Today's topical subject: a man who died 24 years ago.
I want to talk about Bill Hicks. I've been a long-time fan of comedy, and stand-up comedy in particular. I somehow missed Bill Hicks for the most part. I must have crossed paths with his work at some point, but he never stayed with me as one that I remembered.
I just watched an hour-long special of Hicks doing stand-up. It was the "Relentless" video. Sure, some of it was funny. And I could see where Denis Leary and others got some of their inspiration from. But, for me, suddenly becoming painfully loud, with the microphone halfway down his throat, making nonspecific and unhelpful noises for irritation's sake, and for seconds on end, is just not funny. Yelling one word of a sentence doesn't make the word OR the sentence funny. It just makes me cringe from the unpleasantness of the sudden roar. I don't like really loud noises, and I especially don't like them being made intentionally for no good reason for way too long.
I'm no prude when it comes to comedy, but, regardless of who you are or what your intention is, I generally don't want to hear about your penis, or what others may or may not do with it. It's not a source of pleasure for me. I don't find gratuitous language for its own sake to be entertaining either. There are plenty of comedians whose work I've enjoyed who get caught up in a profanity as a punchline. Just because you say "F**king" something, doesn't make the line funny. I'm glancing your way, Lewis Black. Acting angry can be funny in the right context, I'm not against that. But Hicks, in the film I watched (though mostly listened to; I'm at work and must look like I'm getting work done), would yell a single word when there was no apparent cause for anger. It's like one article I read said: "You always know which bit in a Hicks routine is a joke because it’s the bit he shouts. That’s helpful because there’s no other way you’d be able to tell. After all, it’s not like you’re laughing." (from Shut Up About Bill Hicks, Vice https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gqw8wm/shut-up-about-bill-hicks-russel-crowe-movie). I wouldn't go quite that far, as there were some funny parts that didn't involve yelling. But when he did yell, it seemed to come from nowhere, and I just got the impression of a pent-up, coked-out Tourette sufferer barely hanging on. It didn't make the funny parts any less funny, but it brought down the average laughability level when the peaks are pointless, leaving the jokes far below in volume. It reminds me of when my brother would take off his cranked-up, overly-distorted guitar and lean it up against his speaker cabinet, volume knob still wide open, treating the crowd to a piercing scream of feedback, only because it was the irreverent thing to do. I can't clearly define what I think is a "proper or appropriate use" of irreverence, but I'm pretty sure causing hearing damage to a club crowd does not rank in the top 5.
So Bill Hicks is fine, but I prefer the calm subtlety of Louis C.K., scandal and all.
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