Bill Hicks

[ballerzinc]

Anyone else a fan? I just started to get into him and he is a genius.

[ezekiel55]

Re: Bill Hicks

Whoops...I thought you were talking about Bill Engvall...sorry man long day.

But yes Bill Hicks is classic.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Bill Hicks

He's the best. The purest blend of comedy, philosophy, and boiling hatred all mixed in to one awesome chain-smoking Texan. He'll always be my favorite comedian. Nothing better than his Jesse Helms joke:

"You know that when Jesse Helms finally dies, he's gonna commit suicide out back in a washtub underneath a pecan tree. He's gonna slash his wrists and he's gonna write in blood, "I've been a bad boy." And you know they're gonna find the skins of young kids drying in his attic, swarms of horseflies going in and out of the eaves, and on CNN over and over, his wife going, "I always wondered about Jesse's collection of little shoes …"

There's no higher form of comedy than that, haha....

Another favorite:

"Here is my actual theory … beyond the huge, hilarious jokes I have. Here's my real theory, though: If you're so pro-life and you're so pro-child, then adopt one that's already here, that's very unwanted and very alone and needs someone to take care of it to get it out of a horrible situation. Okay? People say, "Why don't you do that?" And I say, "Because I hate ****ing kids and couldn't care less." Couldn't give a ****. Don't care at all about abortion. It's your choice, case closed, the end, bottom line. And by the way, that 3 month old kid in your belly is not a ****ing human being, okay? It's a bunch of little congregated cells. You're not a human … till you're in my phone book."

Hah, I just love that phrasing and how matter-of-fact he is about the whole thing.. hilarious.

"I've just got one of those faces, you know... People come up to me and say, "What's wrong?" -- "Nothing." "Well, it takes more energy to frown than it does to smile." -- "Yeah, you know it takes more energy to point that out than it does to leave me alone?"

His thoughts on fundamentalist Christianity:

"Fundamentalist Christianity... fascinating. These people actually believe the world is 12 thousand years old. Swear to God! Based on what? I asked them. "Well, we looked at all the people in the Bible, and we added them up all the way back to Adam and Eve, their ages – 12 thousand years." Well, how ****ing scientific! Okay. I didn't know that you'd gone to so much trouble there. That's good. You believe the world's 12 thousand years old? "That's right." Okay, I got one word to ask you. A one word question. Ready? "Uh-uh." Dinosaurs.

(a continuation/ response to the previous joke)
"'God put [dinosaur fossils] here to test our faith!'... I think God put you here to test my faith, dude."

And then on the serious tip, his little speech that he'd give at the end of shows later in his life is one of my favorite things ever:

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us. They say, "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because – this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real."

It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus, murdered; Martin Luther King, murdered; Malcolm X, murdered; Gandhi, murdered; John Lennon, murdered; Reagan … wounded. But it doesn't matter, because – it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."

Bill is the GOAT. I love Pryor and the rest of the greats, but Hicks will always stand alone for me.

[ballerzinc]

Re: Bill Hicks

"The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us. They say, "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because – this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real."

It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. Jesus, murdered; Martin Luther King, murdered; Malcolm X, murdered; Gandhi, murdered; John Lennon, murdered; Reagan … wounded. But it doesn't matter, because – it's just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.

Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace."

That stuff right there is stuff to live by.

[Stumbleweed]

Re: Bill Hicks

For real... aside from Richard Pryor's serious racial commentary, I don't think there are any other comedians who have even approached Bill's honesty and depth when it comes to actually commenting on issues and speaking from the heart. Beyond all the gross-out humor (Goat Boy/Limbaugh is a scat-muncher), political stuff, pop culture, music, drugs, etc., Bill was just a really smart guy who wanted better things for the world and decided that he could probably use his comedy to wake some people up. There are a bunch of lame-*** imitators (Denis Leary being the main offender), and Bill won't be topped in that area anytime soon.

"I don't understand why Christians wear crosses around their necks... it's just kinda strange to me, you know? Do you really think that when Jesus comes back to Earth he's gonna want to see a ****ing cross? That's the last thing he wants to see... it's like walking up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on, 'Hi Jackie, just thinking of John!'"

[KingV2k3]

Re: Bill Hicks

And Dennis Leary owes his career to Hicks, modeled his stand up act and persona after Hicks' and rode it all the way to the bank...

No comparision tho, Hicks is THE man...

[KobeBryant]

Re: Bill Hicks

Big fan of Bill Hicks, I just got my buddy lately to become a big fan of him too. I'll admit Tool is the main reason I know about Hicks because on their album Aenima they have a few clips of his act at the beginning of the song "Third Eye." And Tool were all big-time Bill Hicks fans.