# If Bill Hicks was still alive... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275 "2005-01-23T18:39:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/21 "2005-01-24T18:40:01Z")
I agree with many of the posters above insofar that your political views might colour your view of Hicks as an artist. That said, he wasn’t all that funny and his routines tended to be derivative and repetitive. Further, some of his views were simplistic at best and appealed to the lowest commond denominator on the left (that attitude that we are smarter than anyone else and you’re just stupid to know that we are right). It was this sort of wink-wink attitude he had with the audience that was annoying. I saw him in Dublin in 1992. My sister took me to see him and it was probably one of the ever few things we had ever done together as “adults”. Hicks was sharp, amusing and passionate. He gave a great show and, whether you like him or not, he appeared to leave everything on that stage. It would have been fun to see his take on Clinton and on Bush II. If nothing else, it would be nice to see someone with such passion and drive on tv or in concert again. ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/22 "2005-01-24T20:01:52Z")
I wish I had the opportunity to see Bill Hicks when he was alive but unfortunately I was born too late. If he were alive today I doubt he would be as great as he was before. It is an unfortunate circumstance that people change and in the case of his comic career it could have only been downhill. But then like all the greats, they all die before their time. It’s just nice to imagine him up in heaven…sniffin’ Yul Brynner’s noggin. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/23 "2005-01-24T20:14:51Z")
While I appreciate everyone’s comments, I didn’t actually ask whether Bill Hicks was funny. That I’m quite capable of figuring out myself! I hadn’t thought about how 9/11 might have affected him. I suspect, though, that he’d have made himself deeply unpopular by saying the unthinkable… ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/24 "2005-01-24T20:35:54Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > I hadn’t thought about how 9/11 might have affected him. I suspect, though, that he’d have made himself deeply unpopular by saying the unthinkable… Yeah, I can easily imagine him going the way of Bill Maher. His instinct was to question received wisdom and the official "truth. That could have gotten him into real trouble in the months immediately following 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/25 "2005-01-24T23:45:11Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > Yeah, I can easily imagine him going the way of Bill Maher. His instinct was to question received wisdom and the official "truth. That could have gotten him into real trouble in the months immediately following 9/11. Well it didn’t hurt Susan Sontag. Also, Maher’s show had already been cancelled pre-9/11. Sorry for the hijack but Maher as a marytar always bothered me. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/26 "2005-01-24T23:49:21Z")
> [@](#): > > If Bill Hicks was still alive… …Denis Leary would be waiting tables in a Red Lobster somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/27 "2005-01-25T01:11:18Z")
ROTFLMAO! Although, to be fair, Leary had hit the big time while Hicks was still alive. As evidenced by Hicks’ line: “It’s true, I stole Denis Leary’s act. But to camouflage it, I added punchlines. Them to really fool everyone… _I did it ten years before him!_” > [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > …Denis Leary would be waiting tables in a Red Lobster somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/28 "2005-01-25T01:45:31Z")
> [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > (I loved his joke complaining to a female hotel clerk about the edited porn movies: "Can I think of anything that would have improved my stay? Yeah – _cumshots!"_). One my favorite bits of all time was him talking about porn, and how the porn actresses are called “models” in the credits. Models? What are they modeling? “How are they wearing semen this season, is it back? To the side?” ---
**Author:** ![Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Ass\_For\_A\_Hat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ass_For_A_Hat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/29 "2005-01-25T03:01:20Z")
> [@](#): > > The world is crazy and you’re on your own. > I hear Bill’s voice, I feel I’m not alone. > I wish Bill Hicks was alive. _Bill Hicks_ Hamell On Trial ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/30 "2005-01-25T11:05:07Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Also, Maher’s show had already been cancelled pre-9/11. Do you have a cite for that? ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/31 "2005-01-25T11:41:55Z")
For what it’s worth; he’s STILL huge in England. Probably more so now than when he was alive. I suspect that he would still be a big noise over here (if he stayed basically the same) as he played right into the snooty British feelings of superiority over the yanks that we have here. To hear our own prejudices repeated back to us by a yank is always going to go down well. (We have plenty of shouty lefty “comics” of our own but that’s not the same thing) Students still wear t-shirts with his name on, and a book of his routines is a huge best seller. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/32 "2005-01-25T12:22:55Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Also, Maher’s show had already been cancelled pre-9/11. OK, [that’s just plainly false.](http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/14/television.kimmel/) Maher’s show was canceled in 2002, _after_ the controversy surrounding his 9/11 comments. ---
