Monday, October 11, 2004
God's Comic (apologies to Elvis Costello)
Excuse my insertion of another Bill Hicks piece so quickly after my last posting. Prosletizing does have its sound reasons. And Hicks was nothing if not sound.
From Konformist on "Bill Hicks", an excerpt of a letter from Bill Hicks re. his being exorcised from a Letterman show. Please read the whole piece; it includes part of the act he did that got him expunged. The letter in the blogpost was an unpublished (at that time) missive to John Lahr, a writer for The New Yorker and The New York Times.:
(In regard to the Letterman appearance (well...what turned out to be a non-appearance)
"I did what I've always done - performed material in a comedic way, which I thought was funny. The artist always plays to himself, and I believe the audience, seeing that one person can be free to express his thoughts, however strange they may seem, inspires the audience to feel that perhaps they too can freely express their innermost thoughts with impunity, joy and release, and perhaps discover our common bond - unique, yet so similar - with each other.
This philosophy may appear at first to some as selfish - "I play to me and do material that interests and cracks me up." But, you see, I don't feel I'm different from anyone else. The audience is me. I believe we all have the same voice of reason inside us, and that voice is the same in everyone.
This is what I think CBS, the producers of the Letterman show, the networks and governments fear the most - that one man free, expressing his own thoughts and point of view, might somehow inspire others to think for themselves and listen to that voice of reason inside them, and then perhaps, one by one we will awaken from this dream of lies and illusions that the world, the governments and their propaganda arm, the mainstream media, feeds us continuously over fifty-two channels, twenty-four hours a day.
What I realised was that they don't want the people to be awake. The elite ruling class wants us asleep so we'll remain a docile, apathetic herd of passive consumers and non-participants in the true agendas of our governments, which is to keep us separate and present an image of a world filled with unresolvable problems, that they, and only they, might somewhere, in the never-arriving future, may be able to solve. Just stay asleep, America. Keep watching television. Keep paying attention to the infinite witnesses of illusion we provide you over "Lucifer's Dream Box".
The herd has been pacified by our charade of concern as we pose the two most idiotic questions imaginable - "Is television becoming too violent?" and "Is television becoming too promiscuous?" The answer, my friends, is this: television is too stupid. It treats us like morons. Case closed.
And now, the final irony. One of the "hot points" that was brought up as being "unsuitable for our audience" was my joke about pro-lifers. My brilliant friend Andy posited the theory that this was really what bothered and scared the network the most, seeing as how the "pro-life" movement has essentially become a terrorist group acting with impunity and God on their side, in a country where the reasonable majority overwhelmingly supports freedom of choice regarding abortion.
I felt there was something to this theory, but I was still surprised to be watching the Letterman Show (Iím still a fan) the Monday night following my censored Friday night performance and, lo and behold, they cut to a - are you ready for this? - pro-life commercial. This farce is now complete. "Follow the money!"
Then I'll see you all in heaven, where we can really share a great laugh together Ö Forever and ever and ever."
Mr. Hicks died of pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994. Bill Hicks' website is still being maintained. Go have a visit. Jump over to his cd releases and pick up a few of his available bits. I've been listening to Relentless, Dangerous, Love, Laughter & Truth, and Philosophy. For starters, I'd recommend Philosphy. I suggest sending the kids out to play or donning some headphones; Mr. Hicks is not shy about language nor topic. He is true adult entertainment as his wit and wordplay are simultaneouly on a higher plane and in the gutter, 2 places children shouldn't be visiting until their developmental teenage (late teenage) years. He's wearing Armani in the outhouse.
Excuse my insertion of another Bill Hicks piece so quickly after my last posting. Prosletizing does have its sound reasons. And Hicks was nothing if not sound.
From Konformist on "Bill Hicks", an excerpt of a letter from Bill Hicks re. his being exorcised from a Letterman show. Please read the whole piece; it includes part of the act he did that got him expunged. The letter in the blogpost was an unpublished (at that time) missive to John Lahr, a writer for The New Yorker and The New York Times.:
(In regard to the Letterman appearance (well...what turned out to be a non-appearance)
"I did what I've always done - performed material in a comedic way, which I thought was funny. The artist always plays to himself, and I believe the audience, seeing that one person can be free to express his thoughts, however strange they may seem, inspires the audience to feel that perhaps they too can freely express their innermost thoughts with impunity, joy and release, and perhaps discover our common bond - unique, yet so similar - with each other.
This philosophy may appear at first to some as selfish - "I play to me and do material that interests and cracks me up." But, you see, I don't feel I'm different from anyone else. The audience is me. I believe we all have the same voice of reason inside us, and that voice is the same in everyone.
This is what I think CBS, the producers of the Letterman show, the networks and governments fear the most - that one man free, expressing his own thoughts and point of view, might somehow inspire others to think for themselves and listen to that voice of reason inside them, and then perhaps, one by one we will awaken from this dream of lies and illusions that the world, the governments and their propaganda arm, the mainstream media, feeds us continuously over fifty-two channels, twenty-four hours a day.
What I realised was that they don't want the people to be awake. The elite ruling class wants us asleep so we'll remain a docile, apathetic herd of passive consumers and non-participants in the true agendas of our governments, which is to keep us separate and present an image of a world filled with unresolvable problems, that they, and only they, might somewhere, in the never-arriving future, may be able to solve. Just stay asleep, America. Keep watching television. Keep paying attention to the infinite witnesses of illusion we provide you over "Lucifer's Dream Box".
The herd has been pacified by our charade of concern as we pose the two most idiotic questions imaginable - "Is television becoming too violent?" and "Is television becoming too promiscuous?" The answer, my friends, is this: television is too stupid. It treats us like morons. Case closed.
And now, the final irony. One of the "hot points" that was brought up as being "unsuitable for our audience" was my joke about pro-lifers. My brilliant friend Andy posited the theory that this was really what bothered and scared the network the most, seeing as how the "pro-life" movement has essentially become a terrorist group acting with impunity and God on their side, in a country where the reasonable majority overwhelmingly supports freedom of choice regarding abortion.
I felt there was something to this theory, but I was still surprised to be watching the Letterman Show (Iím still a fan) the Monday night following my censored Friday night performance and, lo and behold, they cut to a - are you ready for this? - pro-life commercial. This farce is now complete. "Follow the money!"
Then I'll see you all in heaven, where we can really share a great laugh together Ö Forever and ever and ever."
Mr. Hicks died of pancreatic cancer on February 26, 1994. Bill Hicks' website is still being maintained. Go have a visit. Jump over to his cd releases and pick up a few of his available bits. I've been listening to Relentless, Dangerous, Love, Laughter & Truth, and Philosophy. For starters, I'd recommend Philosphy. I suggest sending the kids out to play or donning some headphones; Mr. Hicks is not shy about language nor topic. He is true adult entertainment as his wit and wordplay are simultaneouly on a higher plane and in the gutter, 2 places children shouldn't be visiting until their developmental teenage (late teenage) years. He's wearing Armani in the outhouse.
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