Ever done it? Or received it, on stage?
At a Bad Religion gig the singer started chirping about one of the stage lights not working, despite there still being tons of perfectly sufficient light.
I went, “What - you want a fucking smoke show too, asshole?!”
Did you pay for entry to this show? I wouldn’t do it to anyone I paid to see, unless they were fucking shit up and terrible. Then I’d be pissed.
Speaking of terrible, one of the bars I frequent has amateur “comedy” night. I always forget about it until I’m there. Heckling there is very common and often funnier than the “comedians”.
On the contrary, for the very fact that I did pay, I was all the more miffed about it. If it had been just a passing comment, I wouldn’t have had a problem, but if he also goes off about people needing to get their shit together and a buncha of other whining, making a production out of it, that’s being an ungracious asshole who indeed required my positive reinforcement.
By far the two best reciprocators at hecklers I’ve seen were Steve Albini and John Zorn. I almost wondered if there were plants in the audiences, because those two - boom - they’d come back with an even better zinger, each and every time, like they relished it. One’s from NY, the other Chicago, so I guess they had a few years at honing those particular chops.
On stage, no. At a ball game, sure. I’m the reason the cut off beer sales at the 7th inning. When I’m sitting behind the plate at our local AAA field, the umps will ragged on big-time if they deserve it.
On stage, meaning - you’ve never done so, or, you would not condone it?
It wouldn’t occur to me to heckle. People paid money to see the act on stage, not me. Besides, I think it’s easy to shit on people out there trying to do something creative and find the urge to do so sad.
Went to opening day of the last season in the original Yankee Stadium and sat with the Bleacher Creatures.
a) They didn’t serve beer in those two sections and I couldn’t imagine what it would’ve been like if they did
b) My friend and I were the only two in the whole area that were not heckling. Heckling the opposing team, their own team (mainly A-rod) and any person walking in wearing any garb from any other team except the Yankees. I felt bad for the guys coming in with Mets and Phillies hats. A thousand shelled peanuts were thrown at those guys.
I was heckled horribly by a comedian on stage, but it was a sort-of set-up. The comedian was a foaf, and prior to the show he asked if I’d buy him a drink and have the waitress bring it up about 5 minutes into his act.
I did as asked. The waitress brought him a drink. He acted confused, looking out into the audience and asking the waitress “who?” I sort of waved and the light guy lit me up. And the comedian started in on me for a good ten minutes. All about how he was sick and tired of faggots constantly hitting on him (this was ~15 years ago or so). The crowd laughed, I shrunk into my seat. He was merciless.
After he was done tearing me up, he told the waitress he wanted to buy my table (8 people) drinks for the rest of the set. After the show he apologized and explained. The management had screwed him over on money that night, putting him into a smaller room than promised, costing him a couple of hundred bucks. He bought twice that in drinks for my table and didn’t pay, stiffing the owners.
Never been heckled when I was on stage (teaching doesn’t count) and I’ve never heckled anyone on stage.
Agreed, but if it’s the obviously egregious example I gave - then have at the haranguing douche.
Reminding me too much of one or two sad-sack fucking management types screwing around (in a somewhat different fashion) some of the bands I’ve played in over the years.
In the late 80’s at an SNFU gig, their colorful, rambunctious vocalist Chi Pig was getting constantly heckled by one dude in particular (a local bassist) (r.i.p.). Eventually, after a song was finished, CP suddenly turned toward the heckler and asked him to share his thoughts with everyone, and thrust the mic right up to the heckler’s face. The heckler was so completely caught off guard that it took a couple of very long beats before the heckler finally mumbled - and feebly, like a whiny child - some weak-as-shit grievance about the vocals being too loud in the mix, which I think is what he mumbled, which would have been laughable bull-shit anyway.
The heckler kept quiet after that.
There was a MLB player that would always respond to hecklers by asking them “How much money did YOU make last year?”
Boo! Hiss! The OP sucks! He put this in the wrong forum!
That’s ok I’ll move it to Cafe Society.
I have only thought about heckling a baseball player a couple of times.
