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* In 2022 this kind vacuous, self-congratulatory pseudo-intellectualism typical to 90s stoner culture is just so stale and irrelevant* I'd say 30 years later h

* In 2022 this kind vacuous, self-congratulatory pseudo-intellectualism typical to 90s stoner culture is just so stale and irrelevant* I'd say 30 years later his material is a little more obvious but being 30 years ahead of the curve is a pretty nice compliment. In my State pot is now legal, some psychedelics are decriminalized (and small amounts of any illegal drug is no longer a felony), and my partner does intense therapy on MDMA (via legal trials). We may not be living with Bill Hicks presently, but we live more in Bill Hicks's hopeful future than ever before. There are lots of 90's comics that are now pretty irrelevant, but Hicks ain't one of them. He wasn't trying to be universally loved, which may be what you're hitting against. He also wasn't positioning himself out as some super intellectual. He self-identified as being simply a, "dark poet". Being a comic was - and is, a pretty tough gig.

prvc 5y ago
>He also wasn't positioning himself out as some super intellectual. He self-identified as being simply a, "dark poet". The latter is more pretentious, in my view.
- SyzygistSix 5y ago
  I'd prefer a world with poets, comedians, and artists, however pretentious they may be, rather than an unpretentious world without them. You remind me of the simple folk of the land, the common clay of the West...
- justinator 5y ago
  It's not pretentious if it's backed up by skill. The way he could deliver lines that he practiced and workshopped for literally a decade was masterful. Saying that that isn't hard is what's pretentious - go up to an audience - a sometimes adversarial audience, and tell a joke sometime. And he didn't say he was a, "little dark poet" while sitting around in a comfy chair with some literally intellectual, it was part of a bit. He said it while bending down, looking through a small opening made between his thumb and forefinger, with a nasally screech in his voice. Like, "this is all I am, this little turd". And we're all that little turds too, that he's looking at, through that opening. That's good stuff. Anyways, "It's all just a ride"
hkt 5y ago
I came to Hicks as a 13 year old in 2003.. when his material on the Iraq war got a second lease of life. Looking back, he was a critic of American imperialism - the "look, he had a gun" sketch for instance. That kind of criticism lasts. Not to mention the presciently pro-drugs take.

prvc 5y ago

>He also wasn't positioning himself out as some super intellectual. He self-identified as being simply a, "dark poet". The latter is more pretentious, in my view.

SyzygistSix 5y ago
I'd prefer a world with poets, comedians, and artists, however pretentious they may be, rather than an unpretentious world without them. You remind me of the simple folk of the land, the common clay of the West...
justinator 5y ago
It's not pretentious if it's backed up by skill. The way he could deliver lines that he practiced and workshopped for literally a decade was masterful. Saying that that isn't hard is what's pretentious - go up to an audience - a sometimes adversarial audience, and tell a joke sometime. And he didn't say he was a, "little dark poet" while sitting around in a comfy chair with some literally intellectual, it was part of a bit. He said it while bending down, looking through a small opening made between his thumb and forefinger, with a nasally screech in his voice. Like, "this is all I am, this little turd". And we're all that little turds too, that he's looking at, through that opening. That's good stuff. Anyways, "It's all just a ride"

hkt 5y ago

I came to Hicks as a 13 year old in 2003.. when his material on the Iraq war got a second lease of life. Looking back, he was a critic of American imperialism - the "look, he had a gun" sketch for instance. That kind of criticism lasts. Not to mention the presciently pro-drugs take.