My Favorite Bill Hicks Quote

[snappydresser]

I'm sure there's a tsunami of replies being typed this very second, so I'll just jump in real quick to say that Bill Hicks was a stand-up comedian of considerable talent whose cult following has grown steadily since his untimely death in 1994 due to cancer, just as his career was taking off in England. 

Much of his material was politically subversive in nature. He was particularly interested in the JFK assassination ("a great example of a totalitarian government's ability to manage information and thus keep us in the dark") and Gulf War One ("America has essentially become Jack Palance from Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheep herder's feet"). 

Although he despised the politics of the Reagan/Bush White House, he was by no means a knee-jerk liberal. He went on cable access shows in Texas to rail against the deadly military-style attack on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. He was a psychonaut, a foe of the War Against Drugs, and a proponent of the use of psychedelics. He hated Los Angeles and enjoyed pornography.

He appeared as himself in the Garth Ennis comic book Preacher. Radiohead's The Bends and Tool's Aenima are both dedicated to his memory.

His Elvis impersonation, a.k.a. The Ballad of Charlie Hodge, is one of the funniest comedy routines ever recorded.

He was great, and most of his material -- even obscure, badly recorded and sparsely attended shows in front of hostile crowds with whom he often got into some pretty angry verbal confrontations -- is available for download via all the usual file-sharing venues. Well worth seeking out.

Cheers,
YOPJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Bailey" <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
To: "Joe Allonby" <joeallonby at gmail.com>
Cc: "Keith McMullen" <schwitterz11 at netscape.net>; "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2006 2:31 AM
Subject: Re: My Favorite Bill Hicks Quote


>I could do a web search, but who is this Bill Hicks?
> There's a Dan Hicks, of Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks, backed by the Lickettes...
> 
> "It's easy to quit smoking - I've done it a thousand times" - Mark Twain
> 
> On 3/4/06, Joe Allonby <joeallonby at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Non-smokers die every day. Sleep tight.
>>
>>
>> On 3/4/06, Keith McMullen <schwitterz11 at netscape.net> wrote:
>> >   "It is hard to quit smoking. Every one of them looks pretty good to me
>> > right now. Every cigarette looks like it was made by God, rolled by
>> > Jesus and moistened shut with Claudia Schiffer's pussy right now."
>> >
>>
>>
> 
> 
> --
> "Acceptance, forgiveness, love - now that's a philosophy of life!"
> -Woody Allen, as Broadway Danny Rose
> 
> 
> 
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