The Most Important Question Of The Day

[ericcoleman]

[Poll #1230994]

Comments

[ericcoleman]

This one was very tough for me. I consider George to be the greatest standup comic of all time, but Bill is my favorite standup comic of all time. I think I know who will win this one, but it could be interesting.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Could it be that you're showing your age? I'm not that much younger than you, and I barely know who Hicks is. Carlin's career took off when I was a teenager (and my big brother helped expose me, it's true).

[ericcoleman]

Actually Hicks was much more a part of your generation and a bit younger. His prime was late 80s and early 90s.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

Huh, I must not have been paying attention, then.

(You know I'm older than Erik & technically a boomer, right?)

[ericcoleman]

Yeah, but you're still younger than I am ...

[greenmansgrove.livejournal.com]

Voted for Carlin, if only for the fact that he had a lot more time to do his stuff. It would have been an even harder choice, if Hicks had had a longer run.

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

That is indeed a really close one. I finally picked Hicks simply because he didn't get the recognition he deserved while he was alive and thankfully Carlin did. They were both very talented and very influential.

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

You really got to the heart of how I feel. Bill Hicks is a comedy god, but he had an edge that kept him from the mainstream, while Carlin had a way of being very gentle with his bluntness. Hard to describe... but that's why I voted for Hicks. No offense to Mr. Carlin, I have loved him since I was small.

[noise626.livejournal.com]

Man that's a toughie...a regular immovable object/irresistible force type thing.

[blur01.livejournal.com]

I lives under a rock. I havent a clue who Bill Hicks is.

[ericcoleman]

Was ... unfortunately

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_hicks

[born-to-me.livejournal.com]

So incredibly, incredibly worth checking out. The man was a genius. Very, very rough and cutting edge in his work, but a very funny man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPQhS8W8g4

[fredhuggins.livejournal.com]

You know Denis Leary?

Bill Hicks was the Zeppelin to Leary's Whitesnake.

A trivia question

[ericcoleman]

Why is Leary famous and Hicks not ???

Re: A trivia question

[ericcoleman]

Cause there's No Cure For Cancer

[ericcoleman]

I just posted it to bill_hicks

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Lenny Bruce!

Guess I missed that part

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

I looked at the choices and said "Bill who?"

Re: Guess I missed that part

[awfulhorrid.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's kind of part of the question, really. I didn't learn of Bill Hicks until he died. I happened to catch a cable special that they were showing because he had recently died (late ~1993 or so) and I could only ask "Why have I not heard of this man before?" I have since aquired every recording of his I could find.

Like Carlin, he blurred the line between comedian and stage philosopher.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

Both were geniuses, both explored the fringes of sane/insane, both frequently challenged people's notions of propriety. They also used "reality" a great deal in their humor. They both talked a lot about things that happen to all of us but showed us new ways to look at them.

I think George was able to reach more people, but perhaps only because he restricted himself by "playing it safe" early in his career. Hicks never did that (that I know of) and that may have kept him from getting the recognition he deserved.

[fredhuggins.livejournal.com]

They also came up in different times. When Carlin released "Class Clown" and "Occupation: Foole" he had the benefit of a massive, post-sixties baby boomer audience that couldn't get enough mind-blowing profanity on wax. By the time Hicks came around in the '80s, Reagen had seized power, the boomer generation became insurance salesmen, and they just wanted to listen to Phil Collins and Hall & Oates.

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

the boomer generation became insurance salesmen, and they just wanted to listen to Phil Collins and Hall & Oates

Not all of us.

[fredhuggins.livejournal.com]

That's why I personified "the boomer generation" instead of saying, "every boomer."

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

As much as I enjoyed Carlin, I had to vote for Hicks only because I saw him from the front row of a club in 1990.

[ericcoleman]

Hmmm, which club? I saw him at a Chicago club in 1990. I even have video of that night ... somewhere

[madmanotl.livejournal.com]

Thinking about it, it was in 1992 (not 1990) at the Funny Firm in Chicago.

Not having heard of him before, he was the headliner on the Thursday night show I attended. His first comment was to dis Gallagher and then apologized to me for not liking him.

At the end of the set in which he won me over completely, he looked at me, grabbed the fruit I did not eat from my drink, put it on his chair and smashed it with his mike stand.

[fredhuggins.livejournal.com]

I think when Michael Richards got into trouble, he was trying on some level to emulate THIS notoriously bootlegged Bill Hicks performance:



But Richards wasn't funny enough to back it up.

Anyway, I had to vote for Carlin, but only by a nanometer, and only because Carlin did a lot of silly, absurdist humor I love so much, and Hicks largely didn't. Also, Hicks sometimes tended to get a little too preachy for my tastes. But, both still left incredible legacies.

[ericcoleman]

I've got the entire Hicks show ... and most of it is really not funny.

[petdance.livejournal.com]

Carlin 100%. Hicks is great most of the time, but Carlin was just... transcendent.

[ericcoleman]

As I said in my comment, I think Carlin was the greatest standup comic of all time, but Hicks is my favorite