wary of the 'Leary simply ripped off Hicks' suggestion - as much as the similar accusations re Bad News and Spinal Tap. Neither really stand up to close scrutiny.

In the case of the comments by pantstent above, there are one or two similar routines from both comedians but both were performing that material around the same time (I remember some write-up in Vox which gave both equal coverage and also made reference to the fact that their material was similar - with no accusations of plagiarism aimed at either party).

I also recall they both appeared on Just For Laughs around this time, standing next to each other for an interview. Couldn't it just be the case that their acts developed at the same time, and that they shared similar bugbears? In terms of performance they really aren't that similar at all. Leary is non-stop screaming with the odd calm bit. Hicks is the exact opposite - calm, laid back, and then launching into a fit of anger when you least expect it.

In fact, in reference to their shared routines about those two heavy metal fans who blew their faces off with shotguns, wouldn't it have originally been topical material anyway?

HICKS' PUNCHLINE:
Wow... (shrugs) two less gas-station attendants in the world. I don't wanna be mean but... I don't think we lost a cancer cure here...

LEARY'S PUNCHLINE:
What's the problem? It's called 'natural selection', folks - it's the bottom of the fuckin' food-chain, okay!!?

Both funny, in my view. Both delivered in very different ways. I suspect there were a hundred other comedians on the same circuit at the time who came up with their own variation on the same joke, but of whom we never hear.

So when did Leary 'become big' exactly? Surely he and Hicks were still neck-and-neck in terms of fame and success right up until the latter died?

As for Leary's stand-up turning mainstream, I don't see it. He lost a bit of his bite when he hosted that British comedy stand-up show, (and I can take or leave his film acting work), but 'Lock & Load' is a superb comedy LP, mixing together stand-up with abrupt cut-ups of home-tapes, self-help parodies, random voices and songs. The 'Kennedy' song is particularly good, even though the cut-up style doesn't allow us to hear much of it:

I drink, and I drive
I'm the only one in my car
Who gets out alive
Ted Kennedy...

A fake radio-tuning effect whisks us away after that (although we rejoin the song a bit later on the LP). Great stuff.

Anyway, I'd hardly suggest that Leary's stand-up ever became mainstream in the slightest. Even though his targets became a little less global - lots of stuff about his family and the impossibility of buying "coffee-flavoured coffee" - the jokes are just as funny and the humour just as uncompromising as it ever was.

[mayer]

i really like Leary's "rap" on the Natural Born Killers DVD, shame it didn't make the cut.

the one sketch they both did which struck me as being nearly identical was a smoking one, i forget the details though.

[Lewis]

The stuff Hicks was doing during the gulf war of '91 was just  phenomenal though... simple gags such as 'we look at the reciept' through to 'cool, what does G13 do?' were hilarious one-liners which made me laugh till my sides hurt and yet some of his material made me think about the war and about the american military in a way I hadn't done before.

I was back in Manchester recently and me and my mate stayed up watching Hicks for a few hours and it was really spooky watching him talk about the Gulf war - if some of those stand up routines were broadcast today then I think nearly all of it would still be relevant - all the talk about Bush (the wimp presdient) through to the way the media reported the threat from Iraq's WMD. "We hope you enjoyed your fireworks show" is one quote that stuck in my mind. One of Hicks albums was even called 'shock and awe', now how many times did I hear that during the recent 'war'?

I just wish he was alive today, we really could have done with a comedian of his quality during the last war just to illustrate how futile and pointless this war really was... and just for a few belly laughs too.

I'm not sure what point I'm trying to make here, I'm just trying to say that personally Hicks made me laugh more than any comedian ever had before or since and some of the political issues he discussed made me think  and even changed my opinions about certain things.

Taking a look at comedians today, no one even comes close to making an impact like Hicks did

[alan strang]

Remember when the war started, how the media kept talking about the 'Elite Republican Guard'? Like these guys were the fucking boogeyman or something. Like they were 12 feet tall desert warriors who've never lost a battle.

Yeah, well, after a month of continuous carpet bombing and not one reaction at all from them, they became simply 'The Republican Guard' (howls with laughter) - not nearly as elite as we may have led you to believe...

And after another month of bombing they went from 'The Elite Republican Guard' to 'The Republican Guard' to 'The Republicans Made This Shit Up About There Being Guards Out There'.

"We hope you enjoyed your fireworks show".

Marvellous stuff.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

That's a parody of an American stand-up, surely?

If you're looking for a parody of American stand-up, try tracking down some Neil Hamburger stuff. Be warned that it's a bit of an, um, acquired taste, i.e. it's actually not funny at all, that's the joke, ha ha. I guess.

I think the main reason folks accuse Leary of becoming mainstream is because when you see him these days (at least in the U.S.) it's mainly in TV ads for motor oil. And he did a voice in Ice Age. His stand-up is still pretty high-caliber regardless of what he may or may not owe to Hicks, although the stand-up scene is so fucking awful right now I may just have lowered my standards. Supposedly Hicks confronted Leary on the whole "theft" issue at one point but I don't know the specifics. After listening to "Relentless" and "No Cure for Cancer" back-to-back it's a bit difficult for me to believe that nothing at least semi-underhanded was going on.

