Nasty Comedians

It is true, we all love to laugh, it makes us feel good. But where do you draw the line at what is and is not funny? It is hard to say, we all seem to laugh when the comedy is directed at someone else's downfall, but when it is directed at us, suddenly it isn't funny anymore.

I will just look at two "nasty comedians".

Lenny Bruce

www.fadetoblack.com

Said to have “paved the way for the Richard Pryor's, George Carlin's and Bill Hicks' of the world.”. He was known as a “sick comic” who offended many people with his jokes about religion, race and gender. He was arrested many times, treated women badly and even turned his friends into the police so they he could get away. He died in 1966 of a morphine overdose.

I don’t really know what to say about Lenny Bruce…reading about him, I didn’t come across anything admirable about him. All he seemed to do was open the pathway for more comedians to target similar subjects which offend people. His morphine overdose educed death doesn’t strike any sympathy from me and I would have to agree on putting him under the category of “nasty comedians”.





Bill Hicks

www.billhicks.com

On entering the website you get this message, “WARNING: This website contains everything your parents hate, everything the Church preaches against, everything the Government fears. Enjoy. – Bill Hicks”. Straight away we know that there may be material which offends, but reading the warning, there is still a rebellious humor, “Enjoy”.

Hicks’ comedy was based on “the truths” which many tried to block out. He touched on the things in life which he believed were “bad” that effected people, such as lies, smoking, and alcohol. These things he believed distracted us from making the world better.

Hicks was not well liked in America but was welcomed into Britain and other parts of Europe.
Hicks died in 1994 from cancer, aged 32.

I personally do not regard Bill Hicks as a “nasty comedian” but merely one who wasn’t afraid to speak out. Unlike Lenny Bruce, when I read about him I wasn’t disgusted. Perhaps this is because I haven’t come across an FBI file on all the things he did wrong, or perhaps it was because the main website was made by friends and family of him who praised him and his life.

“Hicks’s stand-up act is about taking a stand – and occasionally dodging a chair.” – Rolling Stone

Who knows? I can’t say I have ever actually seen footage of Bill Hicks or Lenny Bruce, so perhaps I would view them in a different light if I had?