# Bill Hicks' Deleted Appearance on Letterman Tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771 "2009-01-30T19:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/21 "2009-01-31T15:49:37Z")
I liked him when he ripped pieces out of the first George Bush and American foreign policies. He’d have had a field day with the latter Bush. The only people who don’t like Bill Hicks are the ones who know he was taking the piss out of them, and can’t take a joke, or at least ones that ridicule their beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/22 "2009-01-31T16:01:01Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > Since at least the end of the 60s the only really dangerous and controversial subjects for comedians have been the sacred cows of the liberals. Yeah, that’s why Andrew Dice Clay was such a failure. There are many successful comics whose whole schtick is bashing liberal sacred cows. What made advertisers nervous about Bill Hicks was his ridiculing of theism. THAT’S the real third rail of television – saying there’s no God. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/23 "2009-01-31T16:04:15Z")
After watching the Letterman segment (#3 from Jan 31) which includes the deleted routine and a few seconds of Dave with Mrs. Hicks afterwards, I have to say that my opinion of Dave has gone up a notch. He said that Hicks should never have been censored, even _by him._ It takes a big man to admit that. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/24 "2009-01-31T16:04:54Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > What are some of these sacred cows of the liberals? > > -FrL- Usually when conservatives complain about “liberal sacred cows” or “political correctness,” they’re talking about gay bashing and n\_\_\_\_\_ jokes. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/25 "2009-01-31T16:20:08Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Che Guevara, I know next to nothing about the fellow, and for that reason do not know what would be funny about him. > [@](#): > > comparable worth, What’s that mean? > [@](#): > > the Kennedys, People don’t make fun of the Kennedys? All the time? 😕 Even on, for example, the Daily Show? (Hint: They do.) > [@](#): > > global warming, Disagreeing with a joke’s supposed basis in fact is not the same as treating that lack of basis as a “sacred cow.” If you told me a joke that I can’t find funny unless I think the earth is flat, this doesn’t mean the earth’s roundness is a “sacred cow” for me. I just can’t find funny a joke based on beliefs I am convinced are factually false. This is, as far as I can tell, a universal fact about humour. > [@](#): > > PETA, I have no idea why you would think PETA is a sacred cow of liberals? In my experience, liberals tend to think of PETA as extremists. Besides, though my memory is hazy, I feel certain I have seen humour directed against PETA plenty of times in the past. Doesn’t SNL make fun of them occasionally? Don’t Stewart and Colbert both make jokes based on the idea that PETA acts ridiculously? Sorry I have no cites but perhaps someone else reading does. > [@](#): > > NARAL, Take Back the Night, I don’t know what NARAL is. I don’t know why Take Back the Night would be funny, but I don’t know that much about it. Perhaps you could try a joke or two out on us. > [@](#): > > Sarah MacLaghlan, TF? Sarah MacLaghlan sucks. How is she a “sacred cow” of the liberals? > [@](#): > > cats, 😉 > [@](#): > > same-sex marriage, Any joke I can imagine about SSM would be based on a judgment that there’s something ridiculous or dishonest about it. My disagreement with that judgment does not make SSM a “sacred cow” for me. It’s not that I think there should be a rule that SSM should not be ridiculed. Its that I disagree with the factual judgments that make SSM seem ridiculous to some. Joking about it with me is like joking with me about how silly it is to think birds have feathers. Birds having feathers is not a “sacred cow” for me, and neither is the viability of SSM. > [@](#): > > Pete Seeger… I’d probably recognize his music if I heard it but I can’t place him at the top of my head. What’s funny about him? > [@](#): > > Oh hell, there’s lots of them! I haven’t seen any yet. Everything on your list is either not typically respected by leftists in general, or is found typically to be unfunny not do to a “sacredness” of the topic but simply due to factual disagreement. -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/26 "2009-01-31T16:36:10Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > Che Guevara, comparable worth, the Kennedys, global warming, PETA, NARAL, Take Back the Night, Sarah MacLaghlan, cats, same-sex marriage, Pete Seeger… Oh hell, there’s lots of them! Nobody under 40 knows who Pete Seeger and Che Guavaera are anymore, and they aren’t anything special to liberals. WTF is “comparable worth?” I’ve never heard of it. PETA gets mocked all the time. Abortion rights are funny how? Sarah McLaghlan is a singer right? I know nothing about her. Why is she mockable and why do you think liberals would care if anyonbe did? Cats? WTF? How are cats liberal? What should be mocked about same-sex marriage? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/27 "2009-01-31T16:41:04Z")