[Jemble Fred]

Alan, where'd you get the Hitler tracklist from? What a good healthy guffaw it gave me.

Can you get it at HMV?

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

What's David Cross's real material like then? What does he talk about?

[lazyhour]

What's David Cross's real material like then? What does he talk about?

A little clip I made of one of the tracks from It's Not Funny:

http://www.angelfire.com/bug/fumomo/Alert_clip.mp3

You might have to pop it into your browser's address bar to make that link work.  Angelfire is a bit funny.  Recently he talks a lot about Sept 11th, The War Against Terror, dumb America, and how much he hates bands like Creed.

One little clip alone is not a full and fair representation of him, obviously, but it's a reasonable start.  He also stars in Mr. Show and appears in Arrested Development.

[jutl]

Fair enough if you like Denis Leary, but I think he should be strung up for the material he ripped off of Hicks and made more 'cool' and palatable for the mainstream. Leary and Hicks shared comedy bills in the US before Leary became big. Its pretty well known that Leary adopted his comedy style after that, even going as far as mimicking some Hicks jokes and lines (No Cure For Cancer). He prolly thought Hicks would never get big so no one would notice. Then again Tarantino should be strung up for ripping off scenes in rarely seen asian films without giving credit

I've always been wary of the 'Leary simply ripped off Hicks' suggestion - as much as the similar accusations re Bad News and Spinal Tap. Neither really stand up to close scrutiny.

...

In terms of performance they really aren't that similar at all. Leary is non-stop screaming with the odd calm bit. Hicks is the exact opposite - calm, laid back, and then launching into a fit of anger when you least expect it.

Leary resorted to imitating the objects of his anger far more than Hicks ever did. Hicks spoke as himself most of the time, while Leary (very funnily) mimicked the blood-crazed ignorant Americans that he was trying to satirise. Their very different Iraq War bits are good examples of this - Hicks is telling you what he thinks, and the routine centres around his disbelief and anger at the bullshit the American public were asked to swallow. Leary talks rabidly about how turned on he was by the coverage - he's clearly being satirical, but he is playing a role to make his point. I think Leary is and was more of an actor than a standup, and he got dangerously close to not only imitating the objects of his anger, but also the objects of his admiration.

In fact, in reference to their shared routines about those two heavy metal fans who blew their faces off with shotguns, wouldn't it have originally been topical material anyway?

HICKS' PUNCHLINE:
Wow... (shrugs) two less gas-station attendants in the world. I don't wanna be mean but... I don't think we lost a cancer cure here...

LEARY'S PUNCHLINE:
What's the problem? It's called 'natural selection', folks - it's the bottom of the fuckin' food-chain, okay!!?

Both funny, in my view. Both delivered in very different ways. I suspect there were a hundred other comedians on the same circuit at the time who came up with their own variation on the same joke, but of whom we never hear.

There are more instances than that, as you say. The 'John Lennon is shot while less worthy people survive' bits, and the 'Jim Fix Death Irony' bits. You start to wonder if it can be coincidence, surely? I'd that thought that the John Lennon gag can't have been a result of parallel development of topical gags...

So when did Leary 'become big' exactly? Surely he and Hicks were still neck-and-neck in terms of fame and success right up until the latter died?

Leary had broken into MTV with his 'Nicotine Fiend' shorts that showed between videos, and was being tipped as a potential Hollywood leading man after his charismatic and fairly large role in Stallone's 'Demolition Man' in 1993. He had filmed 'The Ref', in which he starred, by the time Hicks died. I think his career was certainly doing a lot better that Hicks' - the MTV slots got him very wide recognition, and to be fair they were very good and not Hicksian at all (they were more frenzied nonsense if I remember - 'I want a cheese helmet - you just pop it on and you eat all day'). Leary finally had too many flops, but in the early 90s he was genuinely doing a fuck of a lot better than Hicks, on any conventional star-o-meter.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

While we're here:

NIGHTY NIGHT: THE ALBUM

Side 1
Dark Intro
Apology for the Dark Intro
A Better Intro (Gatiss)
'It's Me Who's Got the Cancer' (Song)
Appeal on Behalf of Angus Deayton's Character (Not Deayton)
And Now The Weather (Trad)
Theme Music - Get Up 'n' Get Cancer Mix
Broken Stylus Gag (Dark)


Side 2
Welcome to Side 2, by Michael Fenton Stevens' character
'I'm Dark, I'm Dark' (Homage not parody; M.Jackson arr Davis}
Awards Ceremony Speech (To Be Written)
Suicide Sketch (The Producers)
Head of BBC3 Reveals Nighty Night's Actual Ratings/Broken Stylus Gag 2
The Main (Dark) Points Again
Cancer quickie (Colin Bostock Smith)

First 1000 copies come with a free sick bag.