**Author:** ![bookbuster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@bookbuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bookbuster)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/33 "2005-01-25T19:36:21Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > I hadn’t thought about how 9/11 might have affected him. I suspect, though, that he’d have made himself deeply unpopular by saying the unthinkable… Isn’t that just it though? He was always unpopular, but his work called out to the very strong feelings of a passionate minority. God how I wish my feelings and opinions about 9/11 could have been expressed by the genious of Bill Hicks. That was a time when I really felt isolated in my views, I felt like a freak of nature for having logical postions on the 9/11 issues. Hicks was to the entertainment world what Chomsky is to academia, deemed a hertic by the establishment but a ray of light by the frustrated far-left. After 9/11 they would have kept Hicks off TV, but there would have been enough of people like me to keep him going, doing radio shows, doing stand-up. There always was. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/34 "2005-01-25T19:45:07Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > OK, [that’s just plainly false.](http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/14/television.kimmel/) Maher’s show was canceled in 2002, _after_ the controversy surrounding his 9/11 comments. My mistake. I thought it was determined pre-9/11. ---
**Author:** ![Jennyrosity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@Jennyrosity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennyrosity)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/35 "2005-01-25T22:30:14Z")
> [@owlstretchingtime](#): > > (We have plenty of shouty lefty “comics” of our own but that’s not the same thing) Do we? Like who?! I think you’d be hard pushed to find “shouty lefty comic” in Britain anymore. Eddie Izzard describes himself as a radical liberal - “Storm the Houses of Parliament, just budget for it”. Billy Connelly may have made some unbelievably stupid remarks recently, but I suspect they were said to get an reaction rather than to make a political statement. There’s no _Spitting Image_ anymore. _Have I got News For You_ has lost it’s bite. In truth I can’t think of a single British comic with a political agenda, of any colour (I don’t count reactionary bigots like Jim Davidson as comics or political), probably because they’ve realised the majority of the British public simply aren’t interested in politics. For me, the person who springs to mind with the phrase “shouty lefty comic” is Ben Elton, who may have talked the talk for a while back in the eighties, but now, as the friend and “creative” (see, I can use pointedly placed speech marks too) partner of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, is about as left-wing as you are, **Owl**. ---
**Author:** ![Airblairxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Airblairxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airblairxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/36 "2005-01-25T23:27:54Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > Well it didn’t hurt Susan Sontag. Yeah, and look where she ended up. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/37 "2005-01-26T12:42:33Z")
> [@Jennyrosity](#): > > Do we? Like who?! . Mark steele, Mark Thomas, Jeremy Hardy (not shouty - but a bloody lefty all the same) and just about every one on the student circuit. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/38 "2005-01-26T14:11:33Z")
On any given subject, from drugs to Iraq to pornography to smoking to Christianity, it often seems like the routine on that subject which Bill Hicks conceived was _far and away_ better than that conceived by any other comedian I have ever seen. Sure, other kinds of comedian might do great stuff on other subjects, but for a “political” comedian I’m not sure one really _could_ do much better without largely paraphrasing some of his routines (which, IMO, were only derivative of the _style_ of Lenny Bruce and Sam Kinison) - they just seem so _concentrated_. Perhaps it is partly a blessing that he died so young. I saw him in Edinburgh soon after a dope-smoking saxophonist beat Bush (“all me and Saddam wanted was to see Bush’s head kicked down the street like a football”). He would surely simply be plying the same routines but with the names changed (Debbie Gibson=Britney Spears, Sharon Stone=Janet Jackson). Or, of course, not changed at all. _I’m Bill Hicks and I’m dead now_. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/39 "2005-01-26T17:04:46Z")
**SentientMeat** , that’s very true how concentrated Hicks’ material was. I can’t concieve of a more concise summary of ‘hellfire and brimstone’ than: “Eternal suffering awaits anyone who questions God’s infinite love”. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275/40 "2005-01-26T18:11:23Z")
> [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > If you’re a hardline conservative, you won’t like Hicks: he lived to skewer the ‘establishment’. I disagree. You know me. I _would_ denounce Calvin Coolidge as a Bolshevik. But I still like Bill Hicks. Why? Because he’s actually **funny**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-bill-hicks-was-still-alive/286275.md?page=1)