I think jokes could be made about SSM, just by putting the gay twist on normal domestic jokes. Take Back the Night is anti-rape march right? What’s funny about that? Are some of the participants a little strident or something? Maybe they are, but it’s not an event that’s especially significant to liberals at large, and it’s certainly not a “sacred cow.” ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/28 "2009-01-31T16:51:54Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > Cats? WTF? How are cats liberal? Apparently, cats are liberal. So I guess that makes dogs conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/29 "2009-01-31T17:00:29Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I really am not looking to threadshit, but since this is not a Bill Hicks Memorial thread or anything, I’ll go ahead and say it. > > I don’t get him. It’s like he wanted to be Lenny Bruce, but he went after all the soft targets. Billy Ray Cyrus? Marky Mark? For God’s sake, even then, it was trite to hate those guys. I wanted him to say something controversial or profound or something. > > I hate that the guy died of that horrible disease, but I guess I don’t see it. > [@Ogre](#): > > Sorry. I mean any other links? I think I’ve seen this, and while it’s better, he still takes on a very soft target: rednecks. Does something have to be controversial to you to be funny? Nothing stays a sacred cow for very long, so even if he built his career on being “shocking”, he wouldn’t still have fans today. Ask Dice Clay. If all Lenny Bruce ever did was say “come”, we wouldn’t know his name. I’ve heard worse on Good Morning America. The reason I love Bill Hicks is because he can crack you up one minute with a joke about masturbating so much you start to shoot air out of your dick, and the next minute say something very human and thought-provoking like [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7criyE09uy0&e). ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/30 "2009-01-31T17:08:50Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > …he can crack you up one minute with a joke about masturbating so much you start to shoot air out of your dick, :eek: 😕 :eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/31 "2009-01-31T17:14:08Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > :eek: > > 😕 > > :eek::eek::eek: Oh. I thought you meant you were laughing so much you shot air out of your dick. Now I see you meant the joke itself was about shooting air out of your dick. I still prefer my reading for the sheer WTF’ery of it. -FRL- ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/32 "2009-01-31T17:20:01Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > I don’t get him. It’s like he wanted to be Lenny Bruce, but he went after all the soft targets. Billy Ray Cyrus? Marky Mark? For God’s sake, even then, it was trite to hate those guys. I wanted him to say something controversial or profound or something. What made Letterman nervous, and I think he’s acknowledged it elsewhere even though he did not say it on air last night, was the abortion stuff. I’ve heard plenty of comedians do right-to-lifer jokes, but only on HBO and Comedy Central specials. (Carlin had a line about them too: “Have you ever noticed that people who are against abortion are people you wouldn’t want to fuck in the first place?”) That’s not late night network TV, which is a safer zone. When Dave talked about getting insecure about the routine, he’s talking about the reaction he would have gotten for airing that. Hicks’ appearance was in October 1993. Only a year earlier was [Pat Buchanan’s famous “culture war” speech](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Patrick_Buchanan's_Speech_to_1992_GOP_Convention) about “abortion on demand,” “radical feminism,” and “environmental extremists.” That said, the stuff about Billy Ray Cyrus is edgier on Rant in E Minor, one of Hicks’ posthumous albums. Almost all of the stuff in that Late Night appearance is from that album. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/33 "2009-01-31T17:23:39Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Oh. > > I thought you meant you were laughing so much you shot air out of your dick. You’ve never done that? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/34 "2009-01-31T17:46:14Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > What made Letterman nervous, and I think he’s acknowledged it elsewhere even though he did not say it on air last night, was the abortion stuff…That said, the stuff about Billy Ray Cyrus is edgier on Rant in E Minor, one of Hicks’ posthumous albums. Almost all of the stuff in that Late Night appearance is from that album. And here I thought the Cyrus killing routine was the trigger. Hey, it offended me! The abortion/cemetery part wasn’t all that funny, IMHO. Other bits were better. Overall, a mixed bag. What puzzled me was Letterman’s statement that he had not seen the clip since it was first recorded until it actually aired. Does that mean that he relied on staff to decide to air it when he had vetoed it originally? Seems too important a decision to pass on to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Petey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f1d935/32.png) [@Petey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petey)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/35 "2009-01-31T17:58:15Z")
I think Hicks went off the deep end near the end of his life. There was one long bit where he would rattle off a conspiracy theory, yell at the people for being sheep, then do some disgusting belch noise in the microphone. Oh yeah, that’s hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/36 "2009-01-31T18:20:50Z")
For me, when I was watching late night TV talk shows, Letterman was God. He’s a bazillion times funnier than Jay Leno and 100 bazillion times funnier than Conan. I’ll disclaim on that a bit by saying that I watched Leno and Conan just a few times and gave up on them. I later learned that Conan was connected to Triumph—not his creation, but edgy and he put it on TV—and maybe Leno came up with better stuff too for all I know. Here’s Triumph ripping on Star Wars fans, btw: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugk37TvIR8E) Anyway, Letterman was edgy. Bill Hicks was edgy. I saw an interview with Letterman where he said he felt bad about the Bill Hicks thing and at the time, I didn’t even know Hicks had died. “You’re always looking for someone to blow the roof off the place, and Bill was that guy,” he said, or words to the effect. So it looks like Bill did stuff that might have played fine on HBO but not network. Then I guess Letterman didn’t have the balls to put it on TV. Part 2 of Triumph taking on Star Wars, for anybody who didn’t get enough: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCtz4trJr_g) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/37 "2009-01-31T20:48:56Z")
I just assumed that Letterman has the same rules as the Dope. Death threats will get you banned. 😃 Letterman in 1993 is not the same person as Letterman in 2009. There’s no real point in comparing them. If Bill Hicks had lived he wouldn’t be the same guy today either. What I didn’t like about that routine was that it was lazy. Let’s shoot people who aren’t cool. Homos are evil but lesbians are sexy. Those aren’t liberal or conservative, PC or not-PC. They’re cheap shots that every comedian does to get cheap laughs. I’ve seen better routines by Hicks and I also remember that he was doing blowhard rants by the end. He was good in a limited fashion but so self-destructive that he would have killed his career in another way if the cancer didn’t get him first. Sam Kinison. Andrew Dice Clay. John Belushi. There’s a certain class of comedian who get famous by being loud and get a fanboy following for it. Some are better than others. None of them last. Most die young and their memories are the better for it. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/38 "2009-01-31T21:52:22Z")
> [@Xan](#): > > Why would you like him more if went after gays and other minorities? Don’t be an asshole. I said no such thing. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/39 "2009-01-31T23:06:59Z")
Any idea about just why Letterman’s cutting of the bit back in '93 had such a devastating effect on Hicks and his family. Letterman on Friday night was apologizing profusely and Mrs. Hicks admitted that it was a terrible thing…but why exactly? From what I can gather, at the time of the appearance Hicks knew he was in the final months of his life. He had already appeared on Letterman a dozen or so times in his career. I can see being extremely disappointed that this segment didn’t make it to air, especially knowing it was likely his last time on the show, but didn’t Hicks and his family have bigger things to worry about at the time? What was the big deal about this particular appearance? ---
**Author:** ![Raygun99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Raygun99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raygun99)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771/40 "2009-02-01T00:18:54Z")
Mostly, I gather, because Hicks looked up to Letterman as a fellow counter-culture soldier, and having him act like another corporate sell-out disappointed him to his core. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bill-hicks-deleted-appearance-on-letterman-tonight/483771.md?page=3)