Once was when I was in the bleachers at a Class A minor league game, and a pitcher for the opposing team was warming up in what passed for a bullpen right below me. As he was called into the game he turned briefly towards the stands with a self-satisfied expression (and maybe to see if any women were noticing what a hunk he apparently considered himself to be). I almost called out “Keep it in the park, 23” but didn’t (he was a rather large person and you never know when a player is going bad and one tiny thing might set them off…:)).
*well, technically I did just recently heckle someone, only too quietly for him to have heard. At a Reds game, a young player just called up from the minors got a base hit, and then came chugging into third after the next batter got a hit, sliding into the base with a flourish. Trouble was, he came off the bag for an instant and got tagged out - prompting the classic catcall “Welcome to the major leagues!”.
Good that you didn’t.
Addressing a player–in support or derision–by number, is ~really~ lame. It’s announcing, to him and to everyone else, that you don’t know who you’re talking to, therefore cannot have a particularly informed opinion.
ERA: Though that would have been a great line if you had known who he was, and that his HR allowed were even a touch high.
I have not done any heckling, but an old roommate heckled Bill Hicks mercilessly at a West Texas nightclub in the 1980s. At that time, I’m not sure how famous Hicks was yet. Certainly I’d never heard of him, but I thought he was pretty funny. But my ex-roommate just would not shut up. He’d been my roommate before I was in college, and he and a college buddy went. Finally, we practically carried my ex-roommate out of the club after the third guy said he’d overheard some sort of lynching party being suggested in the men’s room when he went to take a leak. The next day my ex-roommate claimed he’d been feverish and was himself surprised at his behavior, but I think he was just an asshole.
Heckling of opening bands happens a lot.
I recall two specific incidents where I participated as a dopey young person and I do regret it very much.
The Roches opening for Talking Heads at the Paradise in Boston. Booed them off the stage.
Suicide opening for the Cars at the same venue. Booed them off the stage. Very stupid thing to do.
A couple of decades ago, one of my bands attracted a regular heckler. He’d seemed to be willing to drive up to an hour, pay full price to get in, and then simply yell, “You Suck! You guys suck! You suck!” whenever we stopped playing.
So, this mowhawked kid didn’t pick a very original heckle, but he was consistent. After a few shows, he just became part of the scenery to me.
But, one afternoon before a show, I noticed John, our lead singer, was playing with a pellet gun that was styled to look like regular gun to the casual observer; and he brought it to the show. About midway through our set, the singer is doing some between-song patter (he had good between-song patter), and I notice the kid shouting “You suck! You guys suck!” again.
Without missing a beat, John whips out the pellet gun and points it in the kid’s face, screaming at the top of his very loud voice into a PA:
“I’M GONNA TAKE YOU OUT, MOTHERFUCKER!!!”
(while slipping the gun back into his jacket pocket)"…on a date, that is."
I never heard him scream “You Suck!” again, and I never saw that kid at our shows again, kind of missed him after that. He kind of added to the whole “event”.
That was a nice story.
I have a similar one, but substitute hour-away-mohaker with some drunken military snarflers in acid-washed jeans and white wifebeaters and trying to mosh to our shit - which was too bonkers and fucked up to mosh to - camping right up at the front, but facing the other way, eyeing down all the usuals. Half the time these knuckledraggers were eager for anyone to mosh with, and the other half of the time they might turn around to actually see what we were doing. More often than not, they regarded us with a sort of catatonic bemusement, with doubts if this was gonna work for them.
Our sonic barrage prevailed and they eventually left, one of them turning and giving the thumbs down to us and then everyone else in the room.
One of my favorite comics, Jimmy Carr, always sets aside a time during his shows for heckling. He says he misses the club days - now that people pay a lot of money for his shows, they don’t want to heckle and ruin it for everyone.
But the times he sets aside are great. He’s really good at responding off the cuff, and it’s hilariously funny.
I don’t ever heckle, though. I couldn’t even think of anything funny enough. 
In 2005 Kenny Rogers (the MLB pitcher, not the singer) attacked a cameraman on the playing field. Rogers got in some legal trouble over this, as the attack was completely unprovoked.
Not too long after this, I attended an A’s game against Texas in which Rogers was the starting pitcher for the Rangers. There was a momentary lull just before Rogers threw his first pitch, and I yelled, “Hey, Kenny! Smile, you’re on Candid Camera!” I was loud enough, and it was quiet enough, that Rogers may have heard me.