YMMV / Bill Hicks

• Covered Up: A lingering criticism of Denis Leary is that he stole some of his early material (mainly smoking/cancer related material and "good musicians die while sucky musicians don't") from Hicks.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Most of his act, but none more so than when he brings out lolicon-loving, sex maniacal, Antichrist wannabe 'Goatboy', or 'Beelzebozo, The Clown from Hell.'
  • The Rush Limbaugh routine doesn't so much cross the line twice, as perpetually accelerate back and forth over the line in a giant circle. Vulgar Humor doesn't even begin to cover the first line, and it's all downhill from there.
  Bill: Doesn't Rush Limbaugh remind you of one of those gay guys who likes to lay in a tub while other men pee on him??
• Fair for Its Day: His material overall. He strongly denounced a lot of the machismo that permeated American culture, but his material still sometimes fell into misogynistic or homophobic territory, and as ruthlessly as he attacked American capitalism, his material also falls into classist territory at times. Regardless, by '90s standards he was quite ahead of the curve; he's a lot less misogynistic or, for that matter, mean than many of the other popular comics of the day, and his ultimate message was that people should be more empathetic to each other (see the "It's Just a Ride" routine on the Heartwarming page).
• Fandom Rivalry: With Denis Leary. See Covered Up above.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Hicks was more well known in the United Kingdom than the USA.
• Harsher in Hindsight: He was a very, very heavy smoker, who habitually tore the filters off his Marlborough Reds before smoking them and joked about going through "two lighters a day" in his act. One routine had him confessing his failure to quit, which is greeted with ecstatic cheering from the audience. He turned this into a joke too. "Bill's gonna kill himself, WOOOH! Bill's gonna lose a lung, YEEAH!" He didn't lose a lung, though he would succumb to aggressive pancreatic cancer at the age of 32. So, err, yeah.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Hicks' rants about the first Persian Gulf War applied equally well to the second, right down to the name of the president. (Although the "tell me when, Lord" portion may be more Harsher in Hindsight in the light of actual reports of W crediting his war motives to divine inspiration...)
  • Hicks' material about how Billy Ray Cyrus shouldn't be allowed to breed.
  • His bit on George Michael, back before he came out. One line in particular went, "If money had a dick, George Michaels [sic] would be a flaming faggot." Well...
  • His Rick Astley jokes are very applicable to Justin Bieber nowadays.
  • In one bit, he talks about being so sick of a particular trend, he could puke blood. Why does that sound familiar?
  • His list of non-talented celebrities included Mark Wahlberg. One can only imagine what Bill would make of Wahlberg's resurgence as an actor.
• Hype Backlash: There was a show booked for the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival titled "Bill Hicks Wasn't Very Good". It's Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Jerkass Woobie: Bill was one of the most infamously abrasive comedians of his time. His barbs at plastic pop stars and right-wing politicians are sadistic, and his whole stage persona in general tends to be pretentious at best, and disturbingly confrontational at worst, whether his audience is into it or not. Yet Bill wasn't shy about letting audiences in on how much of a toll his uncompromising approach takes, and it never escaped his notice that some of his peers achieved superstardom while he languished in smaller clubs (such as Jay Leno). His apparent bad luck in the dating world is often brought up as well. His cancer diagnosis only made his dark material even darker, best demonstrated on posthumous release Rant In E-Minor, where there's little idealism to be found like there once was. Bill truly put the Sad in Sad Clown.
• Memetic Mutation: While never a major celebrity in his lifetime, his effect on the stand-up comedy world is HUGE. His style is probably one of the most commonly cited as being imitated. To the point nearly every comedy club in America has graffitti in the green room saying "Stop Trying to be Hicks".
• Misaimed Fandom: Hicks is quoted by just about every Straw Nihilist on the Web.
• Posthumous Popularity Potential: Bill had a serviceable career as an alt-comic in the shock comedy scene. However, he didn't reach the peak of his popularity until the 2000s, as Generation Y discovered his work posthumously.
• Squick: His Rush Limbaugh rant.
• Values Dissonance: While often considered ahead of his time, Bill was also very much a product of the late 80s shock comedy scene, the kind where guys like Sam Kinison prospered. In light of the social climate today, it might be a bit jarring to experience Bill with fresh ears now - halfway between politically incorrect humor and the insightful commentary he developed a cult following for. By today's standards, bits of Bill's material simply come off like casual homophobia and mild sexism. Of course, the changing standards in comedy is just one more reason fans often wonder What Could Have Been, had he lived to see his influence grow.

---